June 18, 2001

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July 1 Lesson

Christ is the only key to prisons of the heart ___Galatians 5:1-6,13-26 ___1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 2Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. ... ___13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 15If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. ___16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. ___19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. ___22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

___By Jeanie Miley
___All you need to do to activate the forces of resistance is decide to turn your life in a new direction! Choose to start a life-affirming discipline or practice, and it seems that life conspires to keep you stuck in the old ways. It takes stamina and strength to keep a commitment or forge a new path without being tempted to regress into old patterns.
___Staying on the path of freedom in any area of life is a challenge, and our spiritual life is no exception. We must stay aware of the forces that attempt to pull us back in and under their domination. We need to know what it is in our lives that conspires to get us to go back to old patterns. We must be aware of enablers or accomplices who unwittingly or intentionally seduce us back to behaviors that keep us in bondage. We need to know our human tendencies to create "prisons of our own making," even in the world of church.
___In this soaring hymn of freedom in Christ, contemporary Christians find guidance for living the freedom Christ has provided in everyday life. Indeed, we are set free from our sins, and we are set free for the abundant life. Living in a state of grace is possible, if we are willing to do our part. Responsibility is the other side of the coin of freedom.
___Paul: A credible witness
___There's a lot more power in the witness of someone who knows what he is talking about than a person who talks about something he has heard about. Whether you are facing something you wish you could avoid or something you want, you want to hear from someone who has "been there and done that." The witness of a person who has had an experience with God and is in a personal, vital, love-relationship with him makes a far greater impact than the pale and pallid comments from someone who has merely read a book about God. Experience matters; authenticity counts.
___If ever there was a person who understood the bondage of living under the law, it was Paul. Groomed by the law, he had served the Jewish law with fervency and zeal until he was confronted by the blinding light of the presence of Jesus on the road to Damascus. He had given his life to a religious system. He believed he was right.
___However, confronted with Christ, he met the inability of the law to make life what it could be. Paul of Tarsus experienced the life-changing and life-giving love of Christ in such a way that his whole way of life changed dramatically.
___Paul understood, experientially, what it was like to be in bondage to the law; he knew, as well, the exquisite freedom of being "in Christ." Paul knew what he was talking about when he said to the Galatians, "Don't go there!" when they insisted that Gentile converts to Christianity keep the same laws and observe the Old Testament rites. Appalled at their tendency to return to the old system, he confronted their legalism and said, "Why would you even want to do that?"
___To the young churches who were grappling with the questions of faith in Christ, Paul proclaimed freedom over and over, confronting the Judaizers with his burning passion for Christ. He, "Jew of all Jews," was able to say to them, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." What Paul said to the Galatians works for us, too.
___Stand firm
___Galatians 5 contains some of the most frequently quoted verses of Paul's writings. He sets out the difference between slavery and freedom in language no one can misunderstand, and in stating the difference, he clearly announces that the individual believer, as well as the community of faith, has a responsibility in being free. We are stewards of the freedom Christ has given us, and it is in standing firm, not being pushed around by external forces or wilting from internal pressures, that we claim our freedom in Christ.
___Paul seemed to understand that when we get in a tight spot or when we don't know what to do, we tend to regress in attitude and behavior. Under pressure, if we are not conscious, we will return to the old ways of doing things because they feel secure and safe to us. Often we revert back to childish ways of behaving, infantile responses, old ideologies and the power of the past. With enough heat, we return to addictions and dependencies we have used in the past to soothe, comfort or distract ourselves.
___Basically, we are not unlike the early Christians in Galatia. We tend to return to legalism because it is familiar and feels safe to us. We, like those who were attempting to carve out the meaning and purpose of the early church, tend toward slavery, because freedom is hard and slavery is easy. Standing firm is an everyday challenge; it must be a daily choice, or we will lose the freedom Christ has gained for us.
___Serve ... express ... love
___Paul could soar into the heights of high and lofty thoughts about freedom. His language about Christ edges up to the beauty of our most sacred anthems. He also knew the degradation and discouragement of dingy prisons, so when he wrote he could speak about the practical matters of living out one's faith and freedom in Christ. For Paul, life in Christ was not just a nice idea to discuss over coffee and donuts in a comfortable setting. Instead, it was the real stuff and the right stuff, to be lived out in the marketplace, the board room and the dining room.
___"Express your faith in love," he counseled the Galatians. Do the things that make love visible. Don't just talk about love; let your walk match your talk!
___"Serve one another in love," he said, reminding us that it is in service that we are the hands and feet of Christ, doing for each other that which makes a difference. We are to alleviate human suffering, feed the hungry and comfort the grieving. We are to carry each other's burdens and offer cups of cold water to those who are dying of physical and spiritual thirst. If we want to stay free in Christ, we are to live out the mission of Christ and not get caught in the various bramblebushes of legalism.
___"Love your neighbor," Paul counseled, echoing the words of Christ and adding a warning contemporary Christians must surely heed. Where will you be, Paul asks those of us who call ourselves Christians, if we "keep on biting and devouring each other?" It's a stern warning. It's a good warning!
___The key to freedom: Living by the Spirit
___The protection of our freedom comes in the daily surrender of the will, the mind, the heart and one's whole life to the care of God, revealed in Christ. We stay free only as we stay conscious of our dependence on that Spirit for our very life and well-being. We do everything we can to stand firm, to love and serve each other and to express our faith in love. And at the place where we run up against our own inadequacy to do what we know we must do to preserve our freedom, we offer ourselves to God and ask him to provide us with his unending adequacy. We confess our tendency to regress and to walk ourselves back into our various prisons, and then we ask for the Spirit of Christ to indwell us and to protect us from ourselves!
___Freedom from ...
___Could anyone be any clearer than Paul about what slavery really is? His list of manifestations of that inward slavery sends shivers of horror down the spine of the sensitive soul: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkennes, orgies, and the like. And yes, he was speaking to the church. Who would want to "go there?" You'd be surprised! Look around you. Look within you!
___Even Paul--perhaps, especially Paul--knew the law could not save a person from the manifestations of the sinful nature.
___Freedom for ...
___By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit looks like that abundant life Jesus mentioned in John 10:10--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, lived out in our families and in our famlies of faith. Who wouldn't want that? Who wouldn't want that inner wellspring of the spiritual attributes that make life work everyday?___
___The prerequisite of freedom
___Have you ever tried to manifest the fruit of the Spirit without having the Spirit?
___It doesn't work, does it?
___Have you ever tried to pretend something that isn't real, to act free when you're really a slave? How did that work for you?
___True freedom in Christ and the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit of Christ is dependent on the presence of Christ in the heart of the individual. The fruit flows from the inside to the outside. It cannot be manufactured and will not be faked. True spirituality is the result of a life yielded to Christ, a heart surrendered to the indwelling presence of Christ.
___The law cannot get you there, so don't even try to make it work.
___The only thing that gets you true freedom is the love of Christ.
___That is the amazing grace. If you're going to sing it, you need to know it.

___Jeanie Miley is an author, conference speaker and member of River Oaks Baptist Church in Houston

For thought and discussion
___ Describe a person of today who is "free in Christ." What would that person's?lifestyle be?
___ What is the difference between freedom and irresponsibility? Freedom and ?license?
___ How are freedom and autonomy alike? What is the relationship between freedom and integrity? Freedom and authenticity? How does individual freedom affect corporate freedom in the church?
___ If Paul were addressing today's church, what issues would he see that would be comparable to the Judaizers' insistence on circumcision? If he were addressing your church, what would he see? What would he want for your community of faith?
___ How does legalism affect a community of faith today? Why is it so tempting in today's world of rapid changes, multiple transitions and difficult challenges? Why does legalism feel "safe"?
___ In what specific ways do you see that the church needs to do a better job in helping its members live the life of the Spirit? How can the church be a place in which a new Christian can indeed learn how to stand firm, to love, to serve, to live out his faith in practical ways?
___ How can individual Christians discern whether they are manifesting the fruit of the Spirit without becoming self-absorbed, prideful or self-righteous?

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