Freedom Is Not License, Galatians 5:13
Pastor Trey Rhodes
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. (Galatians 5:13)
"Everybody looks for different things in the Ten Commandments. Some look for Divine guidance, some look for a code to live by, but most of us are looking for loopholes." Hewitt
Open Illustration: In 1982, "ABC Evening News" reported on an unusual work of modern art: a chair affixed to a shotgun. It was to be viewed by sitting in the chair and looking directly into the gun barrel. The gun was loaded and set on a timer to fire at a undetermined moment within the next hundred years.
The amazing thing was that people waited in lines to sit and stare into the shell’s path! They all knew that the gun could go off at point-blank range at any moment, but they were gambling that the fatal blast wouldn’t happen during their minute in the chair.
Yes, it was foolhardy, yet many people who wouldn’t dream of sitting in that chair live a lifetime gambling that they can get away with sin. Foolishly they ignore the risk until the inevitable self-destruction.
Background: We are prone to go to extremes. One believer interprets liberty as license and thinks he can do whatever he wants to do. Another believer, seeing this error, goes to an opposite extreme and imposes Law on everybody. Somewhere between license on the one hand and legalism on the other hand is true Christian liberty.
Paul then issues a caution: “Don’t allow your liberty to degenerate into license!”
This, of course, is the fear of all people who do not understand the true meaning of the grace of God. “If you do away with rules and regulations,” they say, “you will create chaos and anarchy.”
Of course, that danger is real, not because God’s grace fails, but because men fail of the grace of God (Heb. 12:15). If there is a “true grace of God” (1 Peter 5:12), then there is also a false grace of God; and there are false teachers who “change the grace of our God into a license for immorality” (Jude 4, NIV). So, Paul’s caution is a valid one. Christian liberty is not a license to sin but an opportunity to serve.
This leads to a commandment: “By love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13). The key word, of course, is love. The formula looks something like this:
liberty + love = service to others
liberty — love = license (slavery to sin)
1. Freedom Does Not Allow You to Run Away from God’s Laws (Psalm 119:32)
I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free. (Ps. 119:32)
Explanation: Sinners have feet that are swift in running to mischief [evil] because they want to fulfill their schemes quickly and enjoy their pleasures immediately. God’s people should have cleansed feet (John 13:1-17; 1 John 1:9), beautiful feet (Rom. 10:14-15), prepared feet (Eph. 6:15), and obedient feet (Gen. 13:17; Josh. 1:3; 3:15). If we do, we’ll bring blessing. But the wicked use their feet to get involved in sin: meddling as busybodies (2 Thes. 3:11; 1 Tim. 5:13), tempting others into sin (Prov. 5:5 and 7:11), and breaking God’s laws (1:10-16). If the saints were “on their feet” and as eager to obey the Lord as sinners are to disobey, the lost world would soon be evangelized!
A Fleeing Believer?
2. Freedom Does Not Make It So You Can Lie Easily (Proverbs 19:5)
A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who pours out lies will not go free.
Explanation: “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment” (Prov. 12:19, NIV). “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but they that deal truly are His delight” (12:22; and see 6:16-17). Solomon warns us against bearing false witness and violating the Ninth Commandment (Ex. 20:16). See Proverbs 14:5, 25; 19:5, 9, 28; 21:28; 24:28. When words can’t be trusted, then society starts to fall apart. Contracts are useless, promises are vain, the judicial system becomes a farce, and all personal relationships are suspect. “Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow is the man who gives false testimony against his neighbor” (25:18, NIV).
One of the marks of liars is that they enjoy listening to lies. “A wicked man listens to evil lips; a liar pays attention to a malicious tongue” (17:4, NIV). It’s a basic rule of life that the ears hear what the heart loves, so beware of people who have an appetite for gossip and lies.
“An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips” (24:26, NIV; see 27:6). A kiss is a sign of affection and trust, and God wants His people to “[speak] the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15). It has well been said that love without truth is hypocrisy and truth without love is brutality, and we don’t want to be guilty of either sin. The world affirms, “Honesty is the best policy,” but as the British prelate Richard Whateley said, “He who acts on that principle is not an honest man.” We should be honest because we’re honest people in our hearts, walking in the fear of the Lord, and not because we’re shrewd bargainers who follow a successful policy.
A Lying Tongue?
3. Freedom Does Not Cause You to Love Money Rather than Be Content (Hebrews 13:5)
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Heb. 13:5)
Explanation: If we love God and others as we should, then we will have a right relationship to material things (Heb. 13:5-6). Times of suffering can either be times of selfishness or times of service. It is not easy to take “joyfully the spoiling of your goods” (Heb. 10:34). But with the economic and ecological problems in our world today, comfortable Christians may soon find themselves doing without some luxuries that they now consider necessities.
Illustration: A Christian couple was ministering to believers in Eastern Europe, behind the Iron Curtain. The couple had brought in Christian literature, blankets, and other necessary items. At the church gathering, the couple assured the believers that Christians in America were praying for believers in Eastern Europe.
“We are happy for that,” one believer replied, “but we feel that Christians in America need more prayer than we do, We here in Eastern Europe are suffering, but you in America are very comfortable; and it is always harder to be a good Christian when you are comfortable.”
The word covetousness literally means “love of money”; but it can be applied to a love for more of anything. Someone asked millionaire Bernard Baruch, “How much money does it take for a rich man to be satisfied?” Baruch replied, “Just a million more than he has.” Covetousness is the desire for more, whether we need it or not.
Contentment cannot come from material things, for they can never satisfy the heart. Only God can do that. “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15, NIV). When we have God, we have all that we need. The material things of life can decay or be stolen, but God will never leave us or forsake us. This promise was made to Joshua when he succeeded Moses (Deut. 31:7-8; Josh. 1:5, 9); and it is fulfilled to us in Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:20; Acts 18:9-10).
A Dissatisfied Disciple?
4. Freedom Is Not a Concealment for Evil (1 Peter 2:15-16)
For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. 16Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. (1 Pet. 2:15-16)
Explanation: Two phrases are important: “the will of God” (1 Peter 2:15) and “the servants of God” (1 Peter 2:16). When we do something in the will of God and as the servants of God, then we are doing it “for the Lord’s sake.” God has willed that we silence the critics by doing good, not by opposing the authority. The word “silence” in 1 Peter 2:15 is literally “muzzle,” as though the pagan critics were like a pack of yelping, snapping dogs!
Someone may argue, “But, as Christians, are we not free?” Yes, we are free in Christ; but we must never use our freedom for ourselves. We must always use it for others. Sad to say, there are “religious racketeers” who prey on ignorant people and use “religion” to veil their evil actions. A true Christian submits himself to authority because he is first of all submitted to Christ. He uses his freedom as a tool to build with and not as a weapon to fight with.
A Show-off for Sin?
Closing Illustration: As an 8-year-old, I thought it was comical. Our victim didn’t know what was happening and his startled reactions to our rock throwing were entertaining--the kind of entertainment young boys don’t think about much.
He was sitting on a bicycle about 40 feet from us. That alone amazed me: I hadn’t believed a blind boy would be able to ride a bike. While he didn’t ride far, there he was--our target, our victim--astride his old Stingray.
The boy who introduced me to this adventure was a little older than I but clearly a veteran of past "campaigns" against the one on the bike. At first I hadn’t wanted to join in, but only because I wasn’t sure he really was blind. However, because no adult was in sight, and it was clear the boy couldn’t see us, I soon joined in, sailing my rocks all around him, confusing and scaring him.
Our giggling gave our position away, because he turned to us and pleaded: "Stop it! Please don’t do that. You aren’t very nice to do this to a blind person."
That "please" had little effect on my partner. I, on the other hand, didn’t like it when the victim turned and talked to me. I would have been happy to slink away into oblivion, but for some reason I didn’t. In short, I didn’t stop.
Soon our victim began to cry; he was helpless and he knew it.
I now wonder how it would have turned out had I been allowed to continue. But I was fortunate. Suddenly I felt an iron clamp of a grip on my shoulder and found myself being whirled about to face my babysitter’s incensed husband.
I don’t remember everything he said, but I remember feeling thoroughly ashamed. Once exposed, my deed was far uglier than it had seemed while I was doing it.
I ceased dangerous, cruel, and harmful activity not because of my underdeveloped conscience, but because someone stopped me.
Have you ever abused your freedom? Is that how you should use the grace of God?
