Don’t Take It Just Because It’s Free

Freedom is a dangerous thing.

For freedom to be a real thing, we have to be able to do what we want to do, even things that are not good for us to be doing. Freedom is a right to act in a way that isn’t what others would have you to do. Sometimes that action is a very dumb thing, maybe even a dangerous thing. Yet if we truly value freedom, we understand that it comes at the cost of allowing things that we probably don’t have to have going on.

That doesn’t mean we have to do those things. In 1 Peter 2:16 we read, “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God”. Freedom may give us the right to act however we want but it doesn’t mean we have to act on that right. Many people in the name of freedom do evil. “You can’t tell me what to do!” they cry assuming that the lack of a prohibition excuses away their actions. You can be within your rights and still be dead wrong.

What we should use our freedom for is to serve God. It might feel good to thumb our nose at authority and claim our freedom to do so. That however isn’t the plan that God has for his followers. Submission, self-sacrifice, putting others ahead of yourself, these are the traits God calls for in his children. We might be free to be selfish, rebellious, and stubborn but we could not do that and still be pleasing to God.

I love that we live in a free land. It is an amazing blessing. However, my freedom doesn’t absolve me from serving my King. Living free doesn’t have to mean living evil.

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