Do Not Submit Again To A Yoke Of Slavery (Gal. 5:1)

Do Not Submit Again To A Yoke Of Slavery (Gal. 5:1)

Many people misunderstand God.
They think that God always forces them to do things that they do not want to do. They think that God is very selfish that He never tries to understand us but always pushes us to obey His commandments without considering our situations.

What about your biological parents?
Do they always force you to do things which you do not want to do at all?
Do they not consider your ability and talent when they tell you to do something?
Are they so selfish to tell you to do things for you only to make them happy?
Do they not show their love for you when they tell you what to do and how to do?
You know that your parents love you very much even when you feel that they demand so many things from you.
They never consider you as their slaves or servants but as their beloved children. They sometimes demand so many things from you because they evaluate you so high. Ya, their expectations for their children is sometimes extremely high.
Yet, they may know about you and your talent better than that you know about yourself.
In all circumstances, your parents are not masters over you.
We can say the same things about God.
God is your spiritual parent.
God is sometimes like a mother and some other times like a father.
He wants us to do our best in listening to His instructions and in following Him.
But, He does not want to treat us like slaves but to treat as His own beloved children.
He gives us instructions to follow, but He wants us to follow them voluntarily and joyfully.
He does not want to us listen to His Words hesitantly and obligedly.
God gave us free will--free will to choose whatever we want to do.
Yet, He wants us to use it in good and righteous ways.

Today's verse can be divided into three parts:
The first one is: "For freedom Christ has set us free."

In John 8:31-35: "Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
Jesus says: "The truth will make you free."
What is the truth?
The truth is no other than Jesus, as he says: "I am the way, the truth, and the live, no one comes to the Father but by me."

From what does Jesus set us free?
Jesus sets us free from the yoke of law, from the yoke of sin, from the yoke of fear, from the power of death, and from the slavery of Satan.

For what does Jesus set us free?
Jesus sets us free for freedom.
We have freedom to choose in what lifestyle to live, freedom to plan our futures, and freedom whether to follow and obey our Lord, does yoke of fear of tdeaa :.
God wants us to follow His instructions and to love him as He loves us, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
However, He never forced to us to do all things in blind obedience, but He let us choose freely the things that we want to do.
Of course, He wants us to choose right things. But, it's all up to us.
Jesus in John 15:14-15: "You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you."
We become friends of Jesus, as friends, we want to please Him.

The second fragment is "Stand fast therefore."
We need to stand fast with our faith using our freedom to live our Christian lives. We need to stand fast without wavering to fight a good fight against Satan who was our old master and continues to tempt to us to make us fall.
We need to stand fast not to go back to the old situation of slavery.
God wants you to glory Him and to rejoice in Him and to live a prosperous life in His abundant blessings.

We are not programmed robots.
We have freedom to choose to stand fast on the ground of freedom to live according to God's will.
It is all up to us.

The third fragment is "Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."
A yoke looks to be burdensome.
What slavery is Paul talking about here?
It is about the slavery of Satan, the slavery of sin, and even the slavery of law.
The law of God was given to the Israelites to guide them to live according to God's will.
However, when they did not want to live following God's instructions but to live like the Canaanites in licentiousness, the law became a heavy burden.
Although they sometimes obeyed the law, their minds and hearts were far away from it.
God, as your spiritual parent, does not want us to obey His instructions with troublesome hearts and minds. He wants us to love Him and thus follow Him freely as free persons.

For freedom, Jesus, the Truth, set us free from the slavery of sin, from the slavery of fear, from the slavery of power of death, and even from the slavery of law.
Thus, you have freedom to choose to whatever life you want to live.
Which lifestyle do you want to choose with your God-given freedom?
I hope that we may choose to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which can make both God and us happy.