Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

Galatians 5:13-15 – For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love come slaves to one another.  For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. (NRSV)

We read an even shorter passage from Galatians last week, where the writer lists the “fruit of the Spirit.”  I wonder if you’ve thought about other fruit of the Spirit that seem like invaluable parts of spiritual maturity to you?  It’s interesting to notice though, why we just read those two short verses and not the surrounding ones.  The reason is that Galatians rocks back and forth between describing the good and describing the bad, in quite evocative language!

You can see it happening here as well.  We might all want to quote verse 14 about loving our neighbors.  But the next verse gets pretty specific about what can happen when we don’t!  “Biting” and “devouring one another” is an interesting way to describe conflict.  But what’s interesting is that the writer seems to take for granted that if one person bites, they’re going to get bitten back.

This is an important lesson about conflict that those who have been through it have learned the hard way: it hurts everyone.  It may be hard to remember when tensions are just beginning to rise, when we’re still convinced we’re just pressing for things to be done the “right” way.  But differences of opinion can easily get out of hand, and the next thing we know personal attacks are flying in multiple directions and life-long friendships are irrevocably damaged.  At some point, we have to stop and ask ourselves what being “right” is worth to us?  What are we willing to sacrifice to “win”?  And will that victory actually feel like a triumph if half the people we love aren’t around anymore to enjoy it?

Freedom is an important value for Disciples churches.  But freedom without accountability to one another, without compassion or spiritual maturity is not likely to be holy or fruitful.  There’s probably a reason the writer of Galatians listed Love at the very beginning of that list of the fruit of the Spirit!