Word for the day

Claiming our freedom

“For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)

“For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.” (Galatians 5:13)

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Freedom is a big thing. It will be on our minds this Friday when we celebrate Independence Day. Freedom is precious and necessary for human flourishing. Freedom is also complicated and challenging. Sometimes it’s hard to find or keep. I am writing this between Juneteenth and the Fourth of July. The events commemorated by these U.S. holidays resound with themes of freedom and independence. We need to remember them together. The day when the promise of our freedom was born, and the day that reminds us that to fulfil the promise for all of us takes a lot of time, courage, and struggle. In our case, a civil war aimed at ending slavery, and later the Civil Rights Movement.

 Now we can talk about freedom in many different ways. It is a complicated philosophical concept. It is a debated and argued upon political issue. Each one of us has their own idea of what freedom means for us, and each one of these ideas is probably different. Friedrich Hayek famously noted that “liberty” and “freedom” have probably been the most abused words in recent history, which shows that behind the word freedom, people try to hide many different things, some of which have nothing to do with real freedom.

 Being so close to the 4th of July reminds us of the famous words from the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Liberty, or freedom, is understood here as an unalienable right given to all people by their Creator. This language is legal, speaking about rights, while the Bible uses a language of relationship with God. It is a language of covenant. Language of blessings and commandments. Describing these as gifts from God given to everyone. From both perspectives, we understand that freedom is among the most basic and essential needs for life, like air to breathe or water to drink.

Paul centers his understanding of freedom on Christ. When left unchecked, we pollute our lives with all kinds of waste and poison: greed, jealousy, violence, lies… Stuff the Bible calls sin. A life polluted by sin is not truly free; it is a slow death. In his letter, Paul wrote to the

Galatians an urgent warning that they were in danger of forgetting how they received their freedom, as a pure gift. It is by God’s grace that the pollution is cleaned away, and this process is called forgiveness. Yet, the Galatians, like us, risk forgetting that without God constantly cleansing our lives through forgiveness, there would be no freedom, only a return to slow death. What ultimately saves us isn’t our effort but God and his relationship with us. And  that brings us back to Paul’s second statement: “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.”

What Paul means is that we were given life and freedom and the pursuit of happiness, not just to do with it whatever we want, but to be God’s delight. We were given life and freedom to love God and love each other, simply to be in relationship with God and one another. What keeps us alive is God’s care, God’s love cleans the pollution of sin and sets us free.  That is when our part comes, God wants us to be care, like him. Care about the world and care about each other in the way God cares about us. But this is not just any kind of care; it is the care shown in the life of Jesus Christ, who came not to be served but to serve. And set all people free. No matter who they are. No matter where they live.

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Rev. Tomas Pistora is pastor at Trinity United Presbyterian Church, Kenton.