“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1. Freedom, it is something that everyone wants to experience. We get progressive stages of freedom as we get older, from the freedom of getting a driver license to the freedom of deciding the course of your life. We enjoy freedom. As Galatians 5:1 says we have been set free by Christ’s work on the cross and we can experience freedom in every area of our life. What type of freedom is this? It is freedom to be holy. It is not just freedom to now do whatever we like.
In 1 Corinthians Paul is addressing the believers who are using their new found freedom in Christ to do whatever they want. He writes to them saying, “‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say—but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’—but not everything is constructive.” Steven Olford describes the liberty in Christ this way “Liberty in the Biblical sense is not the license to do what you want; it is the power to do what we ought.” I know many of you want to experience freedom in your lives. You read these verses and hear quotes like this, but you do not feel like you have freedom. You may feel in bondage to sin or maybe it is just your daily routine and you do not feel the Spirit of God guiding your interactions with others, thoughts, and actions. No matter what it is you want to experience freedom.
I believe the reason so many Christians are not experiencing freedom in their lives is because they are not fleeing. They are not fleeing from what has them in bondage. Overcoming sin is a process and there are two very important parts. The first part is praying for deliverance. We see this when the Lord was teaching the disciples to pray. He tells them to pray “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” God is the only one who can deliver us. However, we still have a role. The second part is that we must have a fleeing mindset. We live in a culture where fleeing is looked down on. We are afraid people will think we are cowards and weak. We desire to look tough as we try to battle sin head on. Stop caring about how it will look to others and only care about what is pleasing to God. 1 Timothy 6:11 says “But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” Drop you ego and flee!
During the Civil War our nation was divided in half and at war with each other. The war came about for many reasons, but one of the major reasons was over the issue of slavery. During the war the slaves in the south knew that if they could make it into one of the states that was in the north they would be free. They would be protected and what not be sent back to their slavery. However, in order to do this they had to escape. They had to flee from their place of bondage. They had to leave the comfort of their familiar homes and everyday routines in order to reach freedom. It would be a long journey and very hard at times but at the end awaited freedom. Fleeing must occur if there is to be freedom. I believe too many Christians are comfortable where they are at in their sin and they don’t want to put in any effort to experience freedom. Fleeing is an active process that involves awareness and discernment.
In the movie “The Bourne Identity” the main character is being chased for most of the movie. At one point in the movie he tells the person that he is with that whenever he goes into a building he automatically locates the quickest escapes in case his pursues catch up to him. This is the mindset we need to have. We must be constantly aware and ready to flee. 2 Timothy 2:22 says “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” We have been set free and that should cause us to give thanks and praise God, and we should use our freedom to pursue holiness.
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