Liberty and charity

My brothers, you were called, as you know, to liberty; but be careful, or this
liberty will provide an opening for self-indulgence. Serve one another, rather, in
work’s of love, since the whole Law is summarised in a single command:
Love your neighbour as yourself. If you go snapping at each other and tearing
each other to pieces, you had better watch or you will destroy the whole
community.
Let me put it like this: if you are guided by the Spirit you will be in no danger
of yielding to self-indulgence, since self-indulgence is the opposite of the Spirit,
the Spirit is totally against such a thing, and it is precisely because the two are
so opposed that you do not always carry out your good intentions. If you are
led by the Spirit, no law can touch you. When self-indulgence is at work the
results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility;
idolatry and sorcery; feuds and wrangling, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels;
disagreements, factions, envy; drunkenness, orgies and similar things. I warn
you now, as I warned you before: those who behave like this will not inherit the
kingdom of God. What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There
can be no Law against things like that, of yourse. You cannot belong to Christ
Jesus unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires.
Since the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit. We must stop
being conceited, provocative and envious.

Galatians 5:13-26

One thought on “Liberty and charity

Add yours

Leave a comment

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑