23. Definition of Liberty - 5:13-15
Definition of Liberty - 5:13-15
“For ye have been called to liberty, brethren; only do not turn liberty into an opportunity to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” (5:13)
Christian liberty is superior to the law system, and here we see how there is also this contrast between the Spirit and the flesh. Again we find this call, God’s call, being stressed. It is a beautiful thought, to meditate upon the privileges connected with the power of God’s call, and where it leads to. It leads to true liberty. Now, if we have a privilege we also have a responsibility and this is what comes out in the second part of this verse. There is the danger of license, the enemy is very subtle. If he cannot catch believers in legalism he will try to catch them in license. “No,”Paul says, “do not use the liberty as an opportunity to the flesh.”We will see in the next chapter that we are under a new rule, we are not in bondage, but it is a system of things that we can now serve one another by love. This word “serve,”means ‘to serve as a bondservant.’If we want to be a bondservant, Paul says, “do not be bondservant of the law, but be a bondservant of one another.”The point that he is making is that what these false teachers were doing was not through love. But the new rule, the law of Christ, goes together with love. It goes together with what the Lord says in John 13:1-38 about the love one for another. That characterizes this new order of things.
“For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself …” (5:14)
We might say, “But we have just said that we are not under the law of Moses.”We would be right, but what Paul is saying is that if we follow the instructions that he has given (and I refer already ahead to this expression of chapter 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ,”and thus being under the law of Christ, the royal law, the law of liberty), we will do certain things that the law of Moses also asked for. I could perhaps give an example. If I go to the United States can I say that the laws of Canada do not apply and so I can go through a red traffic light? No. The fact that I am under another law system does not mean that I am now not obliged to do these things. So may I apply it this way, the fact that we are under the law of Christ means certain things and we do not do them by obligation, we do them out of love. We have a desire to do exactly what God wants us to do and by doing this we will, at the same time, do what this other law asks, although we are not under that law. I repeat, we are not under the Mosaic law, but we will do what the Mosaic law also asks, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”(Matthew 22:39). Under the law of Christ we will do that exactly but not as being under the Mosaic law. This is the point to grasp.
“…but if ye bite and devour one another, see that ye are not consumed one of another.” (5:15)
We are under this new law, and it has much higher and more difficult standards than the Mosaic law. I will expand on this later, but by keeping these standards out of love, this being the desire of our new nature, we will also do what the Mosaic law asks, but not because we are under the Mosaic law. It does not mean that we have now to do all that the Mosaic law asks, for example to keep the Sabbath and things like that, not at all. Paul has explained earlier that with privilege comes responsibility. Here in 5:15 evidently the flesh was at work. In saying this, we may perhaps come to this conclusion: Paul says, “You are not under the law of Moses, but at least the law of Moses says, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’”Do it then, instead of biting and devouring one another.