Free Slaves

Galatians 5:13 – “For you have been called to live in freedom - not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love.”

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My generation places a huge value on freedom. We are the product of the Baby Boomers who started the trend, but there is a new movement in the Christian community that celebrates our freedom in Christ more than any generation in history. I have been thinking a lot about our freedom in Christ lately. It was spawned during a discussion we had in our church staff meeting. The discussion really got us nowhere, and we left more confused than we came.

This verse sheds a little light on my personal philosophy of the best way to handle this seeming paradox. My attitude should be that my freedom is primarily to serve others, rather than to do what I wish with things not explicitly condemned in scripture. We live in a world where there are two kinds of people. Some would be encouraged towards God by seeing an active Christian drinking. Others would be turned off by something like that. My response needs to be on a case by case situation, to what would best serve the person I am trying to reach. This is just one passage to applies to this area. I look forward to whatever else the Lord shows me this week on this topic. I feel a topic coming on for tribe this week.