Charles Ellicott Commentary Galatians 5:13

"For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only [use] not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another." — Galatians 5:13 (ASV)

For.—This connecting word explains the reason for the Apostle’s severe treatment of the Judaizers.

An occasion to the flesh.—Do not, under the name of “liberty,” give way to sensual excesses. This was the particular danger of the Gentile churches, such as Corinth, from which, as we have seen, the Apostle may have been writing. Galatia, too, was a Gentile church; and though it was at present more subject to Judaizing influences, the character of the people was fickle, and St. Paul may have thought it good to hint at a caution in this direction.

Serve.—There is a stress on this word. The Apostle had been dissuading the Galatians from submitting to other forms of servitude. This one he will permit them.

On verses 13-15:

The Judaizers would deserve such a fate, for they are undoing the whole purpose for which you were called. You were called, not to legal bondage, but to freedom.

Only this caution is needed: do not make freedom a pretext for self-indulgence. One servitude you may submit to—the service of love.

In doing so, you will fulfill the Law without being legalists. He who loves his neighbor as himself will need no other rule.

On the other hand, dissensions will be fatal, not to one party only, but to all who take part in them.