Freedom

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.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. ~ Galatians 5:13-15
Love is not losing freedom. It is sharing freedom with another. ~ Unknown

OK, so Christian Freedom might be one of the hardest things to explain to our non-believing friends.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard people scoff at Christianity because it's "just about a bunch of rules telling you to be good."  Hard to tell that person that Christianity is about Freedom.  
Hard sometimes to remind ourselves it's about freedom!
How do you define Christian freedom? Or do you?
Have you ever thought about it? Wondered about it? Questioned it?
Paul is telling us we are called to freedom.
What does that mean? I mean, in other places he sure has a lot of rules, doesn't he?
Or is it true that we are always a slave to something, and what Paul is calling us to be is a slave to love, rather than the other things we tend to be slaves to.  Things like money, stuff, ego, pride, power, politics, envy, sex, violence, or our jobs.  I'll bet you could think of a few others.
Those are the things that can consume us if we aren't careful.
But being consumed by love?
That's what Paul says we are called to.  That's what God calls us to in Christ. Love.
Consumed by love. Love of self. Love of neighbor. Love of God.
Self-indulgence, Paul says, isn't about love.  And I'm not sure about you, but I inevitably learn that to be true when I do self-indulge or just spend my freedom simply doing what I want; when my desires lead to a hurting of my neighbor (who lets be clear, is everyone!), I end up not really being free at all.
Loving is the kind of thing that just builds on itself. The more you love, the better you feel; the more you love, the better your neighbor feels. And when your neighbor loves you as well, the better our world is.

 The freer our world is.  It's an endless, wonderful cycle.
That is the kind of slave Paul calls us to be.  

Prayer: Lord of freedom, you have called us to live lives of love and service. Help us to see that it is in that love where we find our true selves and truly learn to live.  Amen.

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