Called to live in freedom

Paul, remaining very much human, is able also to joke in this part of his letter to the Galatians and every now and he reveals also his ironic mood.

Perhaps the Apostle amuses himself also in polemics. Anyhow, his talk remains always very high and much demanding. He claims freedom for himself and knows very well the high cost of experiencing, living, defending one’s own freedom, but does not go back and would like that even his Galatians made up their mind of not going back.

Had not God himself descended from heaven down on earth to guarantee the freedom of his people? Therefore Paul can forcefully establish, «… You were called to be free…” (v. 5,13a).

However, living in freedom does not mean creating space for anarchy and disorder, but it rather means to grow with harmonious and proper relations.

To enjoy freedom in an ordered way means, above all, never to forget of being constantly under the eyes of God, of being attentive to protect oneself from idolatry.

Without “ libertinsm”

Paul, who perhaps has the full awareness of being a Moses of the new covenant, minds very much to specify that the freedom which the Galatians  have been called to is not libertinism; it is not anarchy,  therefore, it must not become a pretext to live according to the flesh, but to cause charity to explode (see v. 5, 13b)  .

Love is born from freedom, is nurtured with freedom, is oriented and concluded in freedom. We can say that freedom itself is born from love, nurtures and orients itself with love. Thus love and freedom are one within the other. In fact, we are free when we have the availability, the generosity, the freedom of being at the service of the other, by serving one another (See v. 5,13).

Even Moses considered himself only as servant; there is a very beautiful book of Gregory from Nissa; the life of Moses,  which is concluded with the full realisation of Moses,  as doulos, as servant of God. The famous self-definition of Gregory the Great has remained famous in the West:   servus servorum Dei, that is: I am the servant of God’s servants!

Fulfilment of the law and of love

Paul, in this precise context, forges a lapidary sentences, “The whole of the law is summarised in the one commandment: you must love your neighbour as yourself” (v. 5, 14).

He says “the whole of the law”, but could also have said “every law”. In reality, Paul synthesises in a commandment, in a logos, in only one word” (en hení logo¯), the precept of love. Therefore, every time we refer to a law, we can never forget the function this law has had within the experience of freedom, which had been guaranteed to the chosen people and of whom Moses had been the defender and the animator. Freedom and law, of which St. Paul, in his turn, feels to be animator and defender, concretise always in love.

Thus, there is a fulfilment that can be concretised only in this precept: “You shall love your neighbour as you love yourself” (v. 5,14; Leviticus v 19,18; Mt 22,39; Mc 12,31; Romans 13,9; James: 2,8; see  Luke 10,27). But this precept, which is the second precept of the Torah, as its presupposition, sends us to the first one that asks, “You shall love your God with all your heart, with your soul and with all your strength”  (See Mt 22,37; Luke 10,27; see Deuteronomy  6,5; 10,12; ).

In fact, God was the only one to free Israel from Egypt. He alone could do it, and did it effectively. (See Exodus: 20,13; Deuteronomy  5,6).

Paul surely takes for granted all this. Freedom remains a gif of God.

In the discretion of the Spirit

After this extra-ordinary synthesis, Paul, who knows very well that to serve one another and to live love at this high level are not very simple, jokes ironically, “If you go snapping at one another and tearing one another to pieces , take care: you will be eaten up by one another (v. 5,15).

We cannot find an adequate explanation of this sentence without calling irony to field. Then, becoming serious again, Paul adds, “However, I recommend you (légo ¯ dé): Be guided by the Spirit and you will no longer yield to self-indulgence”  (v. 5,16b).

This indicates a very simple life, which underlines the positive and relativises, re-dimensions the constant analysing oneself with examination of conscience in the morning, at midday, in the evening, every hour, every half an hour, cutting, if possible, the hair into four, as the stoics did, being they thirsty of moralistic perfection. 

No.

It suffices to be open to the solicitations of the Spirit

Everything else will come by itself.

Thus Paul exhorts, “Be guided by the Spirit and you will no longer yield to self-indulgence”  (v. 5,16b, in Greek kaì epithymian sarkòs ou me¯ telése ¯te). What is the desire of the flesh? To understand it we must not forget the fundamental indication, which we have already spoken of; we must not waste time to go through the mentioned analyses, distinctions and sub-distinctions made by those who like to rinse in mud, but remaining generously open to the solicitations of the Spirit.

In fact, “The desire of self-indulgences are always in opposition to the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are in opposition to self-indulgence; they are opposite, one against the other; that is why you are prevented from doing the things that you want to.”  (v. 5,17).

I have corrected a little the text of the official Italian translation, because I am convinced that it corresponds better to the thought of Paul. I think, in fact, that the Apostle more or less says this: the contra-position that you feel within you, between the epithymia (a strong pushing desire, from and in the flesh) and the ideal word of the Spirit, is providential because it prevents us from doing anything we wish to do, and this obliges us to make a discernment. That is: this providential tension frees us from the push of the instinct, proving that our human structure is absolutely different from all other creatural structures. In fact, the other creatural structures, from the inborn to the animated ones, are somehow conditioned to relativise all that they feel instinctively, as a force of inertia, which they cannot contra-pose.   

With personal responsibility

We must remember that we are in a cultural and religious context in which some groups, who seek to be pure to the bitter death,  do not believe in the possibility of the free will and think that every choice is already pre-determined by God, for which they simply prefer to be conducted by instinct. Similar tendencies existed also in the Hebrew world. Jesus and Paul do not accept at all a similar pre-supposition, claiming instead the possibility, on behalf of man, of saying yes or not! They underline that nobody is compelled to do evil and nobody is compelled to do good, thus founding the universal principle of personal responsibility.

In reality, only the possibility of choosing in full freedom is the basis of our human dignity and allows it to express itself in every aspect of life. With this specification we can understand better the words of Paul, “The desire of self-indulgences are always in opposition to the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are in opposition to self-indulgence…” (v. 15,17a), with the consequent addition, “When you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (v. 5,18).

Paul briefly synthesises, taking them for granted somehow, the works that remain under the condemnation of the law, by whose fulfilment man remains slave of the law, “When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: sexual vice, impurity and sensuality ….” (v. 5,19). In reality he makes a non-comprehensive list of everything, but only an exemplifying list, which, perhaps, fetches something that we today would call “current morality”.

Today, we could make more articulated lists, because each term used by Paul could be studied in its context with not necessarily univocal conclusions: “When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: sexual vice,, impurity, libertinism, idolatry, magic, enmities, disagreement, jealousy, sorcery, drunkenness  divisions, factions, envies, orgies and all such things; people who behave in this way will not inherit the Kingdom of God” (5, 19-21).

The fruit of the Spirit

After making this “negative” list Paul adds a “positive” one by writing, “On the other hand the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control –then he adds- no law can touch such things as these” (v. 5,22-23).

However, also this law is just an exemplification and it does not presume to be complete. Therefore, there are two lists: one that remains under the judgement of the law, therefore it is condemned and calls for penalty; the other instead that frees from the law, because it is the fruit of the Spirit.

The final declaration of Paul is, also this time, lapidary, “All who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified self with all its passions and its desires” (v. 5,24). In fact, we find the sought completeness in Jesus, because everything is found in Him, thus, he who is in Him does not need to go in search of other things.

Everything else will come by consequence.

Therefore in the Gospel we read, “Set your heart on his Kingdom first, and on God saving’s justice, and all these other things will be given you as well” (See Matthew: 6,33; Luke: 12,31). The unification of ourselves with Christ implies absolute love that does not leave behind space and time for other types of desires and passions.

This leads to the conclusion, “If we live in the Spirit, let us walk also according to the Spirit”. The Spirit of the Son, the Spirit sent by the Father, whom Paul has already spoken of, is the secure guide of the Christian journey.

Paul, who certainly knew the ethical effort fulfilled by many moralists and philosophers of his time, relativises all of them to create space only for the Spirit who, thanks to the work of Christ, cries from the depth of every believer: Abbà Father, which actually becomes a secure guide towards the full realisation of life in the Father, the fountain that flows from eternity.

Innocenzo Gargano
Camaldolese osb
Piazza San Gregorio al Celio, 1
00184 Rome