People clamor for freedom. There are movements erupting all over the world in search for it. Some live in places where political freedom can be taken for granted. For others, it’s an active struggle for basic degrees of safety and normalcy. Political freedom is a gift from God and a blessing for all people who enjoy its fruits.

 

But Scripture talks about an even deeper freedom available to God’s family. It is SPIRITUAL freedom and freedom of will that can operate in ANY circumstance, even the most outwardly constrained. Scripture tells us “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” So freedom is a chief trait of one born anew in Jesus, and there is a responsibility we have in ensuring it is not stolen from us.

 

But what if our circumstances directly oppose freedom? Well, consider this. In Ephesians 6 Paul gives counsel to bondservants – indentured servants of that day:

 

“Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart…”

 

If we think we have slave-drivers as bosses, we know nothing compared to the bondservants of Paul’s day. In social standing, they were the lowest rung. They totally answered to their masters and were by contract owned by them. Freedom was the last thing one thought about in association with bondservants.

 

Now, to be clear, in another passage Paul tells bonservants to obtain freedom if they can, so there is no advocacy of the condition. BUT, there is counsel on how to operate victoriously DESPITE the condition.

 

How? By owning the opportunity to serve the master (substitute “boss”) by CHOICE and in sincerity of heart in the fear of God. By that switch of attitude, a person no longer acts because he is forced to, but because he CHOOSES to. And soon as someone does what he CHOOSES to do, he is no longer acting slavishly, but with all the dignity, honor and beauty of a free child of God. Is such a choice easy? By no means, but where there is impossibility, there is also grace to overcome that impossibility. Our bosses may be tough, and we may hate how they treat us, but we can, even still, have the love of God for them, and operate as free individuals under their authority.

 

The beauty of spiritual freedom is that no one can take it away from us. We can always by grace operate in it. We do so to honor God and serve Him knowing that, in truth, we belong to Him and not to any man.

 

And who knows, maybe our bosses will be touched by our good attitudes and come to a knowledge of God by our testimony. That, my friends, would be sweet vengeance indeed!

 

Blessings,
GodCares.tv