Galatians 5:13
For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love.
For you, brothers
The term "brothers" (Greek: ἀδελφοί, adelphoi) is a term of endearment and unity, indicating the familial bond among believers. In the early church, this term was used to emphasize the spiritual kinship that transcends ethnic and social boundaries. Paul is addressing the Galatian Christians as members of the same spiritual family, reminding them of their shared identity in Christ. This familial language underscores the importance of community and mutual support within the body of Christ.

were called
The Greek word for "called" (καλέω, kaleō) implies a divine invitation or summons. This calling is not merely an invitation but a powerful, effectual call that brings about a change in the believer's life. It is a reminder that their freedom is not self-generated but is a result of God's gracious initiative. This calling is rooted in God's sovereign purpose and plan for His people, emphasizing that their freedom is part of a divine vocation.

to freedom
The concept of "freedom" (ἐλευθερία, eleutheria) in this context is not a license for self-indulgence but liberation from the bondage of the law and sin. Historically, the Greco-Roman world understood freedom as the absence of slavery, but Paul redefines it as the ability to live in accordance with God's will. This freedom is a central theme in Galatians, contrasting the legalistic bondage that some were advocating. It is a freedom that empowers believers to live righteously and in alignment with the Spirit.

but do not use your freedom
Here, Paul introduces a cautionary note. The freedom believers have in Christ is not to be misused. The Greek construction (μὴ, mē) indicates a strong prohibition. This warning reflects the potential danger of misinterpreting Christian liberty as a license for moral laxity. Paul is aware of the human tendency to exploit freedom for selfish purposes, and he seeks to redirect the Galatians' understanding towards a more responsible and loving expression of their liberty.

as an opportunity for the flesh
The term "opportunity" (ἀφορμή, aphormē) suggests a base of operations or a starting point for action. "Flesh" (σάρξ, sarx) in Pauline theology often refers to the sinful nature or human inclinations apart from God's Spirit. Paul warns against using freedom as a launching pad for indulging sinful desires. This phrase serves as a reminder that Christian freedom is not an excuse for moral compromise but a call to live by the Spirit.

Rather, serve one another
The word "serve" (δουλεύω, douleuō) is derived from the term for a bondservant or slave. This is a paradoxical statement, as Paul calls believers to use their freedom to become servants to one another. This service is not out of compulsion but a voluntary act of love. It reflects the servanthood of Christ, who, though free, chose to serve humanity. This call to service is a radical departure from the self-centered use of freedom and aligns with the Christian ethic of humility and love.

in love
"Love" (ἀγάπη, agapē) is the highest form of love in the New Testament, characterized by selflessness and sacrifice. It is the love that God has for humanity and that believers are called to emulate. This love is the guiding principle for Christian conduct and the fulfillment of the law (Galatians 5:14). Serving one another in love is the true expression of Christian freedom, as it reflects the heart of the gospel and the character of Christ. This love is not merely an emotion but an active commitment to the well-being of others, demonstrating the transformative power of the Spirit in the believer's life.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Paul the Apostle
The author of the letter to the Galatians, addressing the early Christian communities in the region of Galatia.

2. Galatian Churches
The recipients of the letter, consisting of both Jewish and Gentile believers who were struggling with issues of legalism and Christian liberty.

3. Freedom in Christ
A central theme in Galatians, emphasizing liberation from the law and sin through faith in Jesus Christ.

4. The Flesh
Refers to the sinful nature and desires that are contrary to the Spirit.

5. Service in Love
The call to use Christian freedom to serve others selflessly, reflecting Christ's love.
Teaching Points
Understanding Christian Freedom
Christian freedom is not a license to indulge in sinful desires but a call to live a life that honors God.

The Danger of the Flesh
The "flesh" represents our sinful nature, and believers must be vigilant not to let it dominate their lives.

Serving Others in Love
True freedom in Christ is expressed through loving service to others, reflecting the love of Christ.

The Role of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit empowers believers to overcome the flesh and live a life of love and service.

Community and Accountability
Believers are called to support and hold each other accountable in living out their freedom responsibly.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does understanding the context of Galatians 5:13 help us grasp the concept of Christian freedom?

2. In what ways can we identify when we are using our freedom as an opportunity for the flesh?

3. How can we practically serve one another in love within our church community?

4. What role does the Holy Spirit play in helping us live out the freedom described in Galatians 5:13?

5. How can we encourage one another to live responsibly in the freedom we have in Christ, according to Galatians 5:13 and related scriptures?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Romans 6:1-2
Discusses the concept of grace and warns against using it as a license to sin, similar to the warning in Galatians 5:13 about not using freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.

1 Peter 2:16
Encourages believers to live as free people, but not to use their freedom as a cover-up for evil, aligning with the message in Galatians 5:13.

John 13:34-35
Jesus' command to love one another, which is the foundation for serving one another in love as mentioned in Galatians 5:13.
By Love Serve One AnotherJ. Angell James.Galatians 5:13
Christian LibertyEssex Congregational RemembrancerGalatians 5:13
Law and LibertyF. W. Robertson., Bishop Hopkins., T. T. Lynch.Galatians 5:13
Liberty Through LoveS. A. Brooke, M. A.Galatians 5:13
Loving ServiceBiblical TreasuryGalatians 5:13
One AnotherE. Johnson, M. A.Galatians 5:13
The Joy of LibertyC. H. Spurgeon.Galatians 5:13
Liberty and not LicenceW.F. Adeney Galatians 5:13-15
The Liberty of LoveR.M. Edgar Galatians 5:13-15
Freedom Sustained by the SpiritR. Finlayson Galatians 5:13-26
People
Galatians, Paul, Philippians
Places
Galatia
Topics
Bondservants, Brethren, Brothers, Chance, Condition, Excuse, Flesh, Free, Freedom, Gain, Giving, However, Indulge, Liberty, Love, Lower, Marked, Nature, Natures, Occasion, Opportunity, Rather, Servants, Serve, Sinful, Spirit, Turn
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Galatians 5:13

     5441   philosophy
     5775   abuse
     6166   flesh, sinful nature
     6611   adoption, privileges and duties
     6620   calling
     6662   freedom, abuse
     7449   slavery, spiritual
     7943   ministry, in church
     8210   commitment, to God's people
     8296   love, nature of
     8356   unselfishness
     8821   self-indulgence

Galatians 5:2-25

     6511   salvation

Galatians 5:9-21

     6026   sin, judgment on

Galatians 5:13-14

     8298   love, for one another

Galatians 5:13-16

     6679   justification, results
     8452   neighbours, duty to

Galatians 5:13-18

     5380   law, and gospel

Library
March 28. "The Fruit of the Spirit is all Goodness" (Gal. v. 22).
"The fruit of the Spirit is all goodness" (Gal. v. 22). Goodness is a fruit of the Spirit. Goodness is just "Godness." It is to be like God. And God-like goodness has special reference to the active benevolence of God. The apostle gives us the difference between goodness and righteousness in this passage in Romans, "Scarcely for a righteous man would one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die." The righteous man is the man of stiff, inflexible uprightness; but he may be
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

May 1. "The Fruit of the Spirit is Gentleness" (Gal. v. 22).
"The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness" (Gal. v. 22). Nature's harshness has melted away and she is now beaming with the smile of spring, and everything around us whispers of the gentleness of God. This beautiful fruit is in lovely harmony with the gentle month of which it is the keynote. May the Holy Spirit lead us, beloved, these days, into His sweetness, quietness, and gentleness, subduing every coarse, rude, harsh, and unholy habit, and making us like Him, of whom it is said, "He shall not strive,
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity Works of the Flesh and Fruits of the Spirit.
Text: Galatians 5, 16-24. 16 But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths,
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity Church Officers Warned of Vain-Glory.
Text: Galatians 5, 25-26 and 6, 1-10. 25 If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk. 26 Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another. 1 Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. 3 For if a man thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

'Walk in the Spirit'
'Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.'--GAL. v. 16. We are not to suppose that the Apostle here uses the familiar contrast of spirit and flesh to express simply different elements of human nature. Without entering here on questions for which a sermon is scarcely a suitable vehicle of discussion, it may be sufficient for our present purpose to say that, as usually, when employing this antithesis the Apostle means by Spirit the divine, the Spirit of God, which he triumphed
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

What Makes a Christian: Circumcision or Faith?
'In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.'--GAL. v. 6. It is a very singular instance of imaginative misreading of plain facts that the primitive Church should be held up as a pattern Church. The early communities had apostolic teaching; but beyond that, they seem to have been in no respect above, and in many respects below, the level of subsequent ages. If we may judge of their morality by the exhortations and dehortations which
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Fruit of the Spirit
'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23. Meekness, temperance'--GAL. v. 22, 23. 'The fruit of the Spirit,' says Paul, not the fruits, as we might more naturally have expected, and as the phrase is most often quoted; all this rich variety of graces, of conduct and character, is thought of as one. The individual members are not isolated graces, but all connected, springing from one root and constituting an organic whole. There is further to
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Faith the Sole Saving Act.
JOHN vi. 28, 29.--"Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." In asking their question, the Jews intended to inquire of Christ what particular things they must do, before all others, in order to please God. The "works of God," as they denominate them, were not any and every duty, but those more special and important acts, by which the creature might secure
William G.T. Shedd—Sermons to the Natural Man

Walking with God.
(Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity.) GALATIANS v. 16. "Walk in the Spirit." The life of a Christian must be one of progress. S. Paul says, "Walk in the Spirit;" he does not say, stand still. It is not enough for us to have been born again of Water and the Holy Ghost, and to have received the Gifts of the Spirit from time to time through the different means of grace. We are bidden "to stir up the gift that is in us;" we are told to "grow in grace." God has set us upon our feet in the right
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton—The Life of Duty, a Year's Plain Sermons, v. 2

Sixth Day for the Spirit of Love in the Church
WHAT TO PRAY.--For the Spirit of Love in the Church "I pray that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them and Thou in Me; that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me ... that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them."--JOHN x"The fruit of the Spirit is love."--GAL. v. 22. Believers are one in Christ, as He is one with the Father. The love of God rests on them, and can dwell in them. Pray that the power of the Holy
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

Brokenness
We want to be very simple in this matter of Revival. Revival is just the life of the Lord Jesus poured into human hearts. Jesus is always victorious. In heaven they are praising Him all the time for His victory. Whatever may be our experience of failure and barrenness, He is never defeated. His power is boundless. And we, on our part, have only to get into a right relationship with Him, and we shall see His power being demonstrated in our hearts and lives and service, and His victorious life will
Roy Hession and Revel Hession—The Calvary Road

The Dove and the Lamb
Victorious living and effective soul-winning service are not the product of our better selves and hard endeavours, but are simply the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We are not called upon to produce the fruit, but simply to bear it. It is all the time to be His fruit. Nothing is more important then, than that we should be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit, or to keep to the metaphor, that the "trees of the Lord should be continuously full of sap"--His sap. How this may be so for us is graphically
Roy Hession and Revel Hession—The Calvary Road

The Holy Spirit Bringing Forth in the Believer Christlike Graces of Character.
There is a singular charm, a charm that one can scarcely explain, in the words of Paul in Gal. v. 22, 23, R. V., "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance." What a catalogue we have here of lovely moral characteristics. Paul tells us that they are the fruit of the Spirit, that is, if the Holy Spirit is given control of our lives, this is the fruit that He will bear. All real beauty of character, all real Christlikeness in us,
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

Joy
'The fruit of the Spirit is joy.' Gal 5:52. The third fruit of justification, adoption, and sanctification, is joy in the Holy Ghost. Joy is setting the soul upon the top of a pinnacle - it is the cream of the sincere milk of the word. Spiritual joy is a sweet and delightful passion, arising from the apprehension and feeling of some good, whereby the soul is supported under present troubles, and fenced against future fear. I. It is a delightful passion. It is contrary to sorrow, which is a perturbation
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Routing of Giant Doubt
THE ROUTING OF GIANT DOUBT Doubts! doubts! doubts! Just a company of them around me all the time worse than Job's miserable comforters. What can I do with them? I should like to dismiss them, but it seems I can not. They make me much trouble, but it seems I can not get them to leave me. Especially are the doubts concerning my entire consecration aggravating, and those, too, concerning my entire cleansing. I fear to come out boldly and declare that I believe that Christ fully saves me now. I believe
Robert Lee Berry—Adventures in the Land of Canaan

Conflicts with Giant Mistake
CONFLICTS WITH GIANT MISTAKE I make so many mistakes, it seems I am just a bundle of contradictions. I try to do good; but at times my efforts are so crude that I seem to do more harm than good. What shall I do? And though all the time I try hard not to make mistakes, yet I still make them. It seems to me that surely I am not sanctified, or else I should be more perfect. Do not the Scriptures command us to be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect? I am not perfect; far from it. Really I
Robert Lee Berry—Adventures in the Land of Canaan

I have Said This, Lest Haply Married Fruitfulness Dare to vie with virgin Chastity...
7. I have said this, lest haply married fruitfulness dare to vie with virgin chastity, and to set forth Mary herself, and to say unto the virgins of God, She had in her flesh two things worthy of honor, virginity and fruitfulness; inasmuch as she both continued a virgin, and bore: this happiness, since we could not both have the whole, we have divided, that ye be virgins, we be mothers: for what is wanting to you in children, let your virginity, that hath been preserved, be a consolation: for us,
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

The Inward Warfare. Gal 5:17

John Newton—Olney Hymns

And on this Account That, Which, the Parts that Beget Being Bridled by Modesty...
5. And on this account that, which, the parts that beget being bridled by modesty, is most chiefly and properly to be called Continence, is violated by no transgression, if the higher Continence, concerning which we have been some time speaking, be preserved in the heart. For this reason the Lord, after He had said, "For from the heart go forth evil thoughts," then went on to add what it is that belongs to evil thoughts, "murders, adulteries," and the rest. He spake not of all; but, having named
St. Augustine—On Continence

All we Therefore, who Believe in the Living and True God...
18. All we therefore, who believe in the Living and True God, Whose Nature, being in the highest sense good and incapable of change, neither doth any evil, nor suffers any evil, from Whom is every good, even that which admits of decrease, and Who admits not at all of decrease in His own Good, Which is Himself, when we hear the Apostle saying, "Walk in the Spirit, and perform ye not the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: For these are opposed
St. Augustine—On Continence

And Also, when He Exhorts Us, that we Live not after the Flesh...
9. And also, when he exhorts us, that we live not after the flesh, lest we die, but that by the Spirit we mortify the deeds of the flesh, that we may live; surely the trumpet which sounds, shows the war in which we are engaged, and enkindles us to contend keenly, and to do our enemies to death, [1832] that we be not done to death by them. But who those enemies are, it hath set forth plainly enough. For those are they, whom it willed should be done to death by us, that is to say, the works of the
St. Augustine—On Continence

Here Therefore These Men Too Evil, While they Essay to Make Void the Law...
9. Here therefore these men too evil, while they essay to make void the Law, force us to approve these Scriptures. For they mark what is said, that they who are under the Law are in bondage, and they keep flying above the rest that last saying, "Ye are made empty [1715] of Christ, as many of you as are justified in the Law; ye have fallen from Grace." [1716] We grant that all these things are true, and we say that the Law is not necessary, save for them unto whom bondage is yet profitable: and that
St. Augustine—On the Profit of Believing.

The Daily Walk with Others (iii. ).
Thrice happy they who at Thy side, Thou Child of Nazareth, Have learnt to give their struggling pride Into Thy hands to death: If thus indeed we lay us low, Thou wilt exalt us o'er the foe; And let the exaltation be That we are lost in Thee. Let me say a little on a subject which, like the last, is one of some delicacy and difficulty, though its problems are of a very different kind. It is, the relation between the Curate and his Incumbent; or more particularly, the Curate's position and conduct
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren

How those that are at Variance and those that are at Peace are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 23.) Differently to be admonished are those that are at variance and those that are at peace. For those that are at variance are to be admonished to know most certainly that, in whatever virtues they may abound, they can by no means become spiritual if they neglect becoming united to their neighbours by concord. For it is written, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace (Gal. v. 22). He then that has no care to keep peace refuses to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Hence Paul
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

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