Global Bean, June 5 2009
I bought a cat the other day. Why? I don't know. I wanted a pet but was looking for a fish or a rabbit. Then I saw this cat alone in it's cage with a price tag for 25 bucks! The lady told me it is a good house cat. So I bought it, the sales lady didn't have a box for me for she gave me a leash and I walked it out of there like a dog. Maybe I bought the cat because I felt sorry for it, just sitting there locked in a cage longing to be free. I was locked up in a cage once, all of us were one time locked up in a cage of sin looking for someone to set us free... to save us. I freed my cat and Jesus freed us. We are no longer in bondage.
“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”- Galatians 5:1
We don't free ourselves. Freedom is a gift given by Jesus and received by faith. When we try to do our own thing trying to free ourselves we just become our own salves again to bondage. To stand firm means that it takes effort to stay away from being locked up again, because we can be decieved.
Paul makes his point in verse 13 about freedom and gives a warning.
“For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”- Galatians 5:13
The idea here is we will just go out and sin as we please and then say to God “forgive me” and go out and do it again. This attitude is wrong!! We can take the freedom that Jesus gave us and use it for our selfish needs to please ourselves at the expensive of others! But when we love one another we can conquer the flesh by getting out and serving.
We are warned against taking this freedom that we have in Jesus as an excuse for sin. We use our freedom to show the kind of love and respect that Peter says.
“Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God”-1 Peter 2:16
I don't have the right to go out and rob a bank and say “God wills it” to get money for preaching school. We are free but still have to submit to authority of man. As long submission does not conflict with God's law. Freedom isn't a license to do as we please. We aren't slaves to the world, that we have to go along with what they are doing. We can still honor someone we disagree with. We can honor them, but we don't have to go along with any of their evil acts. And remember our first allegiance is to God. Now time to see what my bi-polar cat is doing.
Shalom
Hutch
