Freedom

As we head into Independence Day weekend, freedom is at the forefront of our minds. But is the kind of freedom we celebrate on the Fourth of July the same as the freedom we have in Christ?


Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

Discussion about the freedom we enjoy as Americans often centers on individual freedoms. At our better moments, we celebrate the ideals of our Bill of Rights - that in this country, citizens are free to practice their own religion, to protest and speak out, to receive equal treatment under the law, and so forth.

At other times, though, a celebration of individual freedoms devolves into "you can't tell me what to do" because "it's a free country." This, in itself, is troubling, and even more so as we are daily confronted by the ways freedom is just an illusion for so many, as well as by the legacy of our founding documents, which privileged, almost exclusively, the rights and liberty of white, property-owning men. (This is a much larger conversation, certainly!)

For Christians, though, freedom is not primarily about the individual. Instead, the freedom we have in Christ is always focused outward:

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. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:13-14

The freedom we experience in and through Christ is both a freedom from and a freedom for. It is freedom from death as the enemy; freedom from sin as the ultimate power in our lives; freedom from feeling that we have to earn God’s grace and favor. 

This freedom is also freedom for. God strengthens and empowers us to love and serve God by loving and serving our neighbor. We are free to seek the neighbor’s good, not just protect or guard ourselves and our wants. We are free to be in relationship with God and with one another in a spirit of abundance, rather than in competition with one another because of a perception of scarcity. 

How might we live out our freedom in Christ these days? Freed in Christ to love our neighbor, we care for one another's health and safety by gathering for worship in spirit and not in body, even though we miss being together. Freed in Christ to love our neighbor, we take steps to protect essential workers, even when it inconveniences us. Freed in Christ to love our neighbor, we wear a face mask when we go out, even when it's uncomfortable - not because it protects us, but because it protects others. 

We give thanks for the freedom we have in Christ, for the gift of community, and for those who embody love of neighbor in their words and actions, even at great personal cost.



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