I was used to being on stage. I was used to being in front of people singing, dancing, acting, and teaching. But here I was, with my heart pounding so loud it could drown the noise of the traffic and all I had to do was talk to one person.
Spotlight
Freedom to fulfil.
FB: @PaulineChitraDaniel
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 neighbour as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. – Gal 5:13-15
In Galatians, Paul repeatedly emphasizes that Christians are freed from the law. He goes to the extent of saying that if you seek to be justified by the law then you are severed from Christ (Gal 5:4). He even talks of having died to the law (Gal 2:19). Yet, here he asks the Galatians to serve one another through love, because by doing that they would fulfil the law! If they were free of the law, why should they care about fulfilling the law?
In Gal 4, Paul talks about how the law was like a guardian for minor children. When you tell a very small child to tie their shoelaces, for example, you would also have to give them instructions on how to do it – make two loops, put one over the other, etc. But to an older child, you would simply say “tie your shoelaces” and expect it to be done.
Similarly, Paul says, under the old covenant, God treated us like children. When he gave the command to “love one another”, he accompanied it with detailed instructions on how to do it, which was the law. But now, he treats us like adults and simply tells us to love one another. As adults, we don’t need instructions, and so we are free of the law. But we still need to obey the command to love.
So, freedom from the law doesn’t remove the requirement to fulfil the law. Loving others is something that God expects of his people. That is why Jesus said that the hallmark of his disciples would be their love for one another. Freedom cannot be used as an excuse for selfish behaviour. The way we behave in every situation should be guided by what it means to love our neighbour in that situation.
Do we look to church attendance or holding the right doctrines or following certain practices to mark us as Christians? Or do we hold to Jesus’ standard of being recognized as his followers by the love we have for one another?
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The light on a mountain
2021 — “Can I come by and see you tomorrow?” I asked. “Not possible now,” she said. “Are you up for a call?” I pestered. “I’ll call,” she texted.
2020 — “You have handled business worth crores, and you can’t manage to make a simple Gpay transfer of 2000 rupees?” I asked. “Just shut up and do it for me,” she snapped.
I, Crucified
Paul reminds us that all those who have chosen to follow Christ have crucified the flesh, that is their old sinful natures, with its passions and desires. So, we shouldn’t be too preoccupied with what “I” want to do because “I” has been crucified! As Paul says in Gal 2, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Peace in Trying Times
When God promises us peace, he doesn’t mean that he will make all our problems go away. In fact, when Jesus told his disciples that he was giving them his peace, he also said, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Good soil. Good fruit.
Just as trees don’t produce fruit overnight, we don’t become perfect human beings as soon as we begin following Christ. The growth of the fruit of the Spirit in us is a process. And while this process is going on, we experience the struggle described in Gal 5:17.