Many people have different ideas
of what freedom actually is. I’m going
to address the subject from a cultural as well as a Scriptural one. I am a follower of Jesus first and foremost,
but I am also an American citizen who likes to think of himself as more a
citizen of the world. There are many
passages in the Bible that deal with freedom in the Old Testament and New
Testament. Whether it’s the Exodus from
Egypt in the Old Testament or Paul in the New Testament assuring us that it is
for freedom that we have been set free, this idea of freedom permeates
Scripture. There is freedom from the
oppressor, but also freedom from sin.
There is freedom from slavery, but also freedom from selfishness. There is freedom in Christ, which goes much
further than simply living in a free society.
In the Old Testament, the
Israelites who were God’s chosen people mind you, often and repeatedly found
themselves in slavery or some sort of bondage.
This was God’s way of disciplining them for worshiping idols and drawing
them to their knees so they would once again see their desperate need for a Savior. I sincerely believe He still does the same
thing today, albeit usually differently, at least in the Western world. Sometimes we slide down the slippery slope
into some type of slavery, don’t we? It
usually has to do with the temptations that we are most prone to give into, but
sometimes it’s just sin as a way of life as in the life of the unbeliever. In both cases, the Holy Spirit convicts our
hearts that there has to be a better way than our current life that we’re
leading. His kindness leads us to
repentance.
You can live in the freest of
societies in the world, and still live a life of slavery to sin. I’ve written about this before I’m pretty
sure, but almost always do I see people in free societies living lives of slavery. In one perspective we’re all slaves to
something, right? You can either be a
slave to Christ, or a slave to something else.
Slavery to Christ leads ultimately to freedom whereas slavery to other things
leads to just that, slavery and the accompanying slavery mindset. We come to a place where we quite enjoy our
slavery to sin and want nothing to do with being rebuked by fellow believers or
convicted by the Holy Spirit Himself.
How many Americans and Westerners
live in the freest societies the world has ever known, but yet live in bondage
to either their own sin or the sin of others?
Either you are affected by others’ sin in a crippling way as can be the
case for children, or you are deeply affected by your own sin as you grow into
adulthood. The only path to freedom is
Jesus. This is a difficult concept to
explain, especially considering all the seemingly contradictory Scriptures that
Jesus taught His followers when He was on this earth. He commands us to die to ourselves and pick
up our crosses daily at one point, and yet at another He reassures us that His
burden is light and His yoke is easy.
How can those two things coexist?
Well, if we choose to die to ourselves, we ultimately come to a realization
that yes, in fact, His burden is light and His yoke is in fact easy. We may be persuaded to believe that our ways
are better than His, but this is a dangerous trap to fall into.
Whatever we are enslaved to, and
I can assure you of some ways to identify that thing by the way, we are
ultimately called into freedom by God Himself.
If you wish to identify some of the things you are enslaved to, there
are some basic tests to figure this out.
The first test is where does the majority of your money go to? If it goes to your mortgage or car payment or
whatever, that is what you are enslaved to.
Yes, we are commanded to give a tithe, but it shouldn’t stop there. The borrower is slave to the lender, which is
bad news for us as a nation by the way.
It is also bad news for millions of Americans who are indebted to any
number of things and can’t see a way out.
Another way to find out what
you’re enslaved to is to trace back your thoughts to what you dwell on the
most. This is a way of finding out
what’s on the throne of your heart. Whatever
you spend the majority of your time thinking about, that is what you worship
and your functional Savior. Louie Giglio
was the first one who introduced me to this line of thinking, and I still
remember it because it really clicked in my mind at the time as being a
timeless truth. What is the focus of
your mind and heart today and every day?
If you’re anything like me, the
thing that gets the most mental attention far and away above the rest is the
self. If this is true for you as it is
for me, then we are merely worshiping none other than ourselves. A great way to determine if this might be the
case is how easily you find it to forgive yourself. Someone posted a great quote by a famous
pastor that really convicted me. It said
essentially that if we’re unable to forgive ourselves, than we are saying that
in spite of Jesus saving work and forgiveness found at the cross, it isn’t
enough and as such we have placed ourselves ahead of Him. Ouch, right?
I have always struggled with forgiving myself so this point really hit
home.
Some of the common things that we
are enslaved to don’t even register very often because of how ubiquitous they
have become in our everyday lives. A few
of the major ones I can think of are entertainment brought to you by the television
or in my case the internet. We have
drugged ourselves asleep by an endless supply of news coverage and meaningless
sitcoms that do nothing to lead us toward changing ourselves and the world
around us. If you’re like me, this
doesn’t stop just at television and internet, those are just the easiest to
identify. For me it’s just as likely to
be what I’m reading at the time. I try
and read my Bible on a regular basis, but there are season where it sits on the
proverbial shelf of my Kindle while I read anything but the Bible. I often read books by Christian authors,
which is a lot like eating regurgitated food if we are brutally honest with
ourselves. That is not to take away from
the great value that these books have in some cases, I’m simply saying that
they should be secondary to our time spent in the Bible itself.
Another common one is the pursuit
of money. We all need money to live,
this is obvious. However, we are also
taught in Scripture that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and
that we cannot serve both God and Mammon.
If someone were to look at your life from the outside, what would they
see as the primary motivation for why you go to work everyday? Would it be the pursuit of wealth and
consequently the American dream or the much greater purpose of infusing God into
your daily life at work and at home?
A third thing that we often find
ourselves enslaved to in modern-day America is sex, or rather the perversion of
sex. Sex is a gift from God but has
specific boundaries and is to be enjoyed within the confines of marriage. We make huge mistakes when we take this out
of God’s intended context. I know from
previous experience that while the fleeting pleasure of momentary sex can be
quite intoxicating and euphoria producing, the unintended consequences that
follow are just plain awful. There is
the guilt that comes first, followed by the cries for help, hopefully followed
by sincere repentance. Then we’re good
for a while until the next major temptation comes our way and we find ourselves
in the same sin cycle. Maybe you’re a
better person than I am and I sincerely hope you are, but I struggle with this
one in particular to a greater extent than just about every other sin in my
life, apart from pride that I’m usually and largely unaware of.
A fourth thing that we can easily
find ourselves entangled in is self. We
are more concerned with ourselves and our creature comforts than with following
Jesus to the ends of the earth. Not
everyone is called to missionary work overseas, but every Christ follower is
called to be a missionary in their particular context. Are we willing to give up our own lives for
following Christ and living for others’ lives to be better? Do we truly love our neighbors as
ourselves. That is an extremely
difficult command if we are to take it seriously. Unfortunately, it often loses its power from
our common everyday use of it. While
this can be extremely effective at moving ourselves and our congregations to
live more for Christ in the everyday, it does run the risk of becoming
background noise if we’re not careful.
Whatever sin we find ourselves
enslaved to, there is hope at the cross and work of Jesus on our behalf. He Himself is interceding for us as is the
Holy Spirit and we should take great comfort in this truth. His kindness continues to lead us toward
repentance and draw us near to Him again.
May we find ourselves so enamored
with God that we have no other choice but to live in freedom. May we follow Jesus to the ends of our blocks
and the ends of the earth in order to share His gospel with the nations. May we all live lives of freedom that cannot
be denied as pointing to a greater power and reality than ourselves. May we all live barefoot lives.
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