One of the greatest cultural mistakes we have made, and one I’ve talked about previously, is how we have elevated ourselves and our importance to a level it was never meant to be. We have made self fulfilment, self development and self expression as the keys in our lives and anything we perceive that blocks that pathway is evil. And so we protest about our freedom to speak, think and do as we please, because ‘that is our basic human right.’

It’s why for many people the idea that we would serve God seems so difficult. The argument goes something like this;

Why would you give up your freedoms to come under ‘slavery’ of someone who will ask you to do stuff you might not want to?

It’s actually a pretty logical argument when your starting point is based on the belief that you are free when you live fully for yourself. It’s a completely deluded argument when you realise that this starting point is way off base. In the first letter that Paul writes to the Corinthians he is talking to them specifically about sexual immorality but we could apply what he says to many things.

I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything 1 Cor 6:12

Clearly Paul was dealing with the same cultural issues that we are. People were associating freedom with their ability to do what they wanted.

The truth is we cannot know freedom apart form God. Why? Because He is only person in the universe who actually knows what freedom is. We can’t learn freedom any other way because there is no other way to learn it. If we try and learn or exercise our freedom in any other way or through any other thing we will always become enslaved to that thing – it’s always how it works. People who exercise their sexual freedom invariably end up being used or using someone else (not freedom). People who exercise their right to speak their mind without restraint end up squashing or being squashed by someone else (not freedom) – I could go on but I think we get it.

Paul at the end of this section in Scripture says these words – I’ve emphasised the part that jumped out to me.

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN……YOU WERE BOUGHT AT A PRICE

Talk about a statement that will raise a red flag to those who already think that those who follow God are enslaved! God did buy our freedom at a price, He bought it through the life of His only son.

Does that mean that we devote ourselves to Him to pay Him back? No.

Is it a ‘He scratched our back so we should scratch His’ kind of deal? No.

We could never pay Him back, not ever. The scales are always firmly on Gods side, it’s not about that at all. God isn’t a slave master who purchased us from another slave driver so He can work us in His world. God was the one who created us, gave us life, set us up, gave us purpose and the freedom to choose. Through history we used that freedom to enslave ourselves. God saw the mess that we were in and in His mercy choose to buy back something He already owned in order that He could be in relationship with us fully and we could walk in true freedom. That doesn’t sound like the actions of someone who is a dictator or slave master. Even today, after He bought us at such a price, He still doesn’t force us to do this or that, He still allows us to choose, His perfect love does not exert control. That’s freedom.

We don’t find freedom by fighting for our rights, we find it by laying the, down, submitting to God, the only one who is fully just, fully love and fully free.