SET FREE TO LOVE

“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” Galatians 5:13-15.

Freedom! Everybody wants to be free. But free from what? Most people think that freedom means no laws, no restraints, no boundaries, to do as they please. The problem with this kind of so-called “freedom” is that it clashes with everyone else’s freedom and creates the worst kind of chaos.

Imagine driving in a city where there are no traffic rules! Half of the motorists would be dead within the first twenty four hours. How long would it take for drivers to realise that staying alive meant giving way to the next vehicle and being courteous on the road? I live in a country were a certain group in the population thinks that traffic laws do not apply to them. As a result, the accident rate and number of road deaths is very high.

Every human being is born with an internal slave-driver far worse than any rules or regulations. It’s called selfishness. But why is selfishness so destructive? It not only clashes with everyone else’s selfishness; it also causes chaos within a person. Think of the emotional trauma another person’s selfishness causes to you – your home is invaded and your property destroyed or stolen because someone else decided that he wanted what you have. A loved one’s life is taken because a murderer chose to eliminate him or her. And so on.

Then there’s the internal destruction that selfishness does to you. You clash with a friend or a family member; both parties are angry, resentful, and bitter. You believe you are right and so does he or she. Neither will back down. A deep rift grows and you don’t communicate for months or years. How do you feel? Free? At peace? Full of love towards the other person? Humble? No way! You are clogged up with emotional baggage. You can’t sleep at night. You cannot get free of the other person. You are enslaved by your emotions.

These are all the consequences of the worst slave-driver of all. The problem is that trying to obey God’s rules without a new heart and a new nature only makes the slavery to guilt and fear worse. Jesus is the only one who has the power to set us free. He did this, first of all, by getting rid of our sin. He paid our debt so that it could be cancelled and deleted from our record. Then He gave us an insurance policy against our falling short of God’s standards. We are covered by His righteousness. When we fail, He says, “It’s okay. I’ve got you covered!”

That does not mean that we can go off and engage in “freedom” to live as we like because we are covered by the righteousness of Jesus. That would be as foolish as getting involved in as many vehicle accidents as we like because our insurance policy covers us! Collisions with other vehicles are dangerous because we can be seriously injured or killed. Our car will never be the same either. Just as an insurance policy is not a licence to have accidents, so God’s forgiveness and Jesus’ righteousness are not a licence to live as we like.

But, more than that, God changed our hearts. He gave us a new heart and a new nature and, on top of that, He gave us His Spirit – living right inside of us – so that we want to and have the power to live unselfishly.

How can we stay safe on the road? By obeying the traffic laws. How can we stay safe in the kingdom of God? By living within the boundaries of the kingdom. So Paul says, “Don’t go off and sin like crazy just because God has set you free. Use your freedom to care for other people. In this way you will stay free from your slave-drivers. Then you will be safe within the boundaries of God’s kingdom”

True freedom is not experienced by destroying one another but by loving and serving one another. You cannot serve yourself and other people. If you choose to serve yourself, watch out because you are on a downward path to destruction. If you serve others, you will be like Jesus; you will be doing the very thing that destroys the habit of selfishness, just as being generous destroys the habit of being greedy.

You cannot be both. Love, because you have been set free to love.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.