You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. (Galatians 5:13)
“Free…dom. Free…dom.” Raise your fist and join the chant … “Free…dom.” Can you imagine how the people to whom Paul wrote this felt? More than ninety percent of the people in the Greco-Roman world were slaves. And what about us? Free? “Hallelujah! No more adulting!”
Paul continues, “But…” As one of my friends would put it, an “infamous but.” Someone else I knew told me that when you say, “But” you are saying that what you said before the but isn’t true. That’s true sometimes, but there are degrees to which the but negates. “You may choose X, Y, or Z, but not A” doesn’t mean you can’t choose at all, it just negates the choice of A. You’re still free to choose X, Y, or Z, and possibly P and R. Just not A.
“Do not use your freedom…” Here’s Paul’s A. Freedom isn’t about not adulting because being an adult is not a matter of doing, it’s a matter of being. What we are, our actual identity determines what we do. If we are an adult, we should do what adults do. If we are Christians, we should do what Christians do. None of us is perfect about being an adult or being a Christian, but failure is not what determined that we are not what we claim to be. The idea that who we are can be put on or taken off as we will or as we wish suggests that what we claim to be is no deeper than our clothes. It’s not who we are, but something we use to deceive others, and ourselves, into thinking we actually are.
Thinking back to my time working at any of the places I’ve worked. When I got ready for work, I put on my work clothes, whatever those happened to be. When I got home, I’d take them off and put on my “real” clothes, my clothes. I worked at those places, but the real me was not the worker. I wore the work clothes to let people know I worked there and as such, that I had the power to help them. But that wasn’t the real me. That wasn’t who I am, it was what I did.
This idea reminds me also of what C. S. Lewis says about our never meeting ordinary people. We are always on our way either to being something that others might be led to worship or on our way to being something out of our worst nightmares. Which direction we are headed determines our identity. Indulging the flesh, according to Paul, is the nightmare direction.
Paul continues, “But…” As one of my friends would put it, an “infamous but.” Someone else I knew told me that when you say, “But” you are saying that what you said before the but isn’t true. That’s true sometimes, but there are degrees to which the but negates. “You may choose X, Y, or Z, but not A” doesn’t mean you can’t choose at all, it just negates the choice of A. You’re still free to choose X, Y, or Z, and possibly P and R. Just not A.
“Do not use your freedom…” Here’s Paul’s A. Freedom isn’t about not adulting because being an adult is not a matter of doing, it’s a matter of being. What we are, our actual identity determines what we do. If we are an adult, we should do what adults do. If we are Christians, we should do what Christians do. None of us is perfect about being an adult or being a Christian, but failure is not what determined that we are not what we claim to be. The idea that who we are can be put on or taken off as we will or as we wish suggests that what we claim to be is no deeper than our clothes. It’s not who we are, but something we use to deceive others, and ourselves, into thinking we actually are.
Thinking back to my time working at any of the places I’ve worked. When I got ready for work, I put on my work clothes, whatever those happened to be. When I got home, I’d take them off and put on my “real” clothes, my clothes. I worked at those places, but the real me was not the worker. I wore the work clothes to let people know I worked there and as such, that I had the power to help them. But that wasn’t the real me. That wasn’t who I am, it was what I did.
This idea reminds me also of what C. S. Lewis says about our never meeting ordinary people. We are always on our way either to being something that others might be led to worship or on our way to being something out of our worst nightmares. Which direction we are headed determines our identity. Indulging the flesh, according to Paul, is the nightmare direction.
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