Freedom is difficult to describe. Poets use images to communicate its essence. Freedom is a butterfly flitting among the flowers in full bloom. It is a wild mountain river roaring over the rocks. It is a bird uncaged. Freedom feels like flying.

Many commentators have said the book of Galatians is at its heart “a call to Christian freedom.” And chapter 5 verse 1 is its central theological thesis. In chapter 1, Paul wrote of the power of Christ’s sacrifice to free the Galatians from evil. In chapter 2, he addressed the false teachers who were trying to enslave the Gentile converts. And in chapter 4, Paul contrasted the sons of the slave woman with the sons of the free.

All that builds to the climactic proclamation: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Galatians 5:1 also represents a shift from the theological to the practical. Most of Paul’s letters include a similar transition, from theory to practice. He calls the Galatian believers to “stand firm” against the false teachers, so they won’t be enslaved again by the yoke of the Law.

In verse 2, Paul addresses the issue of circumcision directly. He has mentioned circumcision before (Gal. 2:3, 7, 12). But here we learn that the Gentile Galatian Christians are listening to the false teachers and are considering being circumcised. It wasn’t the act of circumcision that concerned Paul so deeply. It was the emphasis placed upon it. These Galatian Christians were clinging to circumcision, and not Christ (v. 2). By being circumcised, they were placing themselves under the Law, rather than God’s grace (v. 4). Paul wasn’t forbidding circumcision. He had been circumcised. In Christ, however, circumcision had become a non-issue. “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (v. 6).