During the Covid-19 restrictions, we saw two very different ideologies emerge.
The first was a willingness to accept that in times of potential high infection, it was necessary to take heed of medical experts and have some community restrictions imposed.
The second was a belief that individual freedom was an inviolable right and being obedient to political leaders was a slippery slope leading to loss of freedom.
Paul tells us that we have been set free in Christ[1]. Freed from the penalty of sin, freed from the oppressive tyranny of a moral law that by our own unredeemed ability we cannot keep.
In the same conversation Paul points out that having been called to freedom, we should not use that freedom to benefit ourselves but, “through love serve one another”[2].
Peter is clear that must we willing to be subject to authorities, not because those authorities are always right but “for the Lord’s sake”. He then adds we are to live as people who are free “as servants of God”.[3]
So, freedom is actually obedience to Christ and serving one another! Freedom is living in the way that we have been designed to live. We exercise our choices in willing and joyful obedience to the Lord who creates, redeems and sustains us for His sake and for the good of other people.
How do we help community members to understand the reality of freedom in Christ and not be conformed to a false understanding of freedom as selfish indulgence?
[1] Galatians 5:1
[2] Galatians 5:13-14
[3] 1 Peter 2:13-16