Daily Devotion

Any great Christian doctrine can be perverted into an excuse for evil. There is no doctrine so easy to pervert as that of Christian freedom. The doctrine of the love of God can be sentimentalized into an excuse for neglecting life in this world. And there is no doctrine as easy to pervert as that of Christian freedom.

 

We may put it this way. Christian freedom is always conditioned by Christian responsibility. Christian responsibility is always conditioned by Christian love. Christian love is a reflection of God’s love. Christian liberty can rightly be summed up in Augustine’s memorable phrase, “Love God, and do what you like.”

The Christian is free because he is the slave of God, but no one is free who is not a slave of God.

 

The great central truth in Christianity is that of community. The Christian is not an isolated unit; he is a member of a community and within that community, his freedom operates. Christian freedom is the freedom to serve. Only in Christ is a person so freed from self and sin that they can become as good as they ought to be. Freedom comes when a person receives Jesus as King of their heart and Lord of their heart.