True Freedom is Found in God’s Love
Dec 1, 2015 1265
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36).
Love stands in stark contrast to coercion and force. It is only self-serving, corrupt love that expresses itself in coercion. There is an endless list of bad behaviours resulting from corrupt notions of love, with devastating consequences ranging from child and spousal abuse to oppressive rule and atrocities of wars. God does not force his love on us, or force us to love him – “for freedom Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1).
In Christ we are offered the greatest freedom ever. It’s sad that very few know this. Sadder still is the reality that so many Christians who confess Christ use bullying, coercive and stand-over means to enforce obedience to their own creed whether at church or at home.
God is absolutely not into conscripts nor is He in need of shackled slaves labouring under duress. He has no use of chain gangs moved to action by cracking whips and belligerent threats. In fact you can’t even join the ranks of Christ’s followers unless you enter via the gate called ‘freedom’. Freedom comes via the lineage of faith in God’s promise that He and He alone is our Saviour. There is no other gate to enter the Shepherd’s fold than through Christ.
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love (Gal. 5:13).
There is an important principle at work here: the God who made us in His image is not going to trample on this very image in us by the way He relates to us, and by the way He wants us to relate to him. He created us because He loves us and because He wants a relationship with us based on love.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…” This then becomes the basis for how we relate to one another, ”Love your neighbour as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
Bilyana De Soto
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