Galatians 5 - Little Sins = Big Problems

Your old self keeps wanting to drag you back into sin. Be reminded of your continual need for Christ.

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Galatians 5 Summary

Remember the overall context of Galatians: Christians are people who

first believes in Christ,
then are immediately justified before God,
then proceed to keep God’s law.

But the Galatians were messing this order up. The way they understood it was that Christians:

first believe in Christ
keeps the law of God the best he can,
and then they are justified depending on how well they did.

The Galatians had been told they needed to comply with all sorts of Old Testament laws and rituals like circumcision in order to stay right with God. We may not be hugely tempted to rely on those customs, but if we're not careful, we begin to think that like our church attendance, volunteer work or other good things are requirements that our salvation depends on.

Paul wrote this letter to disavow this idea in the strongest terms possible, telling the circumcisers that they might as well go all the way and emasculate themselves (v12)!

He makes it as plain as possible in v1:

For freedom Christ has set us free

Yet this chapter also makes clear that we're not to selfishly waste this freedom, rather we must use our freedom... to serve one another (v13).

Dig Deeper

A little leaven leavens the whole lump (v9).

I'm confident that of all the problems we have amongst us, trying to earn our salvation isn't near the top of the list.

That's the problem.

Often times it's the little sins, which are easily ignored, that suddenly permeate our entire lives, in the way that a tiny bit of yeast quickly works its way through an entire batch of dough.

Once again you have a big reminder to read books like Galatians often, so that you're continually reminded of your total reliance on Christ, and that the evidence of this reliance is good Spiritual fruit.

AAA Prayer:

ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: God is loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, gentle, faithful and mighty. He not only is like these attributes, He defines them. He is them (v22).
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify sinful desires (v16).
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: