Sermon Snippets

 

So much of the Christian life is a balancing act. Finding the middle ground between two opposite extremes is often tricky business.

 

Paul addresses one of the most basic balancing struggles we face in Galatians 5. Much of his letter is focused on rejecting the idea of adding rules to faith. He argues that following the OT Law and the legalism it demands is incompatible with the freedom we have been granted in Christ. He continues this argument in chapter five by saying,

"...do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery....You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace." - Gal. 5:2-4

Adding legalism to our faith is an extreme we must be sure to avoid. But so is the other extreme of licentiousness. Paul addresses that opposite approach in verse 13:

"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature..."

We can't live like God's grace didn't come at with a price. It didn't cost anything, but it cost Jesus his life.

'YOLO' is a popular saying these days (for those uninformed, it stands for You Only Live Once). And by and large, it seems to thrown out anytime someone is looking for an excuse to do whatever they want no matter how stupid or sinful. It's true we only live once, therefore Paul says at the end of verse 13:

"...do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love."

Just as we cannot give in to the spiritual extreme of legalism, neither can we slip into the extreme of licentiousness, or what I'm going to label "loosey-goosey living".
In fifteen short verses, Paul's outlined how to successfully walk the tightrope that is the Christian life. There are a couple more keys for how to find balance in the Christian life...come Sunday and find out what they are.