Galatians 2:4. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery
Paul is describing his trip to Jerusalem where he would meet the other disciples of Jesus: Peter, James, John, and the rest. Paul was worried that what he was teaching about Jesus might be different from what the church in Jerusalem was teaching.
In Galatians 2:2, he writes: “I went up because of a revelation and set before them [the disciples] the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.”
Paul says that some “false brothers,” or fake Christians, sneaked in to spy on Paul and his freedom. What does this mean? It means that they wanted to see if Paul was really teaching that we are free from obeying the laws in the Old Testament.
Have you ever heard of or learned the Ten Commandments? Can you name any of them? You shall not ___. Honor your ____ and ____ (mom and dad love that one). You shall not ___ your neighbor’s ox or donkey.
Paul rightly believed that when we trust in Jesus, we no longer have to obey the Ten Commandments or any of the other commandments in the Old Testament law in order to be saved. We are saved by Jesus, not by obeying the law. In other words, we are FREE from the law.
The spies who came to Jerusalem wanted to see if this was really what Paul was saying (it was). They came to “spy out his freedom in Christ.” You see, when you trust in Jesus to save you, you are free from having to obey rules, commandments, and laws in order to be saved. This is called faith. We don’t have to be good to be saved; we believe in Jesus to be saved, and then he makes us good. And this is what makes us free.
When you have to be good to be saved by Jesus, then you are always wondering if you’ve been good enough—and usually, the answer is no, you haven’t. Then you either start trying to be better than everyone else, or you give up and say, “I can’t be good enough, so why bother trying?” Either way, you’re not free, that’s for sure.
But with Jesus, we are always free. Free to obey God out of love and trust, not from trying to be good enough.
Do something together: Find something that you’ve earned and something that was a gift. How do gifts cause us to love the person who gave us the gift?
Because of Jesus: We never have to be “good enough” to get to heaven with God.
With Jesus: We can be good with his help, motivated by love and trust in God.
Pray: Father, I don’t totally understand what it means to be free by your love as a gift, but I’m sure glad I don’t have to earn your love. Amen.
