One of my favorite verses of scripture is found in Galatians 5:1. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." However, in recent times, I've seen what can only be described as an extreme misuse of that scripture.
I've seen that verse used for everything from why we as Christians don't need to wear masks to celebrating the freedom found by virtue of being an American and living in the United States. That sounds all well and good, but the fact stands that Paul was not referring to any of those things when he wrote this letter to the Galatian Church. In fact, Paul wasn't talking about freedom in the sense that we think of it in our common vernacular.
It's vital that we endeavor to utilize context in our reading of the scripture. We can't cherry pick a particular passage to make it say something that the scripture doesn't teach. If we do that, we can say that the Bible tells us that Jesus had a devil (Luke 11:15), or that Judas hanged himself (Matthew 27:5) and now we are to go and do likewise (Luke 10:37b).
You see, while the scripture refers to freedom, it is not referring to our freedoms as Americans, our ability to defend our rights, freedom to demand the government make rules to protect the Church, or anything along those lines. To properly understand what Paul is talking about here, we must come back to what God has been speaking to us repeatedly over the last month or so: context.
One of my favorite fictional universes is the Star Trek universe. I genuinely enjoy almost every series they've made as well as many of the movies.
In the recent series, Star Trek Discovery, we find our main character, Michael Burnham, rescued from the damaged prison ship she was being transported on. She is brought on board the Discovery by Captain Gabriel Lorca, and he offers her, a convicted criminal, a place on his crew. When Burnham questions why he would bring a prisoner on board, and offer her a spot on his ship, he notes her unique qualifications, and finally offers this response. "Universal law is for lackeys. Context is for kings."
In other words, context is potentially the single most important piece of thing needed to properly understand a subject. I think many of us would agree that someone who argues that the only proper way to read scripture is the 1611 Authorized King James Version and says, "If it was good enough for Jesus and Paul, it's good enough for me," is sorely misguided...and not simply because that language didn't exist at the time of Jesus and Paul...likewise, when we read a verse like this isolated and say that Christ set us free for the sake of freedom without actually looking at what freedom meant in context...we've missed the point.
With that in mind, let's look at what Paul was writing about here in the context of Christ setting us free.
In chapter 4, we find Paul leading up to this discussion about the law that came by Moses vs. the freedom found in Christ. He notes that while the Law leads to bondage, in Christ we are free (Galatians 4:22-28) and that in Christ, you and I aren't the ones born of the bondwoman, but of the free. (Galatians 4:31).
This leads us into the verse we started with, where Paul not only admonishes us to remain free from the law, but that the only way to fall from the Grace that comes from Christ is to endeavor to be justified by the law...that lawkeeping and circumcision mean nothing, but now the only thing that matters is faith in Christ that works through love (Gal 5:1-6).
In other words, Paul isn't trying to make a declaration of freedom from a particular set of rules or regulations imposed by the Roman government of the Jewish Sanhedrin. Interestingly, we don't see much, if any commentary from the Apostles on this, even though they were in fact being persecuted for their faith.
No, what Paul was advocating for something much different and that is freedom from the Law that came by Moses. Paul was advocating for the freedom that comes from your life not being bound by a list of 613 rules and regulations, for a faith that works by how we love and treat our fellow human beings around us.
For those of you who aren't convinced yet, Paul continues this thought in Galatians 5:13-14, "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
In other words, in context, we find Paul's words of freedom echoing the cry of Jesus and John that we talked about last week, that what matters in our faith is not our vertical piety but our horizontal actions. That our horizontal actions show our vertical piety, not the other way around.
Pastor Rich Villodas posted this on instagram a few weeks ago, and it has been stuck in my head ever since.
““American notions of freedom are usually at odds with Christian freedom.
American freedom says, ‘my freedom is mine to enjoy.’
Christian freedom says, ‘my freedom is for the purpose of serving my neighbor.’(Gal 5:13)””
We have seen this through the words of Jesus, we have seen this through the words of John, and now, we see it through the words of Paul, to whom the revelation of grace and salvation in Christ was given.
But, unless we take a step back and look at the context of the scripture, we'll continue to read erroneous thoughts into scripture, adding things that aren't there, and glossing over and minimizing things that are there and are emphasized.
Jesus has set us free for the sake of freedom. Not freedom so that we can go out to simply enjoy the privileges society has to offer us, but freedom so that we can love and serve our neighbors better.
Universal law is for lackeys. Context is for kings.
Utilize the context.
By Grace,
Dave.