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Over the July Fourth holiday, as is my custom, I read a book on the founding of our nation. This year’s book was “The 5,000 Year Leap” by Cleon Skousen. It’s an insightful look at the principles employed in the drafting of our constitution. The overriding passion of our founding fathers was to create a government system where citizens could be free from both tyranny and anarchy. As I considered the freedom that we enjoy in this country and the amazing wisdom imparted to our founders in striking a proper balance between those two ends of the political spectrum, I thanked God for giving us a kingdom where true liberty can be experienced and enjoyed.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)
The message of Galatians is that Christ and the promised Holy Spirit have set us free from slavery to the law (tyranny) and the indulgence of our sinful nature (anarchy). Our freedom came at great cost, the blood of our Father’s precious Son. And it has a great purpose. We’ve now been set free and empowered to love as He loves.
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13-14)
The Holy Spirit taught me years ago that Satan’s counterfeit of liberty is independence. Independence may seem like liberty, but it’s not. Why? Independence often expresses itself in indifference which is the opposite of love. Love demands interdependency. We must first and foremost depend on the Holy Spirit who produces the nature and the power of love in us. The fruit of the Spirit is love… (Galatians 5:22) True love is not possible without the Holy Spirit.
Then we must do what we are equipped and empowered by Him to do, love our neighbor as our self. The love of God is not an emotion. It’s a power expressed though action. As such, it cannot find expression in independence. Love demands a giver and a beneficiary. Every soul that we encounter needs to be touched by the love of God in us. They are created to receive His love, and we are recreated to impart it.
Creation’s Founding Father has given us the perfect dominion in which we can be free to do what he desires most of us: to experience His love for us, to love Him back, and to love others. For this purpose He has given us the Holy Spirit who has poured God’s own love into our hearts. And it is for the freedom to love and be loved that Christ has set us free. That’s true liberty!