Freedom part 5
When you're free you can do what you want. But that's only part of it. When you're free... you no longer have to do the things you were in bondage to. No longers slaves. Free. That's what the Spirit of the Lord is all about. Look at 2 Corinthians 3:17 (NLT), "For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Pretty cut and dried and simple. Now let me add my constant Pastor Tom wrinkle. The Spirit of the Lord is the Spirit of love. Because God is love. Where the Spirit of the Lord is... there is love. Where there is love... there is freedom. Now add this to that: "Owe nothing to anyone--except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbro, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law" (Romans 13:8, NLT). We don't owe anybody anything... except love. And I don't think Paul meant that in terms of loving people because you are obligated to. When you feel obligated to do something, you'll do it... but you won't like it. Love is not about forcing yourself to do anything. It's about being free to do what's actually, trully, really in your heart to do. I think Paul was simply saying, "On a human level, the one thing that connects all of us is love." Like, if you're going to do anything for anybody... just love them. And love them in the way THEY need to be loved. Don't try to "love" someone the way you wish you were loved, in the sense of "I like chocolate, so I'm going to give you chocolate because that's what love means to me." Because they might not like chocolate. Build that relationship and that connection with them and find out what love means to THEM, and then love THEM the way it will mean the most to THEM. Love is not about you. It's about receiving and releasing the gift you've been given. If you're "loving" someone in order to get something from them... that's not love. Period. Full stop. Because love is never about getting. Becuase love IS giving. We don't need to get anything, because God has already given us everything we need. He gave us His only begotten Son. He gave us His life--His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life! He gave us His Spirit. The Spirit of His Son that has revealed to US that we ARE His Son(s)! And if you are Son and not a slave, if you are a saint and not a sinner... then you're free. Free FROM the law, and sin, and death... and free TO live and love. Because living and loving are not just connected, they are the same thing. You can't have one without the other and you can't do one without the other. Our freedom from death means freedom to live. No longer do we have to be bound under a fear of death. We have been given eternal life. Absent from the body is present with the Lord. That's enough of a "what happens after my body dies" for me. I don't have to worry about it. I'm free from it. So that means I can enjoy my life while I'm here. I can LIVE while I'm alive. I can enjoy the gift I've been given by giving it away. By sharing it. I'm free from worry. I can cast my cares on Him because He cares for me. I'm free from trying to earn my bread with the sweat of my brow. Jesus sweated great drops of blood and redeemed me from that curse. I'm free to dance. Free to walk in newness of life. I'm free FROM being held back and dragged down by the old, and I'm free TO experience everything that is available to me in the new. We don't even have to let anything hold us back from being who we really are. We are free to be. Free to know and be known. Free to love and be loved. Free to live!