Another chapter – a big bite but sits together.
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that, if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. You who want to be reckoned as righteous by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.
You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth? Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. I am confident about you in the Lord that you will not think otherwise. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty. But my brothers and sisters, why am I still being persecuted if I am still preaching circumcision? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become enslaved to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another (Gal. 5:1-26).
Seems Paul thinks he has nailed the issue – ‘stand free, do not come under a yoke of slavery’. Now he puts in a little ‘balance’ (Paul balanced?). ‘Only do not use your freedom for…’
Love, live by the Spirit, be led by the Spirit… the freedom is not as a result of telling people where to go, we live in the context of others, we are not islands apart, hence as always a relational dynamic comes into Paul’s ethics. [I consider that his ethics are eschatological – a new era is our context – and relational. It is never law-based as to ‘right / wrong’ independent of those two elements. He raises the stakes higher, so for example, he does not pull on an ethic such as ‘do not lie’, but calls us not to leave a falsehood, something that can be done without ever lying.]
There is the strong contrast of ‘works of the flesh’ and ‘fruit of the Spirit’. Paul is a little cheeky using the term ‘works’ and ‘flesh’ as there has to be more than a passing undercurrent of ‘works of the law’ and ‘circumcision’.
Fruit of the Spirit. Does not mean no discipline, no effort, but the contrast to ‘works’ is marked. It starts with the connection to Jesus, standing in that context to such an extent that any other relationship is secondary, and certainly resisting to come under any aspect of control; then seeing others so that we are positioned for them and indeed ‘enslaved to one another’. Freedom has to come first. It is, for me, as per Jesus who laid down his life for the world, but FIRST said no-one can take my life from me.
The battle then is ‘flesh’ and ‘S/spirit’. Lean in to the Spirit… make mistakes… but lean again… and the fruit begins to grow. Freedom to lay our lives down, but never to be enslaved by someone else.