Meaningful Freedom

As we celebrate Memorial Day weekend, much will be said about the freedoms so many have died defending. Freedom, though, has become a stumbling block for our nation—at least, as we currently define it. We've broadened the idea of civic freedom until it is virtually synonymous with licentiousness. We rebel, loudly, at the idea of anyone limiting us in any way. Each person does what is right in their own eyes.

But limits are not always wrong. Guardrails keep cars from going over cliffs, for example. We all understand that boundaries can be beneficial…but we still push against them when they’re in the way of what we think we want at the moment. Thus the husband or wife betrays a spouse. The businessman starts faking the numbers at work. A desperate young girl ends the life growing inside her. The teenager turns to drugs or alcohol, and the party ends with someone hurt or dead. In each case, what looked like the road to better things ends up being a bitter detour. The guardrails and warning signs were there for a reason.

Ironically, the less we accept restraint from within, the more it is imposed from without. The rejection of individual biblical morality is the leading cause of the growth of state rules and regulation. God, after all, only gave 10 commandments. The more creative we get at breaking those, the more the state has to close the legal loopholes...and punish the offenders.

When we go out of bounds, disaster is a real possibility. This holiday, don’t settle for the watered down version of freedom. Seek the real thing.

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word.