We thank God for freedom. As we should. We thank veterans for sacrificing to secure and maintain our freedom. As we should. And every year on the fourth day of July, we stop, celebrate, remember, feast, and blow stuff up. As we should.
But what should we do about our freedom on the other 364 days of the year?
Evangelical Christians celebrated with extra-wide smiles this week as the Supreme Court upheld our cherished freedom apply to our religious beliefs to all of life, including our businesses. But how will we use our freedoms?
If we thank God for our political, economic and religious freedoms, maybe we should ask him what he wants us to do with them! Then again, maybe he has already told us. In the short letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul argues that the Christian life is one of freedom, not rules. But after Paul made a great case for spiritual freedom, he warned his friends against the human tendency to use freedom for selfish purposes. He writes, "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." (Galatians 5:13 (NIV)) I realize, of course, that he is not speaking of the political freedoms guaranteed by the documents written by Benjamin Franklin and friends. But the warning aptly applies. There is great temptation to abuse any kind of freedom, to use it for our own self-indulgent purposes.
In the light of the Supreme Court's ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, we Christians have a choice. We can use our freedom to keep more for ourselves or to give more to others. We can use our freedom to blast our opinions or to speak speak more often about Jesus. We can use our freedom to serve others or to serve ourselves. We can raise our standard of living, or help others to raise theirs. What if the world around us saw us leveraging our freedom for the benefit of others? What if we could re-shape the American dream from "freedom to get more" to "freedom to give more?"
By the way, this theme is found throughout the Bible. When God blesses, he expects us to share the blessings. Unshared blessings quickly dry up. When the Israelites wondered what happened to the blessings of God, he sent prophets. One prophet observed their self-indulgent lifestyles, evidenced by furniture upgrades, wine, fine cuisine and fancy lotion, and then he prophesied exile - the ultimate loss of freedom. (Check out Amos 6:1-7)
The purpose of freedom is to serve others humbly in love. Having celebrated our freedom, how should we live? Serve. Give. Go. Worship. (By the way, Jesus told us numerous times that this kind of live is also the most enjoyable.)
1 comment:
Well written Jason, I always enjoy seeing your thought processes through you words. Freedom is not a right as much as a responsibility. Especially in this vein. God by way of Jesus gave us a freedom from the price of our sins, that freedom came with a mission and thus a responsibility to carry out said mission. It was essentially go tell the world about your freedom and where it came from, so that they too might gain this freedom. Freedom is like a climate in which you can grow and prosper in many ways, just don't keep it to yourself, it must be shared as it was shared with you.
The greater the blessing the greater the responsibility and I an not just talking about 10%. The mission is to spread the wealth of the knowledge of God's grace, it is not our mission to make anyone believe anything we believe, that is God's job, we are to be examples of his works, display models if you will. Once you go beyond that and try to impose, that freedom thing is inhibited. Simple but not.
Post a Comment