“The freedom that comes from faith”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Galatians 5:1-15 (Forward, p. 41) CEV p. 1219
The apostle Paul certainly knows how to be blunt and incisive, and even a bit nasty, when he needs to. Part of the rather heated debate in today’s Scripture passage concerns the Jewish rite of circumcism, which, of course, has to do with a certain medical procedure. To this, Paul responds, rather nastily, “I wish that everyone who is upsetting you would not only get circumcised, but would cut off much more! (verse 12).
So then, given these heated and rather intemperate words, there is obviously a deeper and more pressing issue that a mere one-time medical procedure. There is indeed, on several levels:
a) First off, it denotes a reliance upon ‘works’, that is, upon a human activity rather than upon Christ and what He has already done for us. In other words, it nullifies faith and renders the Cross to be of no effect. In other words, Christ died for nothing.
b) Secondly, it imposes a burden on these ‘would be’ believers, for the fact and act of circumcism is merely the tip of the iceberg. By submitting to it, they submit themselves to carrying out, obeying, the entire Law of Moses. So, instead of the freedom that we find in Christ, they are now slaves to the Law.
c) And, thirdly, speaking of freedom, this freedom in Christ Jesus, this is not a freedom to do entirely what they want. Rather, it is freedom with a purpose. Note what Paul has to say about it:
“My friends, you were chosen to be free. So don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love. All that the Law says can be summed up in the command to love others as much as you love yourself” (verses 13-14).
Or, as he says earlier, “All that matters is your faith that makes you love others” (verse 6b).
d) And, from these words, it is obvious that this debate has degenerated into something rather viscious and nasty. Indeed, those who are on the circumcision side of the debate have become overbearing and demanding, and, in fact, quite horrid in their treatment of those who choose to disagree with them. One has to wonder two things, firstly whether they feel threatened by Paul and the non-circumcism party, and secondly, whether in their frantic search for a perfect adherence to the Law, they feel that everyone else must do exactly what they do.
Obviously, this had degenerated into something quite awful, given Paul’s final words in this section:
“But if you keep attacking each other like wild animals, you have better watch out or you will destroy yourselves” (verse 15).
Somehow, this entire discussion on the meaning of Christian freedom has a very contemporary ‘feel’ to it, especially in light of the pandemic and its attendant regulations. To some folks, the mandated restrictions and protocols might seem very much like a return to the Old Testament Law and its injunctions. They see it as saying, “Do this, if you want to live”, and are quite frankly chaffing at the bit. They feel that their freedom has somehow been restricted and impinged upon. However, they miss Paul’s most pressing and salient point, namely that our freedom in Christ, our freedom in the gospel, is to be an opportunity, not to serve ourselves but to serve and love others. Indeed, as he says in closing, by exercising their so-called freedom, they may end up ‘destroying themselves,’ something that indeed has actually happened.
So, this presents us with something of a question, namely, how we listen to, respond to and adhere to the regulations, not out of a kind of slavish and mindless obedience fashion, but out of an effort to love and care for each other, as an opportunity to demonstrate that we truly do love each other and care for each other, rather than just ourselves.
Forward notes: “For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself”. If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another” (verses 14-15).
“The business of loving your neighbour looks simple, but conflict puts the practice to the test. Jesus calls us to love not just the neighbours who are nice to us or those we like, but also to love the one who has wronged us, the one who reviles us, the one we revile, the one we have wronged. That’s not easy, but it is necessary for wholeness.
“In his letter to the Galatians, a community of Christians tearing itself apart, Paul writes that they can proceed down a spiral of biting and devouring. Just be careful, Paul writes, that in the course of devouring one another—as if such a feat were possible—they don’t consume one another.
“When seeking reconciliation after a conflict, it can be helpful to acknowledge that none of us can do better in this life than see through a glass, darkly. On the basis of our faith’s twin treasures of repentance and forgiveness, we can be reconciled by the grace of God in Christ.”
Moving Forward: “Is it time to forgive a neighbour for a perceived wrongdoing? Are you the neighbour who needs to ask forgiveness?”