Prisoner part 1
I've been Ranting a lot about freedom lately. How it is not freedom TO sin, but freedom FROM sin. About how it is freedom TO love. To live! Well, for the next few days I want to talk about what Paul referred to himself as. A lot. One example of it is Philemon 1:1, "Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer." Paul. A prisoner of Christ. Kind of flies in the face of our idea of freedom, doesn't it? How can you be a prisoner if you're free? And, really, it comes down to what Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Basically--nobody can serve two masters... but you WILL serve one. Another way to say this is, "Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life" (2 Corinthians 5:14 NLT). And, to me, "either way" simply means that either we know God loves us... and we do everything we do in order to love Him back by loving each other... or we don't know that God loves us... and we do everything we do in order to try to get that love that we desperately want and need, but think we don't have. Because whether we consciously know it or not... everything we do is about love. The issue of life--which is love--flows from the heart. Love is, at the end of the day, the thing that we need most. The thing that we need... only. It's all about love. Either way Christ's love controls us. Because we either know we have it and want to share it, or we think we don't have it and are desperate to get it by any means necessary. So, in a very real way, we are prisoners to love. Prisoners of Christ. And (maybe tomorrow, we'll see) I want to really hone in on what it means to love your master. To be a love slave. But we'll get there. Today I want to lay the foundation. Because people think freedom is doing whatever they want without consequences. They think that's what "greasy grace" is all about. But I'm here to tell you that every action has consequences. Be they good, bad, or ugly. Like I always say: If you cheat on your spouse, God won't punish you. But your spouse probably will. Grace is not about getting away with stuff. Grace is the the unmerited favor of God in your life. Grace is getting what you don't "deserve." And mercy is NOT getting what you do "deserve." And maturity is figuring out that "deserve" doesn't really have anything to do with it. And I always like to say this: If "getting away with" something you're not supposed to be doing is your goal... you need a new goal. If the thing you're worried about most is not getting in trouble--take a page from my son's book and don't do the things that will get you in trouble! Focus on what is really important. Focus on what really matters. Embrace the truth that God is love and He loves you, and let everything else flow from there. That, friends, is how to identify yourself as, and live as, a prisoner of Christ. It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. It's the best thing!