The True Gospel is Reaffirmed to the Galatians Volume 22

Paul Declares the Holy Spirit’s Internal Work in the Believer and Warns the Galatians against Infighting

Galatians 5:13-15 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. KJV

Paul declares to these Galatians and to us today that through Christ death, burial, and resurrection from the dead for them and for us that by the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, they and we “have been called” to “liberty” in Christ. The English phrase Paul uses here “have been called” is translated by the Greek word kaleo which means to call properly aloud directly; to bid forth; to incite by word or to provoke or urge on or to give an incentive for action or to cause one to act; to order or to command. God the Holy Spirit in these Galatians and in us today is working “in the believer” to bring him or her into all the fullness that is inherent in Christ Jesus our Lord. The believer’s responsibility is to not grieve, distress, or sadden Him (Ephesians 4:30) by willful sin and rebellion and by quenching or extinguishing (1 Thessalonians 5:19) His operating influence in each of our “inner man” and “inner woman” causing in us the fulfilling of Christ Law which is the “Law of Love”.

Paul declares these Galatians and us today to be called into “liberty” and this English word is translated by the Greek word eleutheria which means legitimate freedom i.e. chiefly moral freedom. Paul is saying here to these Galatians and to us that before theirs and our encounter with the Risen Christ we were born into slavery to the corrupt nature inherited from Adam, but now that we are in relationship with Christ united to Him by the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, they and we are bid to come out of that bondage and allow the Spirit to continually lift us to a higher plane of life and living that is impossible for the Galatians and for us to achieve, acquire, or attain through the observance, obedience, or obligation to any external ceremonial laws. This liberty Paul declares is not to be turned into a license, a deliberate deviation without restraint away from the Moral Law of God by these Galatians or by us as the Apostle Peter wrote in this manner, “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond-slaves of God.” (1 Peter 2:16). These Galatians and we today are to be slaves of Christ and not slaves of our old nature as Paul wrote in this manner to the believers in Rome, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:11-14).

It is the Grace of God and His Grace only that can truly liberate or set free these Galatians and us today and not conforming to some legalistic rules and regulations. God the Holy Spirit is the liberator, but He will not liberate any believer by overriding their will. The believer must cooperate with the Holy Spirit and receive the grace or Divine influence upon the heart or inner man that will then produce freedom from allowing the old nature to rein or control the believer’s behavior. Christ’s purpose for saving these Galatians and us today was to freely give those who come to Him a complete new life or way of living as He said here, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Love is the fulfillment of all of God’s Laws (Matthew 22:37-40). Love will replace the tyranny of fearing the consequences of breaking the laws with a built-in desire to please the object of Love and that is Christ Jesus our Lord as He declared with these words when He said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15) and as Paul prayed for the Ephesians with these words, “And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:19).

Yielding to God the Holy Spirit and not grieving Him will place the desire in these Galatians and us today to serve other believers by doing everything in our power to contribute to their physical well-being, but more importantly their spiritual well-being which is exactly what the Apostle Paul is doing for these Galatians with this very letter written to them. These false teachers had spread like cancer in the human body and began to infect all of the Galatian Churches with wrangling and many altercations between the perpetrators of the false gospel with those who were standing firm in their liberty “in Christ” and the true Gospel. However, Paul declares to them and to us today the consequence of not allowing love to one another to be their chief and sole motivator and that would be disintegration, dissipation, dissolution, dissolving (i.e. to stop functioning or cohering as a unit) and all of this would lead to the ultimate destruction of their Churches. Paul knew that these disputes among them would lead to their destruction and so is the purpose of his penning this letter and also the extreme fury he displays earlier in this letter toward those who brought about this dissension, disagreements, and discord as we discussed in the last study when he wrote, “I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.” (Galatians 5:12). Paul’s desire is to see them striving, battling, and fighting against sin in themselves individually and the Churches collectively as radically as we see people today diagnosed with cancer in the human body fight to kill it and eradicate it from their body.

My own Personal Note: It is not an uncommon thing for those who have been truly liberated by the Grace of God to find themselves in the wilderness of the extreme of license or legalism, but neither one is the true liberty we have received from our “new birth”, for Christ did not save us that we would be free to sin against Him, nor did He save us so that we would develop our own rules, rites, and regulations to follow, but He saved us to be His disciple, pupil, learner, and student, and if we allow Him to teach and lead us, then and only then will we know and experience real freedom. 

“The amazing thing about love is that it takes the place of all the laws God ever gave. ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’ solves every problem in human relations (see Romans 13:8-14). If you love people (because you love Christ), you will not steal from them, lie about them, envy them, or try in any way to hurt them. Love in the heart is God’s substitute for laws and threats.” Warren Wiersbe

“The man, or the nation that has won its freedom, has won but half the battle. It has conquered external foes; it has still to prevail over itself. And this is the harder task. Men clamour for liberty, when they mean license; what they seek is the liberty of the flesh, not of the Spirit, freedom to indulge their lusts and to trample on the rights of others, the freedom of outlaws and brigands.” Expositor’s Bible Commentary

“Even the man whose heart has been truly touched and changed by Divine grace, when the freshness of his first love to Christ has passed away and temptation renews its assaults, is liable to this deception. He may begin to think that sin is less perilous, since forgiveness was so easily obtained. He may presume that as a son of God, sealed by the Spirit of adoption, he will not be allowed to fall, even though he stumble. He is one of ‘God’s elect’; what ‘shall separate him’ from the Divine love in Christ? In this assurance he holds a talisman that secures his safety. What need to ‘watch and pray lest he enter into temptation,’ when the Lord is his keeper? He is God’s enfranchised son; ‘all things are lawful’ to him; ‘things present’ as well as ‘things to come’ are his in Christ. By such reasoning his liberty is turned into an occasion to the flesh. And men who before they boasted themselves sons of God were restrained by the spirit of bondage and fear, have found in this assurance the occasion, the ‘starting-point’ for a more shameless course of evil. Law makes the path; love gives the will and power to follow it.” Expositor’s Bible Commentary

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…