Galatians 5:1 - Liberty

[Heirbyadoption]

A couple of question specifically for any of you in a Plain/conservative Anabaptist church fellowship (ie. headship veilings, some form of clothing style specifications, acappella singing, traditional nonresistance teachings, etc...), or anybody who grew up in one of these groups:

Galatians 5:1 (KJV) says to "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with a yoke of bondage."
What does that "liberty" look like (ie. how is it understood, defined, applied) in your 2023 "Plain Anabaptist" congregation or context?
What is the corollary of circumcision or constitutes a "yoke of bondage" in your 2023 "Plain Anabaptist" congregation or context?

No wrong answers, just curious what that means or looks like to your congregation, again particularly those Anabaptist congregations/groups who still have some level of regulated practices from which deviations would be addressed/admonished/disciplined for by the ministry or congregation. Thanks in advance.

[Josh]

The liberty that Christ gave us is to be free from sin’s bondage.

Some people who leave our church report finding liberty in these things:

- expensive vacations
- pursuing “Q” conspiracy theories
- reading and posting on social media about how the moon landing is fake, the earth is flat, and Biden is actually a body double
- wearing shorts, no coverings, etc
- applying makeup
- going to the gym and taking lots of selfies

I feel that the scriptures were not referring to the above by “liberty”.

[Heirbyadoption]

The liberty that Christ gave us is to be free from sin’s bondage.

Some people who leave our church report finding liberty in these things:

- expensive vacations
- pursuing “Q” conspiracy theories
- reading and posting on social media about how the moon landing is fake, the earth is flat, and Biden is actually a body double
- wearing shorts, no coverings, etc
- applying makeup
- going to the gym and taking lots of selfies

I feel that the scriptures were not referring to the above by “liberty”.

I understand. But perhaps we could return to the questions in the OP, however, and you could share about how the "liberty" of Galations 5:1 is viewed/applied in or by your congregation/context, rather than the various ways some of your ex-members may have applied it that you disagree with...? The question is more about what you understand the Scriptures to have been referring to, and how that is applied in 2023, rather than what the Scriptures were not referring to. Thank you in advance.

[Josh]

Sorry - we would understand it according to the first paragraph. Liberty represents liberty from the yoke of bondage from sin.

Certain people understand Galatians 5:1 as a “yoke of bondage” meaning a plain church’s rules, and “liberty in Christ” to mean leaving a plain church. When I went to a CMC (RNC) church it was taught this way. It was also taught this way at a quasi-Beachy type of church. For me as a seeker, I never fully understood because I’ve never been Amish or ultra plain and couldn’t relate to a “yoke of bondage” being church rules.

[Heirbyadoption]

For me as a seeker, I never fully understood because I’ve never been Amish or ultra plain and couldn’t relate to a “yoke of bondage” being church rules.

That makes sense. Growing up in an Old Order group or one with a fairly stout set of applications and regulations would tend to make for a different perspective or applicability of the concept, certainly.

[Josh]

I should add that in a conventional evangelical church, it is also taught as “freedom from sin”, generally speaking.

[Ernie]

Galatians 5:1 (KJV) says to "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with a yoke of bondage."
What does that "liberty" look like (ie. how is it understood, defined, applied) in your 2023 "Plain Anabaptist" congregation or context?
What is the corollary of circumcision or constitutes a "yoke of bondage" in your 2023 "Plain Anabaptist" congregation or context?

No wrong answers, just curious what that means or looks like to your congregation, again particularly those Anabaptist congregations/groups who still have some level of regulated practices from which deviations would be addressed/admonished/disciplined for by the ministry or congregation. Thanks in advance.

I'll quote the next several verses to give more context.

1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified[a] by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Keeping the Old Testament Law was necessary for salvation prior to Christ. For Gentiles to adopt the Old Testament law was going backwards instead of forward in linear Judeo/Christian fashion.

So I'm not sure that "liberty" in this context applies to anything other than liberty from the Old Testament law.

[Ernie]

IMO, Acts 15 more closely addresses the matters you refer to in the OP

Peter says to the church elders...

"10 Now then, why do you test God by placing on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11On the contrary, we believe it is through the grace of the Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
19It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not cause trouble for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.
28It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond these essential requirements: 29You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things."

I expound on the "No Greater Burden" topic here...
https://churchplantersforum.org/wp-cont ... -2014-.pdf

[Ernie]

What does that "liberty" look like (ie. how is it understood, defined, applied) in your 2023 "Plain Anabaptist" congregation or context?
What is the corollary of circumcision or constitutes a "yoke of bondage" in your 2023 "Plain Anabaptist" congregation or context?

No wrong answers, just curious what that means or looks like to your congregation, again particularly those Anabaptist congregations/groups who still have some level of regulated practices from which deviations would be addressed/admonished/disciplined for by the ministry or congregation.

As far as what we leave to individual conscience...

-Our church allows for a variety of modest clothing styles. We picture some styles that are acceptable and some styles that are not the direction we want to head. In our minds, a "yoke" would mean asking people to wear home-sewed clothing.

-We allow freedom of conscience in matters such as vaccines. (even though some in the church try to convince others of their persuasions) A yoke would be requiring people to forego vaccines.

-We don't require "those who are coming to God" to embrace everything we stand for, immediately. But within a couple years we hope they will be close to where we are at or else find a church where they can embrace its practices. A yoke would be expecting people to cross all the i's and dot all the t's before they can experience full Christian fellowship.

[Neto]

Perhaps I'm going a bit out of the context for which you pose the question, but when my wife & I were working in Bible translation in WBT, a largely main-stream 'Evangelical' environment, because we clearly lived by a set of 'rules' which were foreign to our co-workers, to some extent we we tended to be branded as "legalists'. It didn't help that after translating Luke & Acts, I next turned to the book of James. But after that initial history of the Church (Luke & Acts), I was following the order (as closely as can be determined) in which the different books of the NT 'came out'. So they might have been confused when after James, I did Galatians. (Which book is most considered a contrast to James, more than any other.)

So to the question: The Galatians were, well, Gentiles. Amazingly for a 'Hebrew of Hebrews' like Paul, he compares the bondage of the Law (as it was practiced in the Pharisee setting in which he came up) to the PAGAN bondage from which the Galatian Gentiles had been freed. In referring to them, he urges them not to just choose another type of bondage, the bondage of Pharisaic Judaism. I think that this bondage is anything that we DO to "gain God's approval", anything outside of falling before God through Jesus' death and resurrection. (Our congregation no longer really falls in the 'Plain' category, although there ARE written guidelines. But since I am not a part of the ministry team, the inner circle if you will, I am not aware of to what degree members are 'spoken to' as a result of infractions against the written guidelines.)