Friday the 27th

Galatians 5: 13-14

 

¹³You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. ¹⁴The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." ¹⁵If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

 

Freedom is a wonderful thing. As one living in the closest thing to a free country in the world we can all appreciate that concept. But just as Paul warned so long ago, we too must be very aware of what we are doing with that freedom. Are we using our freedom to serve one another, or are we using it to enslave each other? We love being free, but so often that freedom is obtained at the expense of others. No I am not talking about our Government, I am talking about in our personal lives. We get the concept of freedom, as it applies to us, but we fall short of extending that freedom to others. We have no problem doing what we want to do, but seem to become quite perturbed when others fall outside of our neat little box we have labeled freedom. We should love one another not because we are all exactly alike, but because we are not! The Lord does not want or need drones; it is our individuality that allows us to become the living body of Christ. We cannot all be the hands, or the head. That means the each of us will function a little differently. We all serve the same God, we all live to follow in the footsteps of Christ, just because one person might be a little different than you does not mean that you get to beat them into conformity. We should each examine ourselves first, then look to others. If we are all on the same path, then we should rejoice and support each other’s uniqueness, not pick and back bite at each other. If we are spending our time hitting on each other, then we are wasting time that could be used to spread the word of the Lord. So let us each strive to love each other, flaws and all.

 

Peace,

 

Brian