Galatians 5:1
For Freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
How often do we feel that we are bearing a yoke that is too heavy? Christ tells us his yoke is easy but far too often we feel this is not the case. I know so many Christians who get burden down by the pressure of becoming a perfect Christian. They spend so much of their lives running and trying to figure out how to live a perfect Christian life. Forgetting that we all fall short and falling is a natural cycle of life which gives us the opportunity to stand up.
This scripture is screaming the fact that as Christians we do not have to submit to a yoke of slavery which is a list of dos and do nots. God’s love will change us and produce fruit within our lives, but we are not meant to simply turn this into a new law to follow. In this section of scripture Paul is speaking to a community of Jews and Gentiles following this Jesus movement imploring the Jews to not force circumcision on the Gentiles (along with other laws because they had around 615).
Circumcision was important to the Jewish community and a painful initiation for the Gentile men. Paul is imploring them not to put a yoke of slavery onto others because Christ calls us to freedom. This does not mean we can do whatever we like in life, but instead realise that Christ has called us to surrender ourselves by following God’s way of love.
Are you willing to stand firm in this freedom by continually surrendering to Christ and asking what love requires of you?