Choosing to Let the Spirit Lead Us Keith McFarren June 29, 2025 Galatians 5:1,13-25 Imagine, if you will, a slave family executing their carefully planned escape that leads them to freedom through the underground railroad just a stone’s throw of us in Cass County, Michigan. Imagine, if you will, a man standing in the sunshine outside a federal prison, gulping up fresh air, after DNA samples show that after serving twenty years in prison, he was wrongly accused and set free. Imagine, if you will, a young man or woman with every trace of heroin or meth finally flushed from their overly abused system. Image the freedom these people must have felt…freedom with a feeling of fresh anticipation as they go forward to begin a new life. Whether it’s fleeing oppression, stepping out of prison, or breaking a strangling habit, freedom means life. There is nothing so exhilarating as knowing that the past is forgotten and that new options are out there just over the horizon. Make no mistake about it, people yearn to be free. The book of Galatians serves as the charter of our Christian freedom. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he proclaims the reality of our freedom in Christ; freedom from the oppressive Old Testament law, freedom from the power of sin, and the freedom to serve a living God that comes to us through Jesus Christ. Most of the first converts and early leaders in the church were Jewish Christians who proclaimed Jesus as their Messiah. But as Jewish Christians, they struggled with a dual identity. Their Jewishness caused them to want to be strict followers of the Law of Moses…while at the same time their newfound faith in Jesus invited them to celebrate their freedom from the law. Being pulled in two directions caused them to wonder how they could be a part of the Kingdom of heaven. This is the controversy that tore apart the early church. Judaizers – an extremist Jewish faction group within the church – taught that if Gentile’s (non-jews) wanted to become Christians, they had to become Jews first, which meant they had to be circumcised and abide by all Jewish laws and traditions. For Paul, that was the opposite of what Christianity meant. The Judaizers said that a person’s salvation was based on strictly following the law of Moses and could be won by doing those things that pleased God. Whereas, to Paul, salvation was never earned, but entirely based on God’s grace. All anyone had to do was accept the love of God and through heartfelt faith appeal for God’s mercy. As a missionary to the Gentiles, it was Paul’s job to convince the Galatians that the Good News of the Gospel was for all people – Jews and Gentiles alike – and that our salvation comes to all people by God’s grace through our faith in Jesus. Our faith in Christ, Paul said, and nothing else, is what leads us to spiritual freedom. As we prepare to celebrate the 4th of July, our Independence Day, the idea of freedom once again takes front and center stage before us. As a people, we believe in freedom. We fought for it. We sacrificed for it. It’s a powerful statement, freedom. It’s a public declaration that we all cherish. But it begs the question…freedom for what? And our answer is that our independence gives us just that, it gives us the independence or the freedom to do whatever we want to do and be whatever we want to be. Freedom then, can be anything we want it to be. Paul believes that the idea of freedom being “anything we want it to be” doesn’t work very well for those who have decided to follow Jesus. This is the time of year, with the 4th of July approaching, that we like to talk about freedom and democracy and as Americans we know that you can’t have one without the other. And while there are various types of governments throughout the world, Paul believed that Christianity could be the only true form of democracy. We know democracy as being a government of the people, by the people and for the people but at the same time a true Christian democracy is a democracy in which all people of all backgrounds are not only free, but they love one another and care for one another just as much as they love themselves and care about themselves. “Christian freedom,” writes William Barclay, “is not a carte blanche [do what you want to] freedom, for the simple reason that Christians are not men and women who have become free to sin, but are instead, people who by the grace of God, have become free not to sin. Paul, then, adds this grim bit of advice, “Unless you solve the problem of living together, you will make life impossible.” Selfishness in the end does not bring people respect; it destroys them” (William Barclay, The Letters to the Galatians, Louisville, KY, WJK Press, 2002, 54). For Paul, it’s essential for us to understand that Christian freedom does not mean we have the freedom to do whatever we want to do, especially indulge in the sinful side of nature. Instead, we are to walk and live in the ways of the Holy Spirit. In fact, Paul even goes so far as to give us a list of 15 human behavior or “works of the flesh,” as he calls it, to avoid. The list he gives us isn’t comprehensive; it’s a list of human behaviors that result when we allow the world around us to infiltrate our lives and control us. It begins with three terms that identify sexual offenses; it continues on with two words for idolatry and occult magical practices and ends with two terms for self-indulgence partying. The most interesting feature, I think, occurs in the middle…a lengthy list of eight words that highlight dissension and offenses; offenses against one another and offenses against the unity of the faith community – enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions and envy. He does this to show that his primary concern is for the unity and the peace we have with one another and for the unity and the peace we have as the church…and he goes on to tell us in 1 Corinthians 3:3 that, “As long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, you are of this world and you are misbehaving.” As you go over this list of Christian “no-no’s” and you see a word that relates to you…then Paul has done his job. He’s got your attention. He wants you to sit up and take notice because he’s talking to you. This isn’t just about the Galatians – it’s about your life and my life as well. It is a list of things we do that are degrading to ourselves and to others and…it’s an abuse of physical, mental, and emotional power. It’s a list to identify people, including you and me, who are not living a Godly life, a list of people who are led by the ways of the world, a list of people who are characterized by self-righteousness, selfishness, judgmentalism, manipulation, intellectualism, and intentionally muscling one's way through life by force. As he continues with this list of negatives, it doesn’t take long for us to get the picture…to understand what he’s talking about. It’s all about sin and we know that sin is bad, but Paul keeps going on and on. He does so because he wants to make sure that something in this list of evil things that are characteristic of the human heart catches our eye and strikes a chord in our hearts along the way. But Paul doesn’t just give us a list of the no-no’s…the don’t do list or the stay away from list. He also gives us a to do list, an embrace list, a list that is meant to give us life, both physical and spiritual. After all, that’s what we’re doing as disciples of Jesus isn’t it, we’re embracing the new life that Jesus gives to us. We’re looking for new life in the kingdom of God, we’re developing a new life in the kingdom of God and we’re growing in our new life in the kingdom of God. The first list, the negative list that Paul gave us, is a list that is destructive to us as individuals, as families and as a faith community. There are fifteen plus words that stand on their own. Fifteen plus words that are evil characteristics of the world in which we live. Evil characteristics that are meant to separate us, to diffuse us, to scatter us, to divide us, and to cause us to turn inward caring only about ourselves. It’s a list of selfish self-indulgent acts that is meant to build walls and barriers, a list that is meant to not only separate us from one another but to also separate us from God. While the first list talks about the multiple works of the flesh, the bad stuff that we get ourselves into, the second list isn’t really a list at all. It is more about a single attribute, a gift, a focus that spawns and supports so many other positive things. That attribute is love. The fruit produced by the Spirit of God, the spirit that all Christians have within them, is love. The fruit of the Spirit, the spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit that resides within us, produces love which then serves as a foundation for all the Godly characteristics that are found in the nature of Jesus…joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is faithful. Love is generous. Love is gentle, in that it bends down to help those who have fallen by the wayside. These are the by-products that are produced by the control that the Spirit of God has over every person who allows Jesus into our lives. So now we have our lists. Our no-no list, our “stay away from this pile” list and our go to list, our “spirit filled person” list. So now what do we do? We go out and we get to work. There is soil to till and seeds to plant, pruning to do and weeds to pull. Not very exciting work for someone who has set out to follow Jesus. Certainly not like standing high on a mountaintop and looking out over God’s beautiful creation as we fill our lungs with God’s air and knowing without a doubt that we belong to God. But then again, Jesus never promised us a rose garden. But more importantly, is the daily decision we make as individuals and as a church to let the Spirit of God lead us to where it wants us to go and to do what it wants us to do. It’s up to us to make the decision to let the Spirit lead us and as we do so, we will surrender our will to the Spirit and when we surrender ourselves to the Spirt, we will find joy and enthusiasm and passion waiting for us on the other side of the horizon. The fruit of the Spirit is the spontaneous work of God’s spirit within us. It’s only the spirit of God that will produce these characteristic traits that are found in the nature of Jesus. We can’t buy these traits nor can we earn these traits. They are the by-products that come to the surface when Jesus has control over our lives. The only way for this to happen, the only way for the fruit of the Spirit to grow within us is for us to open our hearts and join our lives to his and submit every aspect of our life to God…the emotional part, the physical part, the social, the intellectual and the vocational part. In doing so we will discover a newfound spiritual freedom, and in doing so we will fulfill the intended purpose of God’s law…to love God…and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. |