Galatians 5:13-15

2. Living without license 5:13-15

Paul urged his readers to live unbound to the Law of Moses (Galatians 5:1-12). He also warned them against using their liberty as a license to sin to prevent them from overreacting.

"Christian freedom is not licence [sic] for the simple but tremendous reason that the Christian is not the man who has become free to sin, but the man, who, by the grace of God, has become free not to sin." [Note: Barclay, p. 50.]

"The theme of love . . . informs all of Paul’s exhortations vis-à-vis the Galatians’ libertine tendencies . . .

"Yet undergirding all of Paul’s admonitions regarding love and service is the reality of life lived ’by the Spirit,’ with references to the Spirit being more frequent in Galatians 5:13 to Galatians 6:10 than references to either love or service." [Note: Longenecker, p. 236.]