“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” Galatians 5:13- 15
Listen to what Tim Keller says about these verses:
“Imagine what you would feel if a person asked to marry you, but you came to realize
that they would not want you if you did not come with an inheritance. You would feel
used. You would not feel loved at all. Now we all know that we don’t feel loved by
someone unless we are loved for who we are, not for what we bring him or her. This
analogy helps us to understand the motivation of the gospel. When we thought our
works saved us, we were serving God for what we could get from him. We are using
him. But after the hope of the gospel settles in, and we see the grace and beauty of
God, we love him for who he is.
In the gospel, we see that Christ has died for us and valued us not for what we bring
him. We are of no profit to him! We have been loved for our own sakes. And to the
degree we see that in gospel faith, we respond in kind. Now we can serve God not for
what he brings us, for we already have everything guaranteed, but for who he is and
what he has done for us. Finally, we can love God for who he is. Also, now we can
serve others not for what they bring us, but for who they are in themselves.
Increasingly, as v.5 dawns more and more on us, we live out of v.6. The more joy we
have in our gracious salvation, the more we are driven out by love and gratitude to do
good for the sheer beauty of good, for the sheer delight in God, for the sheer love of
others.
Galatians 5 sheds much light on Gal.2:19: “Through the law I died to the law that I
might live for God.” The fundamental issue is: What are we really living for?”
Tim Keller, Galatians study
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