Don't Tell Me what to Do
I’m FREE.
I can do whatever I want.
I can say whatever I want.
It doesn’t matter who I hurt or what the consequences are… I’m free! So don’t try to tell me what to do.
Is this freedom?
Not really. At least, not the way Jesus talks about freedom in John 8. (Read the full text HERE).
Following Jesus isn’t about restrictions and rules.
Jesus embodied freedom.
To continue in the word… to remain in Jesus is to be truly FREE!
But freedom in Jesus feels different than, “I can do whatever I want.”
Freedom in Jesus is inseparable from the TRUTH. And the truth isn’t simply right words or head knowledge.
TRUTH is JESUS… the revelation of God through:
God’s love,
God’s life,
God’s work,
God’s redemption,
God’s restoration.
There is also a way of talking about living apart from this TRUTH. It’s called sin.
Again, in John 8, Jesus says,
“Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household;”
Sometimes, “COMMIT SIN” immediately conjures whatever my list of “bad behavior” (usually someone else’s) includes. But what if I understood “committing sin” as “The result of MY actions when they depart from God’s love and redemptive work in the world?” That changes things.
When I live in this kind of brokenness, it binds me up. Jesus uses heavy words to describe it. He talks about sin as slavery. And according to Jesus, THE way to remain FREE from the bondage of sin is to stay in/with Jesus.
“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
My attention last week, sadly, was captured by the mass shooting in Maine. According to the Gun Violence Archive, it was the 566th mass shooting in our country this year. According to the same source, there have been 21 more in the handful of days since. Eighteen people died. Thirteen were injured. Countless others were forever harmed by the loss, trauma, and grief of it all.
The shooter was exercising his freedom. He had the freedom to have a gun. But did he exercise his freedom within the TRUTH?
NO!
Just the opposite. The way he exercised his freedom brought about nothing but suffering and death. Somewhere once, I heard these things were the “wages of SIN.”
His exercise of FREEDOM had nothing to do with:
God’s love,
God’s life,
God’s work,
God’s redemption,
God’s restoration.
God’s redemptive work can’t be stopped. God IS renewing ALL THINGS, but things like this can set things back a bit. It will take a lifetime for those closest to this to heal from the trauma and grief inflicted on them by this SINFUL EXERCISE of “freedom”.
FREEDOM AND RUNNING WILD AREN’T THE SAME THING
Freedom isn’t about satisfying my selfish urges or what I can get away with. Running wild always gets someone hurt. It always brings about sin and enslaves me to it.
But, Jesus says in John 8:36,
So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
That is life as a Christ Follower.
I remain WITH Jesus. I remain IN Jesus. I remain FREE… genuinely FREE!
That’s the journey I’m on. That’s the journey we are on together.
God, help me learn to walk in the FREEDOM I have in Jesus.
Teach me to stay at home (to continue) in Jesus.
Show me how to join with Jesus in making all things new.