How free do we want to be? It’s not the religious rules that set us free. Freedom comes in a life-changing relationship with Jesus. We have been set free! More than free to live as we please. Free to live as God intended.
And as we are set free in Jesus, we are encouraged not to get tangled up all over again. Never forget that sin doesn’t have any more power over us than what we allow it to have. Sin cannot sneak up on us in the middle of the night and hog tie us back into bondage. The only way we can get tangled up in sin after being set free by Jesus is by wandering away from Jesus and back into bad choices.
The Bible also encourages us not to use our freedom as an excuse for bad choices, but instead to use our freedom to serve one another. Jesus said everything in the Bible can be reduced to this: love one another as you love yourself. And so, with the same loving care we offer to our own needs, we graciously, generously, and even sacrificially at times, offer the same level of loving care to our own neighbor.
As we celebrate Independence Day and the freedom of our nation, let’s celebrate even more the freedom that is ours as we look, live, and love like Jesus.