With Freedom Comes Great Responsibility

Galatians 5:1, 13-25

Have you ever thought about what it truly means to be free? Amy and I recently had a conversation about what that truly means. We thought about people who live in foreign countries where they are not free to worship as they please without the fear of persecution. Imagine living in a country where you are not free to disagree with your government without the fear of imprisonment or even worse. We live in a country where we are free, so it is hard for us to even imagine what it is like to live without freedom. And how do we use our freedom? Are we to do as we please without regard to the law or for others? Are we free to yell “fire” in a crowded theater? Are we free to help ourselves to that beautiful 75-inch screen TV that we see as we enter Costco? Are we free to eat our neighbor’s lunch from the company fridge? Of course not. Even though we live in a free country, we are not free to do as we please. With freedom comes great responsibility. Now, as children of God, we have been set free from the bondage of sin. We have been set free from the consequences of our sin because Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly for us and in our place. Jesus was victorious for us in that he won our freedom, but when our old Adam hears the word “freedom,” we immediately think about ourselves. We immediately think about indulging the desires of our own sinful flesh. We might even foolishly say that since we have been set free in Jesus, we are free to do as we please, as the old Adam desires. But Paul warns about giving in to such sinful desires, about selfishly using our freedom only to serve ourselves. And in regards to how we are to treat one another, Paul sums up God’s will for us in this by quoting Jesus and saying, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But again, our sinful natures want to rebel against the notion of being loving to our neighbors. That’s who we are. That’s our sinful nature. But in Christ, we have been given a new spirit, a spirit that says, “Away from me, old Adam,” which are sinful desires. But unfortunately, even though we have this new spirit in us, our old Adam also remains in us. And so we daily battle and push against the desires of our old Adam. And because we are sinful at times, we will fail to be loving to our neighbors. So you may ask yourself, why bother to try to live by the spirit, to try to care for the needs of others? If we’re only going to fail miserably, what is the point? When we feel as though we are helpless to be loving to our neighbors, we can look to Jesus for his example and for his guidance. Think about everything that Jesus did for us. He could have turned his back on us, sinful human beings. He could have left us for dead in our sins and our transgressions. But he didn’t. Instead, out of love for us, he came down to earth and humbled himself, and became our neighbor in every single way. He cares for our spiritual needs like a good neighbor would. He cares for our physical needs like a good neighbor should. He cares for us when our hearts are troubled, and he gives us his compassion. Most importantly, he forgives us for all of our sins, even the times when we have failed to be loving to our neighbor. He is our greatest, our truest, and our best friend. Motivated by the love and the mercy that he has shown to us because of everything that he has done for us and giving us eternal life through faith in him, we are moved by the Holy Spirit then to show that very same love to others. So, how do we do that in real life? What does that look like? Kevin has asked a question a couple of times this morning. I think that’s where we should start, and that is by answering just who it is that is our neighbor. In our Gospel reading this morning, we read about an expert in the law who was trying to give himself an out by asking the question, “And who is my neighbor?” Hidden in that question was his desire to love some and be compassionate and show mercy to some while at the other, on the other hand, leaving others out, not showing them love, not showing them passion. That is what he wanted. And then we further read in the parable of the Good Samaritan that two men of God, a priest and a Levite, saw a man who was robbed and badly beaten on the side of the road, and they left him for dead, crossing by on the other side of the road. Now, that man who was robbed and badly beaten surely was their neighbor, but they did not treat him as a good neighbor would. So, who is our neighbor? Our neighbor is every person we encounter in our daily lives at work, in the grocery store. It’s the person who maybe cuts us off as we’re driving down Sherman Boulevard. Mary, sorry for this, but it is also even the Cubs fan that lives next door to us. (Laughter) Our neighbors are everyone, and it even includes the person on the opposite side of the political spectrum as we are. You see, if we’re following Jesus’ example, Jesus didn’t pick and choose whose sins he would die for. He did not say, “I will come and die for the sins of this group of people,” while leaving the other group of people dead in their sins and transgressions. So when we wonder who our neighbor is, look to Jesus and his example. He treated all people as his neighbor, and so should we. And Jesus has sent us the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit gives us the power to stand firm when we are tempted to live by the flesh, when we are tempted to not love our neighbor. And not loving our neighbor only leads to our destruction and the destruction of our neighbors. Think about all the times we have ruined relationships because of our sinful nature. Think about all the times we have burned bridges because of our sinful pride. Think about all the times that jealousy and envy have led us to sin against our neighbor. Think about all the times when we have let our perceived differences keep us from showing kindness and compassion to someone else. All these things only lead to our grief and to our sorrow. But thanks be to God that the Holy Spirit has worked faith in our hearts. Thanks be to God that we have been forgiven for all of our sins. And so we no longer desire to live by the flesh, but instead we desire to live by the Spirit. We desire to live in peace with our neighbors. We desire to love our neighbors as a good neighbor should. We desire to show patience to our neighbor, even if they seem to be falling into the same sins time and time again. We are kind to others, even when others are not necessarily kind to us. We live with joy in our hearts because of everything that Jesus has done for us. And we practice self-control in our lives because the spirit that we have been given is a spirit that gives us self-discipline. So we don’t try to live by the flesh. And we tell everyone, every single person, because that’s really who our neighbors are about, how much Jesus loves them. That is who we are in Christ. That is who Christ has made us to be. Children of God who have been called out of the darkness that comes with living by the flesh into his wonderful light. And as Christians, we bear that light and we let that light shine throughout the world so that everyone we see and know, again, all people who are our neighbors, that they too may come to know Jesus as their Savior. You’ve heard it said a few times this morning, so it’s pretty easy to understand what our theme is. The theme for the week is to love your neighbor as you do yourself. So what does that look like? What does that mean? That means being loving to your neighbor when they are in need of your love. That means helping others in their time of need, sharing with those who are less fortunate than us. All those things are true. And those things we do, not because we are observing the law, we do those things because we have been made free in Christ. Christ has freed us to love others as we do ourselves. So out of gratitude and thankfulness for all that God has done for us, motivated by the spirit that now lives in us, let us love our neighbors as we do ourselves. Because Jesus first loved us and now has empowered us to share that love with everyone we know. Amen.