For Freedom, Freedom for . . .

This 4g lesson on Galatians 5:1-16 opens with emphais on the first verse “For freedom Christ has set us free”. But, Paul takes it further and says we have freedom FOR a purpose.

Commentator Scott McKnight offers this useful observation on this passage as well: For the apostle, freedom involves “slavery to God and his will,” while for moderns freedom means doing whatever one wants; for Paul, freedom begins only in a relationship with God through Christ and in the Spirit, while for moderns freedom means being alone; for Paul, individual, social, and psychological freedom is the glorious outworking of what God can do in a person through Christ and in the Spirit, while for moderns these forms of freedom are the determining goal of life; for Paul, freedom was interdependence, while for moderns it is independence. Put differently, we cannot apply freedom in Paul to our society until we see that the two are at odds with one another. This forces us to decide: “We have only to choose between bondage to the Father, which makes us free, and bondage to the powers of this world, which enslaves us.”1

See also, Romans 6.

1 McKnight, S. (1995). Galatians (p. 258). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.