Serving in Our Freedom

Galatians 5:13

 “For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love” (NLT)

We, as Christians, have two types of freedom; the freedom from our chains and the freedom of choice. We are free from our chains because of Christ, yet many times we pick up and chain ourselves back to our sin because we have the freedom to do so. We are “called to live in freedom” in Christ but our freedom of choice allows us to stray away from God’s plan and calling in our lives.

I grew up in a church family and am a pastor’s kid. I grew up going to church on Sundays and going to youth group on Wednesdays. I knew about God’s freedom that He had for men and had accepted it many times, but would give it up. In other words, I would give up everything and become free in Christ on Sundays and Wednesdays, but then would turn back to pleasing my flesh on the other five days of the week. I thought I was free in Christ because I was a “good Christian” that went to church more than the average person and gave Him my everything when I went, but I was all wrong. You see, I had freedom in Christ but I wasn’t honoring Him in my freedom of choice. I wouldn’t do anything considered “bad” but I used my freedom to “satisfy (my) sinful nature”.

We are commanded to love another various times throughout the Bible, but Paul here takes it a step further by saying “use your freedom to serve one another in love”. It is achievable for us to love one another by looking at everyone in a good light, but it is difficult to use our freedom to do so. On our free time we so often please our flesh and not serve one another out of love.

Today I am going to use my freedom to serve Julio during my free time to put what I’ve learned into practice.