Monday, January 15, 2007

We Are Free!

I was a youth pastor for several years before "growing up" and becoming a Pastor! During those years, it was not uncommon to hear teenagers whining about their parents and then say something along these lines, "I can't wait until I graduate so that I can do whatever I want! When I leave home, no one will tell me what to do!"

Of course, we must recognize that the absence of boundaries is not really freedom. Too often, we think that the "man" is keeping us down and we wish we were the "man." However, I remind people that the greater the leadership responsibility, the less the freedom. In a recent conversation, a friend was lamenting the number of disclosures one must fill out just to run for office. That doesn't sound much like freedom! The most powerful man in the world, our President, may have the least freedom of all Americans!

Paul reminds the Galatians that they have been set free through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, but one must be careful not to allow that freedom to become a license to sin. In fact, people who are truly free in Christ are paradoxically slaves (Galatians 5:13 (HCSB) For you are called to freedom, brothers; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love). Instead of being free to give into the sinful desires of the flesh, we must serve one another! Serving each other through love limits my ability to please myself because I'm thinking of others needs before my own.

The sinful nature of our flesh that stubbornly hangs onto our lives wars against this kind of selfless living. However, Paul makes clear that as we walk in the Spirit, we don't have to give into the desires of the flesh. When we are free from the power of the flesh and free to follow our Lord Jesus Christ...we are free indeed!

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