To spy out our liberty

And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. - Galatians 2v4-5

Paul wrote to the Galatian believers to deal with a specific problem. There were false brethren there who were trying to bring the churches into bondage of the law by requiring that they keep the law to truly be saved. If they were not keeping the law it was all the proof they needed to say that they were not Christians.

To be honest, it is the mindset there that bothers me. These Galatian Judaizers were trying to say that if Titus would not get circumcised he was not saved. They were judging him based on what he did, instead of the Christ who saved him. They sought, by “spying out” their liberty to bring him back into the same bondage that held them. They equated actions with salvation.

There are grace robbers today who do the same. They may not go so far as to say, “If you do this or don’t do that you are not saved,” but they come mighty close. Any time we judge others by our own set of rules we, in essence, try to bind them.

If it was wrong for these men spy out Paul’s liberty, are we really any better when we spy out liberty today in others to make sure they measure up to our rules?