I am pretty well finished writing another book. The topic this time is the meaning of freedom from a Biblical perspective.
One of the things I’ve been wrestling with is the fact my freedom is restricted by the people around me. You could say “Welcome to the pandemic!” But it’s more the case that the pandemic has provided an opportunity to find out something the Bible teaches but we often ignore because we don’t like it.
Paul tells us that the law is fulfilled in loving our neighbour. We seldom reflect on the fact that love, mercy and forgiveness are like golden threads running through all the laws God gave Israel. The whole sacrificial system was about God forgiving us when we failed to keep his laws. It was a massive prophetic foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. When you strip out the sacrificial and ceremonial aspects of the law, you are left with the moral dimension. And here the command to love and put one’s neighbour ahead of oneself is everywhere, right down to keeping honest weights and not moving your neighbour’s boundary stone.
Biblical truth is very uncomfortable. I am not free to do what I want with my life. I am accountable to God first and foremost. That part is fairly easy to grasp, though none of us work it out perfectly. But the rubber really hits the road in God’s requirement to love those around us.
The first place that has to be worked out is in church. The body of Christ is designed to be the most healthy relational network on earth, and when it works properly it’s a magnificent advertisement for Christ and his kingdom. The most depressing thing to me is not the daily news, it’s when I hear Christians are fighting with each other. What hope is there for us to love and win the lost when we can’t even make small sacrifices for one another?
The pandemic has thrown the issue of freedom into very sharp relief for all of us. Christians are followers of the One who laid all his rights down on our behalf. When the primary reason Christians come into the news is when they’re advocating for their own rights, something has gone badly wrong. Your freedom in Christ is in your relationship with him, not in its outward exercise in the world. Nothing can take that freedom away from you.
We can debate various restrictions till the cows come home. It’s the attitude of our hearts that matters. Paul told the stronger believers in Rome they had to be willing to give up eating meat, even though there was nothing wrong with it, if by so doing they kept others from harm. I think the last eighteen months have provided a great opportunity for the Holy Spirit to apply that principle to us in our own personal contexts.
At least in the western world, we could hardly describe ourselves as persecuted, but just remember that the greatest opportunity for spiritual awakening often comes when Christians respond in love and mercy to their outward freedoms being restricted.
After all, that’s what our whole faith is founded on.
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AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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