“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave
    and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God
    and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
    and gave him the name above all other names,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father. –Philippians 2:3-11, NLT

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.”  Micah 6:8, NIV

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17, NIV

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Now we learn that believers can “fall from the gift of grace” offered to us by God through Jesus Christ when we turn inward and serve only our own self interests.  We learn that we are continually “in production” of the characteristics of Christ who demonstrated how to love God back and how to love each other.  We have not arrived.  Production is not complete.  No one is perfect.  However, we are perfectly forgiven by Jesus who came to serve the world in ways the world had never seen or heard.  We have no excuse.  Jesus demonstrated how to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God”.

Galatians 5, The Message

The Life of Freedom

Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

^2-3 I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law.

^4-6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.

^7-10 You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn’t come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don’t toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment.

^11-12 As for the rumor that I continue to preach the ways of circumcision (as I did in those pre-Damascus Road days), that is absurd. Why would I still be persecuted, then? If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then—it would be so watered-down it wouldn’t matter one way or the other. Why don’t these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!

^13-15 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?

^16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are contrary to each other, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

* * *

^19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.

^22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

^23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.

^25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Like most of us in trying times; the Galatians had fallen back into production of the old ways of thought and action—the inferior by-products of evil.  Paul points out the difference so they will know and understand how the old ways were destroying what they had gained in Christ—real freedom!  Paul gives an list of the “same old” sins to avoid while telling of the “fruits of God’s characteristics to imitate and obtain as we walk in freedom from sin with God’s Holy Spirit helping us! He outlines the obvious differences between living a life that produces the fruits of God’s character in us, as demonstrated in Christ who set us free, versus the life of bondage of the sin evil produces in us when we turn to satisfying self.

“But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.” (v.22-23)

“Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” Galatians 5:25, NLT

As we relate to people and circumstances in our daily walk, let’s use Paul’s “list” of fruit bearing as a filter for our behavior before responding. As we strive to develop the “mind of Christ,” rely on the gift of God’s Holy Spirit who lives in us ready to help us! We cannot do this by ourselves.  That’s why we humble ourselves before God as we walk humbly with God.  He produces in us what we cannot—holiness.    

“That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.” (v. 26)

God, through Jesus, surrounds us with His grace. As believers “in production” to be more like Jesus, we also become the distribution depot of God’s gifts to those we relate to daily. God wants no one to leave our presence empty-handed. Some people find the gift of salvation through what we say about Jesus. For others the gifts might be merely a kind word, a good deed, delivered with selfless graciousness. But all the gifts are from God. 

While we are still “in production” our task is to stand firmly in faith, secured in God’s grace, surrounded by His goodness with gratitude, while freely giving to all who come our way with what has so freely been given to us—love, mercy, and grace with redemption.  This is true freedom!

Lord,

Thank you for saving my soul and making me whole. I have not arrived but I’m not where I was when you found me and began your salvation work in me.  May your Kingdom come, your will be done.  To You be the all the glory, honor, and praise!

In Jesus Name, Amen