Wasted Freedom
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5:1)
" 'Everything is permissible'—but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible'—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others." (1 Corinthians 10:23-24)
Happy 4th of July! Hope you're planning to do something special to celebrate your freedom today. We're borrowing the theme of this weekend to talk about spiritual freedom. Yesterday, we saw that Jesus died to free us from the power of sin. He also freed us from having to follow every rule and regulation of God's Old Testament Law by keeping it all perfectly Himself before He died.
Today's two verses point out two ways to waste our freedom in Christ. First, we can refuse to accept our freedom from the Law. We can refuse to see ourselves as forgiven people, loved by our Father, with no risk of losing His acceptance. We can live with endless guilt for every misstep. We can believe that our salvation still depends on our obedience to the rules list and not our faith in Jesus. That's not freedom.
Or we can waste our freedom in the opposite direction. How? By using it as an excuse to live the most selfish lives possible, doing only what we want when we want to do it with whom we want to get whatever rush or satisfaction we crave. We can forget we have been freed from having to serve ourselves and ignore that we now have the power to do real selfless good to each other.
Everything on the menu is available, but not everything on the menu is worth eating.
Think: If you think of freedom as a road, are you more likely to slide into the ditch of legalism or selfishness? What can you do about that?
Pray: Ask God to give you the courage and boldness to live with real freedom from both legalism and selfish indulgence.
Do: Watch something go boom.
" 'Everything is permissible'—but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible'—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others." (1 Corinthians 10:23-24)
Happy 4th of July! Hope you're planning to do something special to celebrate your freedom today. We're borrowing the theme of this weekend to talk about spiritual freedom. Yesterday, we saw that Jesus died to free us from the power of sin. He also freed us from having to follow every rule and regulation of God's Old Testament Law by keeping it all perfectly Himself before He died.
Today's two verses point out two ways to waste our freedom in Christ. First, we can refuse to accept our freedom from the Law. We can refuse to see ourselves as forgiven people, loved by our Father, with no risk of losing His acceptance. We can live with endless guilt for every misstep. We can believe that our salvation still depends on our obedience to the rules list and not our faith in Jesus. That's not freedom.
Or we can waste our freedom in the opposite direction. How? By using it as an excuse to live the most selfish lives possible, doing only what we want when we want to do it with whom we want to get whatever rush or satisfaction we crave. We can forget we have been freed from having to serve ourselves and ignore that we now have the power to do real selfless good to each other.
Everything on the menu is available, but not everything on the menu is worth eating.
Think: If you think of freedom as a road, are you more likely to slide into the ditch of legalism or selfishness? What can you do about that?
Pray: Ask God to give you the courage and boldness to live with real freedom from both legalism and selfish indulgence.
Do: Watch something go boom.
posted by Christopher Lyon at
1:26 AM
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