But what have we been freed to?

As for you, my friends, you were called to be free. But don’t let this freedom become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you. Instead, let love make you serve one another. For the whole law is summed up in one commandment: ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself.’   (verses 13, 14)

Read Galatians 5:1-15

After twenty-five years in jail the prisoner was set free. He stood outside the prison, a little bewildered. What did freedom mean? He knew what he’d been freed from – a small cell, the daily routine, the drugs, the violence – but what had he been freed to?

Sometimes I wonder if we’re the same. We know what we’ve been set free from: Satan’s power, sin, the pressures of the society around us. We’ve learnt this in classes and have had it reinforced in many sermons. But what have we been freed to?

St Paul says we’ve been set free to be what we are. We are no longer controlled by the old laws and traditions; Jesus freed us from them on the cross. Instead, we are free to live, free to love and serve God, also by serving each other. We are free to use the power of the Holy Spirit to live the Christian, God-pleasing life. We are free to tum back to God when we stray, knowing we have the forgiveness of sin given us in our baptism. We are freed to forgive as we have been forgiven, free to love as we have been loved.

It’s good to be free-really free.

Father, I’m so grateful that your Son came to set me free. Help me to live in that freedom, rejoicing in all the opportunities it gives me to serve you. Amen.

by Robert Turnbull, in ‘Living Water for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2001)

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