{"id":9450,"date":"2020-11-10T23:58:22","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T23:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=9450"},"modified":"2020-11-10T23:58:23","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T23:58:23","slug":"free-to-live-by-the-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=9450","title":{"rendered":"Free to live by the Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Paul in the letter to the Galatians makes the statement that \u201cIt is for freedom that Christ has set us free\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleserver.com\/ESV\/Galatians5%3A1\" class=\"bibleserver extern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Galatians 5:1<\/a>), emphasising the point he has previously made about the nature of \u2018Christian being\u2019. \u00a0His point is, we are free and not bound by law because of the freeing work of Jesus. Freedom is the nature of the Kingdom of God. We are free from the punishment we deserve because of the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus. That freedom however does not give us a right to live lawlessly.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Paul in Galatians tells the reader that by submitting to one law obligates you to all the law. If you break just one law you have broken every law. This why Paul says following the law is being a slave to the law.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But what guides us if not law? Do we not disintegrate into chaos if we as a church choose not to live by either law or even regulation.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Paul\u2019s answer to this question is &#8211; rather than \u2018living by the letter of the law\u2019 he commends us<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>to \u2018live by the Spirit\u2019. When we do this we are guided by the principles to love God with all we have and \u2018to love your neighbour as yourself\u2019. This later principle or determination to love reminds us where the boundaries are. I believe, this is a higher standard than by living a set of laws. It\u2019s control from within (self-control) rather than from outside of us.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Living by the Spirit is not as easily quantified or measured as living by laws.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Laws in themselves are not bad but they do not necessarily mean if we live by them we are good. Laws may guide and change our external behaviour but it is by living by the Spirit that we are transformed on the inside and that changes how we live with others on the outside.<\/p>\n<p>If you are not sure if you are \u2018living by the Spirit\u2019 then just look at the fruit of your life (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleserver.com\/ESV\/Galatians5%3A22\" class=\"bibleserver extern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Galatians 5: 22<\/a>,23). Seek Holy Spirit discernment. Observe how your life affects those around you &#8211; are people free to be the best versions of themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Dewar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul in the letter to the Galatians makes the statement that \u201cIt is for freedom that Christ has set us free\u201d (Galatians 5:1), emphasising the point he has previously made [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,3,27,35,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-destiny","category-faith","category-good-news","category-honour","category-identity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9451,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9450\/revisions\/9451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}