A HUGE Difference

S-A Call to Freedom

S-"So Christ has really set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law." Galatians 5:1

A-God's gift of freedom

L-The Difference in the Two

"For you have been called to live in freedom-not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love.  For the whole law can be summed up in this one command; "Love your neighbor as yourself." But if instead of showing love among yourselves you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of  destroying one another." Galatians 5:13-15

Oh mercy, the conviction in these three verses. God knew, on this side of the Cross, that we would struggle with this.

Sweet One, the freedom God called us to, is the freedom to live for Him with no more condemnation, guilt or shame. It is also the freedom to love, to serve, to praise Him, to glorify Him, and to walk in His grace.

When we live in freedom of sin, we enslave ourselves to the sin and Satan. How? Think about a sin you struggle with. Whether it be, greed, jealousy, gossip, selfishness, laziness, shopping, bitterness, anger, pride, adultery, addiction, or whatever you feed your flesh with, it has enslaved you.  You are in bondage to it. This is not what God has called you to.

God set you free from those things when He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for you. He has given you the key to unlock the chains, to open the door to the prison cell you are in. Take it brethren, and when you do, make sure you leave all the sin behind you.

Now that we have been set free, let's live in the right freedom, the freedom God intended for us. The freedom to serve one another in love.

The word love, spoken in verses 13 and 14 mean "agape." A friend of ours describes these passages this way.

"I like to explain it this way. It is turning the direction of my love toward the direction of my love toward the other person. It's putting their needs first of course, but it's more than just that. It's pointing our love at them, and a good way to know where you're love is pointed is that your criticism is usually pointed the opposite direction. If my love is pointed at my wife, then I will be quicker to extend grace her direction, and criticism to myself. If that's backwards, then I have a problem." 

Let those words sink in a minute. Convicted? So was I.

Let's seek the face of Christ and make sure we are living in the right freedom.

S-Serve others in love today, and lay down the desire to be critical.