The first 12 verses have been all about not losing gospel freedom. Paul now shifts here to not abusing gospel freedom. So far Paul has been arguing about the ditch on one side of the Christian life which is legalism. He now begins to show us that there is a ditch on the other side of the road as well. That ditch is not legalism, but license. Paul knows that this freedom takes away both the guilt of sin and eats away at the motivation to sin. He also knows the language of freedom can be misleading oftentimes. He knows that when he has been preaching “freedom from the law” some will immediately think this means they are free to decide their own standards of behavior. If I am free from the law of God then I am the decision-maker on what is good and bad. That is wrong. He clearly states that we should not use our freedom to chase after sin in our flesh, but freedom should be used to love one another. Now that we are saved wholly and freely by grace, we are more obligated to the law. Why? Because we have more of a reason to love God than we ever did before. Love arises from the gospel faith and hope and it overflows into the love of serving our neighbor instead of building ourselves up. Loving our neighbor is the entire summation of the law! So Christians are freed from the law as a way to earn and merit the love of God, but now we get to use the law and our obedience to please God and imitate him through it. Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commands.” The gospel frees us to obey the moral law of God not as a have-to-do but as a get-to-do. We get to do it in gratitude to become more like our Savior who loves us and died for us. Because when we see the love he has for us and the length he went to redeem us we will then ask the question, “How can I live for Him?” And the law helps us greatly answer that question.