Galatians 5:13: "For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."
Christianity exalts freedom, claiming utter freedom in Christ. But this freedom, this liberty is a liberty not merely from that which enslaves (sin). This freedom is also to that which is God (love). However, there is a tendency to equate freedom with the ability to do whatever one desires at any feasible time. This is a deformed caricature of freedom, more aligned with novel-Americanism than the Word of God.
For what good is freedom if it is only used to isolate and individualize personal egos? Instead, freedom is purposed for love, for devoting one another to more intimate fellowship. Yet, as asserted by this verse, freedom is not a gift, as it were, it is a calling. We would do well, then, to treat it as such and to live as such and to understand our freedom not as mere license for flesh and sin but as a privilege calling us obedience and devotion.
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