Galatians – Week 10 – Day 2

READ 

Galatians 5:13-15 

13 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. 

Some people erroneously think that if salvation is by grace a person could live in sin with no consequences. That is not what Paul wrote. One is to use the freedom of grace to love others; not to express the desires of the flesh. Paul wrote that if they were anxious to keep the law, they could keep what is written in Leviticus 19:18 because it sums up the “whole law.” Paul also warned them about what occurs when they don’t love each other.  

REFLECT 

What do you notice about legalists? Are they loving others or seeking to destroy others? 

RESPOND 

Read Matthew 22:34-40 to see what Jesus said when He was asked what is the greatest commandment. He told of two that summed up the entire law. The Judaizers of Paul’s day would never have agreed with Jesus. Emphasize to others that we should go by what Jesus said rather than by what unbelievers said in His day and some say today.