Reflection on Gal 5:13-14

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

The Apostle Paul speaks about freedom. However, liberal theologians and various spiritual know-alls or religious frauds abuse freedom for iniquity. The Apostle warns us not to use our freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, for our egoism, but to serve one another through love.

Then the Apostle says that the whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. Let us bear it in mind and put it into practice. To love my neighbour means to sacrifice myself for him, to desire his salvation, to try to communicate to him the divine truth of salvation, and to lead him to conversion and to the receiving of the Holy Spirit, so that he may live and walk in the Holy Spirit just as I try to do so – this is true love. In this way I love my neighbour as myself. I want to be saved, I want to have eternal life, I want to be happy both here on earth and after death, and I wish the same for my neighbour. Jesus even adds that we should have the same love as He has: Love one another as I have loved you. Jesus sacrificed His life for us, so we likewise should be ready even to sacrifice our life for the salvation of others because eternal life is at stake. Death will put an end to this earthly life anyway and to be a martyr for Christ, for the salvation of souls, is true heroism and special grace. So egoistic fear must be cast out by perfect love, i.e. by our union with the love of Jesus, by our desire for the salvation of souls!

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