Liberty part 5
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Because where the Spirit of the Lord is... there is love. Let me say it like this, "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). So where the light is... there is no darkness. Because the light causes the dark to flee. Where love is... there is no fear. Because perfect love casts out fear. And if you're not afraid--to love, because you know you ARE loved--then you're not afraid to live. Because to live is to love and to love is live. That's what liberty, or freedom, is really all about. Not freedom TO sin--sin isn't freedom, it's bondage--but freedom FROM sin. I don't think people want to sin--and, again, I believe sin isn't what you do, but what you believe, but it seems like most people use "sin" to define "bad behavior" so let's run with that. I don't think people want to "do bad stuff." I think people are looking for love in all the wrong places and that's when we get into trouble with all of that "bad stuff." And the solution to that problem is NOT, "Do good stuff or else." The solution to the problem of looking for love in all the wrong places is simply to go to the source. To know and believe the love of Christ. And I say, "know and believe," because you can't believe something you don't know. Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God. That's why it's so important to PREACH the gospel. And I love this quote, "Preach the gospel at all times, and if you have to, use words." It's about SHOWING people something different. A more excellent way. The best way to get someone to understand, or accept, or know and believe, that they are loved... is for you to love them. And that's what the Holy Spirit--our love receptor--equips and empowers us to do. We CAN love because we ARE loved. You can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. So if you know (and believe) that you are loved... then you have something you can give. You have received the gift of God--eternal life, knowing the Father and the One whom He sent, living in the context of your true identity as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased--and you can share that gift. It's not, "Now I can do bad stuff and not get in trouble." It's, "Now I don't have to do that bad stuff, because I've found what I was looking for." Trying to earn your bread by the sweat of your brow--trying to make a living--is not what God wants for you. He wants you to experience His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life as He lives it in you and through you and as you! He IS the bread of life that you were trying to earn. He IS the love that you were trying to find. And instead of of making you earn it, or find it, He gave it to you. He reveals it to you, and in you, and through you. So now you are free to stop trying and start resting. Free to BE loved, and to love others with that same love. Free to truly live.