Galatians 5:13-16 (ESV)
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. [14] For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." [15] But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
[16] But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Called to freedom. Paul now encourages not to use our freedom as opportunities for the flesh. Rather to use our freedom to serve one another in love. Love fulfills the law, but love is impossible without freedom. In love we serve each other. In love we allow God’s law to instruct us, but we silence it with the cross when it begins to accuse us. In love we even learn to break the law in service to our neighbor. As when the disciples picked the ears of grain on the Sabbath, or when Jesus healed the woman on the Sabbath. Love is no longer concerned with ones own salvation. Love is concerned with our neighbors salvation. Love serves our neighbor, not because it has to, but because it wants to. Freedom from the law allows one to love, allows one to live.
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