Your Freedom is Not an Excuse for Sin
Galatians 5:13-15 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
Whenever you hear some guy like me talking about the freedom that you have in Jesus Christ, it’s very easy to get the wrong idea.
Yes, through Jesus we have been set free from the obligation to follow a bunch of rules, the way God’s people had to in Old Testament times. The check list of 613 do’s and don’t’s in the Old Testament law doesn’t apply to you or me. That’s great news, because neither you or I are all that good at keeping a bunch of rules anyway.
But at the same time, that freedom that we have in Jesus, isn’t our excuse to go out and live the life of Reilly. It’s not our excuse to say, well I can do anything that I want. You start using your newfound freedom in Christ that way, and any sense that you may have had of ‘freedom’ evaporates just about as quickly as the steam coming off a hot cup of coffee.
It’s there one minute and gone the next. That’s what happens to the joy we get from our sense of freedom, if we start using it to do the wrong thing.
Galatians 5:13-15 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
It’s a good point. Freedom doesn’t really become freedom, until you and I use it to love others.
Can I tell you, one of the greatest revelations that I had when I became a Christian twenty something years ago, is that serving other people in love, using your gifts and abilities to bless others in love – that’s where the freedom is. That’s where the contentment is. That’s where the joy is.
I always thought it came from getting the things I wanted … no wonder, in that old life, I never found what I was looking for.
Do yourself a favour. Don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do the wrong thing. That attitude – “Oh, it’s okay, God’s going to forgive me anyway” will rob you of your freedom quicker than I can say Jack Robinson. So,
1 Peter 2:16 As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil.
It’s amazing how we allow the little foxes to come in and spoil the vine. We justify them to ourselves and others … but one day you wake up and not only has the vine stopped bearing fruit, it’s dying.
Don’t squander your freedom.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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