GALATIANS 5:13-14 – 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 neighbor as yourself.”
THEME OF THE DAY. AN IMPORTANT BENEFIT FROM THE GOSPEL. Here is a “pop quiz”. I hated those when my teachers would spring those upon us, but I am doing that to us today. Quickly list five benefits we gain from believing the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. Okay. How did you do? My answers were . . . forgiveness of my sin, knowing God, clear conscience, my forever home in heaven, and today’s scripture. Speaking of, did today’s gospel benefit make your answer list?
Today’s scripture reveals an important benefit from the Gospel. In fact, it is so important that if we don’t get it, then live it out, we are going to miss one of the chief reasons why God saved us by His Gospel and then left us in this world. Allow me to summarize – An important benefit of the Gospel which empowers all the Christian life is being released from the bondage of a selfish life.
Pay attention to what the Apostle Paul is telling us. He says, “You have been called to freedom (that is the work of the Gospel) so that you would not continue to satisfy your flesh (that is selfish living) but sacrificially fulfill the great command of our Lord to love people (that is selfless living).”
The world around us is engulfed with selfishness. People orient all of life around personal interests, pursuits, and desires. We live in a world inundated with the emphasis on “me, my, and mine.” And we are not to be surprised. Every person born is wired for selfishness. That is what sin did to us. We are constantly bent toward self-satisfaction and self-fulfillment. Even in the most intimate of human relationships, they are tainted by sinful self-serving motives. But then comes the Gospel into our lives. Freedom. Christ sets us free from guilt. He opens the door for us to know God. He becomes the Companion of all Companions satisfying our souls and granting peace to our anxious hearts. And He does something else. He breaks off the chains of selfishness. The bondage and ugliness of selfishness is removed . . . however, and this is a big however. As believers, we must consciously and deliberately walk in this freedom Christ has granted through His Gospel. In the opening of the chapter containing today’s scripture, we read “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). We are responsible, by faith in Christ’s power, to live selflessly, not selfishly. Are we? Are the benefits of the Gospel being lived out in our lives to include the being set free from the ugliness of selfishness? The Gospel has done its work. May we walk in the work it has accomplished in our lives.
PRAYER: “Father, teach me to see the Gospel of Your Son goes beyond forgiveness. It includes liberating me from myself.”
QUOTE: “The ugliest thing in the world is selfishness and the greatest contradiction in the world is a selfish Christian.”