Galatians 5:13-24: Freedom for What?

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. - Galatians 5:13-24

What does it mean to be "called to be free"? Free to what? Would we say that a man or woman who has been 2 years free from alcohol is free because they are now free to drink booze? Is that truly free? No. It is clear that the freedom that Paul is talking here is not the removal of encumbrances but rather the enabling of a new way of life. There are lots of things that we can do with our freedom that are essentially the same self-indulgent things we were capable of before our encounter with Jesus. But we are not just free from the old life, but free for a new life. Free to live a life that isn't self-indulgent because that self-indulgence is a type of slavery where, even if the bonds have been removed from us, we place them back on ourselves. The new life is a freedom from the encumbrances of the old life for the purpose of a new life in the Spirit which blesses others rather than using them.