Galatians 4 - We create our own laws..

Galatians 4 is a little bit interesting to me. The whole chapter is Paul explaining to the Galatians that they are free in Christ and not because of the law. Again this concept does not always seem applicable in our time since we did not live by law like they did back in the these times...but we have been taught Christ from the beginning...and yet somehow we still make a law for ourselves.

Many Christians are caught up in doing what is right VS what is wrong. I'm not saying we should choose to sin because we have freedom in Christ...we shouldn't abuse our freedom. However what I am saying is that I think a  lot of Christians make up rules like the Pharisees did. Then when Christians do something 'wrong', people look down on them and judge them. For example, I do not think it is right for a Christian to get drunk. The Bible is clear that Christians should't get drunk. However, if a Christian goes to a bar to socialize with friends, I think that is fine. But I know some Christians would look at that person and would judge them. Why is this? Where do these rules come from? We make up rules like the Pharisees did in order to keep ourselves as pure as possible but then in the moment we could miss great opportunities. 

This reminds me of the story of the good Samaritan (Luke 10). In the story it is a priest and a Levite who both see the man who was beaten up and they don't help him. They miss doing God's work because they are too concerned with following the law. It always comes down to our hearts and our motives. God put the law in place to lead everybody to Christ. We think we need to follow all of these rules in order to be good Christians...but really all we need to do is know Christ and he will show us how we should act.

Just a side note: Galatians 4 does not talk about the Galatians making up their own laws but them following the laws from the OT....but when reading it, it reminded me of Christians today making up their own laws since we don't really follow the laws of the OT like the Galatians did.