5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
The Apostle now comes to exhortation, based upon what has gone before. In chapters 1 and 2 he has defended his own right to preach to the Gentiles and his own authority as an apostle; in chapters 3 and 4 he has answered the arguments of his opponents in favour of the imposition of legalism upon Gentile Christians, by expounding clearly and unequivocally the nature of our position and liberty in Christ. Now comes his fervent exhortation not to surrender that position and that liberty. The immediate connection is with 4:31, 'we are...children of the free' - therefore stand as those that are free. This, as we have frequently seen, is Paul's favourite pattern. He invariably bases the exhortations of the gospel on the great affirmations of the faith. 'This is where you are, this is where God has placed you - therefore stand there, take your place in Christ, and be the Lord's freeman.' This is the response of faith to the summons and provision of the gospel, and only when we take this stand is faith proved real, just as Peter's faith and confidence in Christ's word to him was proved real when he ventured out on the waters of Galilee and walked towards Him. This incident from the gospel record is as good an illustration of the principle involved as we could have, for it underlines the fact that what Peter did was contrary to nature - and this is Paul's whole point here, for what we are in Christ is contrary to what we are by nature. In Christ we are no longer the persons we are by nature, and this is what we must dare to believe - and act upon it!