Christian Fellowship Community Group
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Galatians 5:1-15 (NLT)
1-4 “So Christ has truly set you free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. (2) Listen! I Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. (3) I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. (4) For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, then you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.”
5-10 “But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness of God promised to us. (6) For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. (7) You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? (8) It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. (9) This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough! (10) I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you.”
11-12 “Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised—as some say I do—why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would offended. (12) I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.”
13-15 “For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead use your freedom to serve one another in love. (14) For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (15) But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.”
Questions to ponder Copied from:
http://my-ccm.com/new-testament-questions/questions-about-the-book-of-galatians/
1) How are Christians to stand in the liberty where with Christ has made us free? (Galatians 5:1)
2) Paul wrote the Galatians whosoever of you are justified by law; ye are fallen from what? (Galatians 5:4)
3) In what command is the law for man summed up? (Galatians 5:14)
4) What danger lies in biting and devouring one another? (Galatians 5:15)
Answer: Verse one says to stay free by not getting tied up again in slavery to the law. It says in verse 13-14, "...But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead use your freedom to serve one another in love. (14) For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
It's important for Christians to keep the commandments that God gave Moses. I think if Paul were here he'd tell us what he meant was the made up laws of the Jewish people like circumcision, washing your hands before meals etc.
I also agree with you that God's moral standards didn't change when the old covenant was abolished. Paul tells us in verse 13 and 14 to love our neighbors, and if we do that then we will be fulfilling God's moral law.
I believe Paul was saying in verse 4 that we fall from grace when we try to earn our salvation and justification by our own works and self-efforts, because If we think we can earn it ourselves, then we don't need God's grace. James 2:1o says that if we keep the whole law, but break only one of them, then you have broken all of God's laws. So I believe Paul was saying that if you want to be justified by keeping the law, then you better be perfect in all of His laws.
As humans we can never keep all of God's laws, because Jesus told us that we don't only have to keep them outwardly, we also have to keep them in our thought life. If a man only lusts after a woman in his mind, then he has committed adultery (Matthew 5:28). The only way we can be justified in God's eyes is by having faith in Jesus, because we can never be good enough by our own self-efforts. That is why we need a savior. But I do agree with you that we still have the same moral standards that God gave with the Mosaic Law, and if we love our neighbors as Paul and Jesus told us to do, then we will be keeping the 10 commandments.