NOTES for Gal 5:11-21
Usually we think that freedom is something that can be given to a person. One can allow him to be free from one or another requirement of the law, from obligations to behave or think in a certain way. One can allow a person to be as he is. One can give a person liberty to act in his own way. Yet, judging by the words of the apostle Paul read today, this is a human notion that confuses freedom with permissiveness.
"You were called to freedom, brothers," says the apostle. Therefore, for him freedom is an ascetic task to which the Almighty calls us. And this freedom means above all the primacy of the spirit over the flesh. The apostle says that a person's slavery, the condition opposite to freedom, consists in his inability to resist the desires of the flesh. One way of resisting this slavery is the law, but even it does not give a person freedom; it only obliges us to resist the base principle that enslaves us.
But, the apostle continues, if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. A simple logical chain thus brings us to the thought that the essence of freedom is to be led by the Spirit. This is the only thing that always provides us with the possibility of responsible moral choice. And what is at stake here is not permission to make such a choice, but the existence of a real alternative. If you are not led by the Spirit of God, you are not able to choose the truth, and your paths, though paved with good intentions, nevertheless lead to destruction.