Christian freedom is to live loved
I want to say a few words about freedom. Yes, I’m late to the game. I shoulda posted this on the 4th of July, but I was away from the screen doing 4th of July-like things with family and didn’t get around to it.
However, I hope that Independence Day isn’t so far removed from our memory that this post proves irrelevant. So here we go…
The freedom of a Christian is different than how our modern secular culture views the word ‘freedom’.
In our culture in the US of A, ‘freedom’ is often used in an individualistic way.
I can do what I want.
Don’t tread on me.
(You get the point.)
Now, I want to say… In a sense, there’s nothing wrong with this. Individual freedom is super important. I’m glad that I live in a country that places a high value on individual freedom.
But (yes, you knew this was coming)… This emphasis on individuality when it comes to freedom can easily become toxic and harmful. It can be isolating and it can also be used to justify myself when I do atrocious things to my neighbor.
Yes, God made us free.
Freedom isn’t the root of the problem.
Independence is.
Independence is what happens when Sin latches onto freedom.
In Christianity, we find our freedom in our DEPENDANCE on God.
When we’re stuck in individualistic independence, we are obsessed with self. We are focused on being the ones who are free while those others - those awful people over there - are not. Independence turns freedom into opposition. When Sin grabs onto freedom and creates independence, I fall into tribalism and factions.
In short, I create my own bondage. Just look at the state of the world and you’ll see how widespread this malady is.
What frees us is when we realize this…
God already made us free from the start.
We don’t have to draw those boundaries.
Never did.
Never will.
We can take a big-ole eraser to a lot of those boundary lines right now because they’re not real (according to God) in the first place.1
In Christian Freedom, I am free from self-obsession. I die to that. And as a result, I am free to not take myself so seriously. I am free to be honest about my flaws, limitedness, and insufficiencies. I am free to be humble in my wins. And (the best part), I am free to be a better friend and neighbor because I can be authentically curious and caring about others. This is because I am free from my relationships being about ME.
The life of Christian Freedom is learning how to live loved.
In Christian Freedom, I don’t move through the world in a way that is focused on one-upping others. I don’t help others for the sole purpose of proving to the world that I AM ACTUALLY A GOOD PERSON AND NOT ONE OF ‘THOSE CHRISTIANS’ (okay, maybe a little). I don’t have a conversation with a friend while being stuck in prove-my-worth-to-them mode.2
No… In Christ, I’m free.
The old false self that was self-obsessed and combative is… Dead. And in its place, my True Self - my Christ Identity - is arisen.
Learning to live in the freedom that we already have in Jesus is like learning to speak a new language.
The life of Christian Freedom is learning how to live loved.
(Go ahead and read that again.)
This is why we go to church. Because this takes a long time! It’s the most counter-cultural thing you can do and it takes weekly practice (for me, at least) to live like we are totally beloved at the core of our being.
It takes a ton of practice to live loved because our modern secularized performance-based culture is so antithetical to this. In our modern culture, we have to prove our worth every instant. We have to strive to become ‘self-sufficient.’ This is freedom in a worldly sense and it’s a false reality. It is the exact opposite of true freedom.
Learning to live like loved people is bizarre. It really is.
We hear, see, speak, and process our life in a whole new way. When we live loved, we can’t help but extend love to our neighbors AND to the one looking back at us in the mirror.
To live loved is to love authentically without it being about… me.
To live loved is to be turned outward towards the world in love. In this place, I can’t help but tend to nature and care for my neighbor. I can’t help but to enjoy playing with my kid, laughing till I cry with friends, and experiencing real intimacy in all of its various forms.
This is the way of Jesus. The way of Christian freedom is the way of full dependence on God. It is the only kind of dependancy that leads to freedom. It is full trust that we are given a love in every holy instant that we can never earn and can never lose. It gives us the freedom to be okay with our interdependence as humans. Yes, we need each other and this is okay!!
Friends, our freedom is not at stake. Ever. That’s a done deal. In Jesus, it is truly FINISHED. We have Ultimate freedom to love ourselves and our neighbor. This is never at stake.
What’s at stake is our ENJOYMENT of that freedom. What’s at stake is helping our neighbors enjoy their freedom as well. This is what Christian formation is about. Helping each other live loved and enjoy the belovedness we’ve always had.
Grace and Godspeed,
Jonas
Now, of course, we live as a limited human with other limited humans, so sometimes it is healthy and good to draw boundaries. Some boundaries are helpful in our flawed world. But I think we should take a good discerning look beforehand. Because I’d say that most of our boundaries and borders are manifestations of our false selves and our illusory collective fear.
Of course, God can work with all of these things.