December 28--What it Means to Be Free

"But when the right time came, God sent his Son who was born of a woman and lived under the law. God did this so he could buy freedom for those who were under the law and so we could become his children. Since you are God's children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and the Spirit cries out, "Abba, Father." So now you are not a slave, you are God's child, and God will give you the blessing he promised, because you are his child" (Galatians 4:4-7).



What do you think of when you think of freedom? No fences? Hippies marching with signs? Martin Luther King Jr.’s "Let freedom ring"? Freedom from exams? Freedom from illness? Freedom from war?

A spiritual mentor of mine once told me, “I became free when I said, ‘Lord, I will do what you want me to do.’”


It is an odd thing to think about spiritual freedom in a country that defines itself so fundamentally by that word. It is difficult to translate the freedom of which the Apostle Paul speaks into our current cultural climate. It is difficult to imagine the kind of freedom Paul longed for and experienced as he preached the gospel in the midst of persecution, in the midst of imprisonment, in the midst of the very real practice of slavery throughout the Roman empire.


What does it mean to be free? What does it really mean to be "free"?


When Paul was writing this letter to the Galatians, he obviously was not thinking about American freedom--or American slavery--at all. He was, instead, thinking about first century Gentiles: non-Jews living in the northern part of the Roman province of Galatia, an area of the world we know today as the nation of Turkey. He was thinking about the God he worshiped as a Law-abiding Jew and how that God had extended grace to these Gentiles and all others through the faithfulness of Christ.

Unlike competing evangelists who were teaching the Galatians in his absence, Paul believed that only Jews should observe Mosaic Law; for the Gentiles of his ministry, Paul saw the Law as a stumbling block. The gospel message Paul preached to the Gentiles was about spiritual freedom in Christ. Paul believed the message preached by his opponents would lead to spiritual slavery, rather than freedom.

But those who opposed Paul’s gospel message of spiritual freedom warned that his emphasis on God’s grace did not provide sufficient instruction for daily living. They thought Paul’s emphasis on grace left too much room for doubt about whether or not a Gentile had sufficiently converted to Christ. So Paul responded with a letter full of pastoral advice for those who would live in Christ’s realm of freedom. “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters,” he writes. “Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.” Be led by the Spirit in order to inherit the kingdom of God, he says. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal 5:13).

Be slaves to one another? This is the way to be free?! Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?

But we've heard this language before in the gospels from the mouth of Jesus. It’s the Great commandment, and the second which is like it. Living in Christ’s freedom means loving God, loving neighbor, loving self. On this commandment hangs all the Law and the Prophets. It is, in fact, THE law for the Galatians and for us. And it is what it means to be free, for the Galatians and for us. The only way we can be free is to devote ourselves entirely to this law. It is the spiritual paradox of divine freedom.

So how do the Galatians know when they are living according to this law, when they are living according to this freedom? When they live by the fruits of the spirit, Paul says. How do they know when they are living by the fruits of the spirit? When they relate to one another with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. With such things we live into the very kingdom of God.

What do you think of when you think of freedom? In twenty-first century America it is too easy to forget we are at war and it is too easy to give in to a materialistic mentality and it is too easy to bite and devour and destroy one another, all in the name of freedom. We do well to listen with fresh ears to God’s Word to us through these words to the Galatians.

We who follow Christ have a responsibility that comes with our political and spiritual independence. “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,” God says to us through the words of the apostle Paul, “but through love become slaves to one another.” Love your neighbor as yourself. Live by the Spirit and be guided by the Spirit.

And as we continue to pray for the world’s freedom from sin and suffering and despair, when too many people still live in political and personal bondage, we do well to repeat what seems on the surface like a contradictory word to “Stand firm . . . and not submit again to a yoke of slavery. For Christ has, indeed, set us free in order to live in freedom.” Slavery in love to one another. Freedom for those who live in bondage.

May we sing it with voices that will never be shaken. May we live it with a conviction that will never be challenged. May we proclaim it with a hope that will never be forsaken. May we pass it on from generation to generation until that final day of freedom when suffering and evil and pain will be no more. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen

Gusti Linnea Newquist

(additional lectionary texts: Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Psalm 148; Luke 2:22-40)