I have had a lot of random thoughts about the idea of "freedom" over the past month or so. The following is merely diving into my mind (which can be a scary place!) and what I have been thinking...
Freedom: Have American Christians made themselves slaves to Freedom?
Our culture has led us to believe we have all of these "rights" and the "freedom" to worship our God without the world interfering...but does this line up with New Testament Christianity? Does this agree with what Jesus taught life for His followers would be like?
Jesus clearly states that if we choose to be a follower of Him we WILL face opposition; we will face trouble, but we have no reason to fear because He has "overcome the world (John 16:33)." I wonder what would happen if, rather than getting all torn up about "our rights" being taken away, we focused on our call to love God and love people. What if rather than focusing on what the world is doing, we focus on fulfilling what God calls us to do and we make disciples?
New Testament freedom does not hinge on politics, it does not hinge on those around us, rather it hinges on what Christ has already done to free us from slavery to sin and idols!
We are free to be the face of God everywhere we go; we are free to show the glory of God on our faces without a veil! (2 Corinthians 3)
We are free from the obligations of the old covenant. (Gal. 5:1)
We are free from the fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15)
We are free from being slaves to sin (Romans 6:17-18; 8:2) and in this freedom we have gained a right...a right to become a slave once again: a slave to righteousness (Romans 6:17-18).
This translates into living in right relationship with God!
What does this new life like?
I believe to see this we need simply to look at Jesus’ call:
"If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23 italics mine)
As I read scripture the freedom that I see Christians possessing is the freedom to die to themselves, which, to me means dying to their "rights."
I am not saying that we should not enjoy our religious freedom, but I am saying that we need to be careful to not allow our religious freedom to get in the way of living out the gospel.
