Scripture: Galatians 5:1; 13-25
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become enslaved to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
Sermon
Two statements stand out to me in this passage. The first is:
“For freedom Christ has set us free.”
On this week in which we approach out celebrations of July 4th, our great Independence Day, Paul’s words seem to agree with our national aims. Those inalienable rights that we believe make this nation great, the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The right to free exercise of religion. The right to freedom of speech. The right to freedom of assembly. Paul brings Christ into the frame of all this—or so it may seem to us. It’s hard to find anything wrong with “For freedom Christ has set us free.”
The second statement is:
“Through love become enslaved to one another.”
Now hold on. Doesn’t that… fly in the face of the first statement? How is this freedom? It certainly doesn’t sound like freedom as described in the declaration of independence or the first or thirteenth amendments to the Constitution. What are the implications of this, for how we live our lives?
Last week we spoke of slavery as a part of our Juneteenth celebrations. We were looking at our own history as a nation—the physical, moral, and psychological cruelty of the chattel slave trade that has been called our nation’s original sin.
Today, in another passage from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we are talking about slavery in a different way. We are talking about Paul’s understanding of slavery as contrasted to freedom in Christ. He is talking about something that applies to all of us. I’ll give you an example of what Paul is talking about: the slave-master is not free, because the slave-master is caught up in what Paul calls sins of the Flesh.
This word, Flesh, is tricky, and scholars have debated its meaning for two millennia. On the one hand, consider the creation story of Genesis. God creates humans male and female, and we are told we are made in God’s image, and God says that we are good. They are a good part of God’s creation. Consider the Last Supper. When the gospels describe that meal, Jesus unfailingly says, “This is my body,” when he breaks the bread. Jesus’s body is his flesh—which is to say, his sacrifice, his offering—and it is holy. So why, here, is “Flesh” used in a way that conjures up centuries, if not millennia of anti-body, anti-sexuality, and anti-woman rhetoric?
At some point in the history of Christianity these words caused people to believe that our physical bodies—which God created and called “good”—are somehow not so good. And that belief attached itself to women, whose bodies became known as vessels of Satan, irresistible temptations. This of course, is the case across many cultures. Our culture has, variously, tried to control it, or decided to go with it. (If red carpets are any indication, I believe we are currently in a “go with it” phase.) But as a result, this has devalued women, made them less-than, and unable or forbidden to either care for themselves as individuals in the world or to follow pursuits such as the professions. Women were forbidden by law to own property. In our day women are forbidden to have access to certain kinds health care; to have autonomy over those dangerous bodies of theirs. The list of consequences goes on and on.
But Paul is not actually talking about physical bodies. He is using the word “Flesh” to stand in for various kinds of selfishness, not all of them physical. Paul writes,
“Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.” ~ Galatians 5:19-21
Yes, that list starts with three uses of the body, and they are all selfish uses. None of them is remotely about love. But it goes beyond that. Having enemies. Causing strife. Being overcome with jealousy or anger. Instigating quarrels, or dissentions, or factions. These are examples of what Paul calls “the Flesh.”
Brigitte Kahl, New Testament scholar, writes,
Flesh as the sin-producing force of selfishness is certainly not more at home in human bodies than in human minds. To distinguish it from flesh as human physicality … I choose to capitalize “Flesh” here, parallel to the Spirit as its antagonist that transforms spirits, souls, and bodies from Flesh-driven egomania and other-obliviousness toward egalitarian community-building … [1]
Did you catch that? The fruits of the Spirit are those that build egalitarian communities. The fruits of the Flesh are about selfishness, egomania, and obliviousness to all that creates and sustains community.
“By contrast,” Paul writes, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” ~ Galatians 5:22-23
What does this all mean to us? A great question came up in Bible Study. What if we don’t recognize all the fruits of the Spirit in ourselves? Are we in trouble? The answer is, No. We are not in trouble. These are examples. Paul names nine of these fruits, but I imagine there are more than that. Are you kind but not necessarily patient? Don’t panic. The Spirit is with you, and you are already showing some of the characteristics of that… the fruits. Any one of those qualities Paul names are cause for celebration, for gratitude. Hey! There’s another one. I’m sure gratitude is a fruit of the Spirit.
And what about that first statement above? “For freedom Christ has set us free?” True freedom is when we are unchained from the selfishness that rules so much of our lives and our world. We live in the deep peace of knowing our Creator loves us and holds us close, and we live in the deep joy of “the beloved community.” We also live in deep concern for those other than ourselves. Are they hungry? Do they have a place to live? Can they get the care they need if they get sick? Are they safe? Are they happy? Are they ok? We do all we can to love our neighbor—even the neighbor we don’t know, the neighbor out there in other towns and states and countries. We do what we can, because we do it out of that deep well of peace, joy, and concern.
And what about that second statement above? “Through love become slaves to one another”? It goes hand in hand with what Paul calls the greatest law: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If we love our neighbor as ourselves, we treat our neighbor with the same dignity we hope to be treated with. That is exactly the requirement for the complete eradication of slavery—every person treating every other person with dignity and kindness. If we all followed this law of love, no one would or could ever hold another enslaved. We free one another.
In just a few minutes we will be stating our faith together. This passage from the Brief Statement of Faith speaks to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Here are just a few of those activities:
The Spirit is the giver and the renewer of life.
The Spirit sets us free to accept ourselves, and to love God and neighbor.
The Spirit sets us free. This is the powerful paradox in Paul’s words: If, through love, we become enslaved to one another, we set one another free.
And in its final words, the Spirit gives us that other thing we need to live in this joyful freedom: courage.
In a broken and fearful world, the Spirit gives us courage to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.
What are the idolatries we see in culture these days? I believe the idol that is wealth is, at this moment, the chief engine of cruelty and strife in our culture. We see the opposite of the fruits of the Spirit in ripping away safety and security from people, and in dismantling the systems designed to lift up the most vulnerable. These things, done in the name of consolidating wealth in an already wealthy few, are the epitome of selfishness and egomania. Cruelty is the point.
For the work of correcting all this, the Spirit gives us courage. The Spirit, working with and within and among us, calls us to fashion a world where love, joy, and peace are possible for all people; where patience, kindness, and generosity are not only possible but sought-after; where faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are the fruits of deep peace within.
The God who created us in their own image and called us good, has given us the Spirit. God has given us the Spirit, not only for our own flourishing, but for the flourishing of all those people our lives touch. God has given us the Spirit, and it is our joy to go where that gift lead us, and to work for the great harvest of its fruits to rain down on the whole world.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
[1] Brigitte Kahl, “Commentary of Galatians 5:1, 13-25: The Circulation System of the Body of Christ,” June 29, 2025, Third Sunday After Pentecost, Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-13-3/commentary-on-galatians-51-13-25-6.