ABUSE
OF SPIRITUAL LIBERTY!
Rom
8:2
2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and death.
1
Peter 2:16-17
16
As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness,
but as the servants of God.
17
Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
Jude
4
4
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to
this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into
lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Pollster
George Barna claims
that 63 percent of Americans deny the knowability of moral truth, as do 53
percent of evangelicals. Among teenagers, the next generation of leaders, only
8 percent acknowledge that there is moral truth. If there is no moral absolutes
then I am free to practice whatever I please. However, in spite of my wonderful
liberty in Christ, I do not have the liberty to practice what the Bible calls
“lasciviousness.”
Lawlessness,
wantonness and immorality are not my rights even though I may have emerged
from a strict sect or cult into the light of liberty in Christ. Peter
reminds us in First Peter 2:17 that, although we are free from the strictness
of the law, we are still obligated to “Honour all men. Love the brotherhood.
Fear God, and Honour the king.”
Jude
warns us
that there are some who teach that grace permits us to live as we please but
Paul warns us not to take our liberty to a ridiculous degree. “What shall we
say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid.
How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Rom 6:1-2
Charles
Colson, in his book The Faith, asks: “Why does this word truth
breed such animosity? Because rebellious human nature resists truth’s claims.
If something is really true, it must be true not just for the person saying it
but for the person hearing it. And the fact is, we don’t want to obey a higher
authority from any quarter – especially what purports to be from God – for fear
it will impinge upon our personal autonomy.”
Dear Lord, let me be obedient to
your clear commands. Help me to honor all men; love the brotherhood; fear God
and honor the king. AMEN
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