The Gift of Freedom
June 29, 2025
Psalm 16; Galatians 5:1, 13-25
I have heard Myles say the fruits of the Spirit is one of his favorite passages in scripture. What is not to like about “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? These are opposed to the desires of the flesh such as fornication, idolatry, envy, jealousy and dissensions. Yet I want to start with the larger context of Paul’s teaching, one that goes beyond the dualism of either/or, right or wrong, Spirit or flesh, to what it means to have freedom in Jesus Christ. We need to understand two things first. Paul is writing to the Gentiles to whom he had already shared faith in Christ, but who have been corrupted by another teaching. They were asking the Gentiles to follow the law and to get circumcised, to which Paul writes, “if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be no benefit to you… you will be obliged to obey the entire law.” (5:3). How Gentiles become part of the faith community, when most of Jesus’ followers were Jews, is the issue. Paul also shares an allegory of the two covenants Israel shared with God. He recounts Abraham’s two wives, the slave Hagar and his wife Sarah. As a slave, Hagar and her son live in slavery. While Sarah gives birth to Isaac and fulfills the covenant, the same covenant of Jesus. Strangely Chapter 5 starts mid paragraph, so I am going back one verse to help us see the context. Verse (We are children of Sarah, not Hagar).
When I say Spirit verses the flesh, what comes to mind? Spirit is good and flesh is bad. I told someone about my topic, and they said flesh is dirty. With fornication at the top of the list, it is no wonder Christianity has created guilt and shame around sex. Did you notice that only three of the 15 works of the flesh have to do with sex? Yet I think we get stuck there. But inherent in these groupings is the duality of the time. Richard Rohr writes, “Classic dualistic thinking relies on a rather complete denial of what it does not want to see” (The Tears of Things, pg. 144). Like the denial of the beauty of sex. So, what does flesh mean? One commentator writes, “Flesh does not (just) mean the physical bodies and its lusts and “lower nature.” “Rather, flesh is the ego-driven impulse, the passions and desires of relentless self-promotion and self-interest at the expense others. This is what Paul declares the flesh crucified for those who belong to Christ” (Working Preacher, Brigitte Kahl). Our flesh is not bad, but our self-indulgence lead us away from Christ.
This Friday we will celebrate the 4th of July, our independence and freedom gained from British rule. We also can experience freedom on a personal level. Freedom from negative thoughts, abusive relationships, prison, old behaviors and additions. But the most literal freedom is freedom from slavery. Remember Paul just told the allegory about Sarah and her slave Hagar, before declaring, “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (1). The yoke is a symbol of oppression and slavery. For the Gentiles to be circumcised and follow the law would mean taking on the yoke of slavery, the burden of slavery.
So what does it mean to have freedom in Christ Jesus? We are no longer under the law, we no longer need to be circumcised, we are led by the Spirit and not by the desires of the flesh. But the epitome of freedom in Christ is when through love we become slaves to one another. Love allows us to put the other first, to bear another’s burdens, serve another because we have been loved by Jesus. Love empowers us to be slaves to another. To be honest it is hard to even think about being a slave, because the entire idea of purchasing a person is abhorrent. But that is its power. Christ is our Lord, our master, the one to whom we submit, and Christ teaches us to place others above ourselves. Love your neighbor as yourself, is the Christian standard. Yet through love, to become slaves to one another, takes this to a whole new level.
The monks who started Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina were wandering along a road one day and came upon a crossroad. There they found a huge flat granite rock and were intrigued by it. The neighbors in the town told them that that rock was a place for selling slaves in that tragic time in our history. Men, women, and children would stand on that rock and be sold into slavery. The monks decided to have it moved to their new monastery, and they dug out a well in its center, and they made that their baptismal font. On it reads, “Upon this rock, people once were sold into slavery. Now upon this rock, through the waters of baptism, people become free children of God (Sermons.com, Greg Rickel). That is the freedom Jesus asks us to stand firm in. The freedom of not belonging to ourselves, but belonging to Christ and the freedom that comes from not being subject to the law, but rather enslaved by love. Jesus’ love. Through love and baptism, we become free children of God, enabling us to become slaves to one another.
Freedom in Christ means Christ has freed us from slavery to sin and self-indulgence and has given us his Spirit. So rather than the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other, which is sort of how it feels having the Spirit and flesh duality, we are bathed in Christ’s love and led by the Spirit. “Christ frees us not only from the law, but from the sinful self. Freed from self, we are free to serve the neighbor, to “become slaves to one another” through love. To serve “through love” means that serving is done not to meet the demands of the law or even to feel good about ourselves. It is completely focused on the needs of the neighbor” (Working Preacher, Elisabeth Johnson). Being led by the Spirit means we have freedom. Not to do whatever we want, or be self-indulgent, but to follow the path God has laid out.
The psalmist writes, “You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy” (11). That is being led by the Spirit. Paul writes, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit” (25). Then all the fruits of the Spirit will blossom. Here is how Eugene Peterson translates the fruits of the Spirit in the Message. “But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.” I love that. The freedom we get when we live in the love of Jesus, slaves to one another and bearing spiritual fruits, sharing in the love, joy and peace of God’s Spirit.
Sometimes I think we can live by the Spirit when things are going our way, it is easy to be joyful, generous and faithful. But what happens when life throws us a curve ball? When we are slammed into grief, hijacked by a diagnosis, or faced with an unbelievable situation beyond our control? Do we rest in the fruits of the Spirit then? Where is our love, kindness and self-control?
Paul declares, “For freedom Christ has set us free.” Free to love, free from sin, free to be slaves to one another. Yet I wonder what the last human freedom is. “What do you think it is? In his account of Nazi prison camps, Victor E. Frankle says, ‘the last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.’ Frankle’s words describe individuals, who, in the deprivation of Nazi death camps, found within themselves the ability to comfort others, to give away their last piece of bread. These individuals are dramatic examples of the idea that it is not what we live with that makes us who we are, but what we live for. In essence, you choose the person you want to be. The last of the human freedoms — to choose your attitude, to choose your own way” (Sermons.com, Maxie Dunnam). May we choose to be slaves to one another. Amen.
