Set Free to Serve

Today we celebrate freedom. And it is worth celebrating — the freedom to live where we choose, to worship as we like, to speak our minds, to dream our own dreams. These are real gifts, hard won and not to be taken for granted.

But the Apostle Paul raises a question worth some reflection: what is freedom for?

He writes to the churches in Galatia: "You were called to freedom. Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence — but through love, become slaves to one another." (Galatians 5:13)

Use your freedom to serve others. That sounds like a paradox. But Paul had seen what happened when people used their freedom only for themselves — the pride, the rivalry, the greed, the slow shrinking of a life turned entirely inward. And he had seen the alternative. Something about genuine, self-giving love robs those forces of their power.

The writer Eugene Peterson reflected on this and said: "The more we exercise our freedom on behalf of others, the more free we are to live deeply and fully. That's how freedom grows. We begin to live out of a different power."

A different power. Not willpower or the keeping of rules — but something that moves through us when we stop protecting our own interests and start pouring ourselves out for others.

We were not set free — as followers of Christ — simply to live however we liked. We were set free so that we could love without restraint. So that nothing could hold us back from giving ourselves away.

That is a life worth living. That is what freedom is for.

Prayer: Loving God, on this day of celebration, we give thanks for the freedoms we enjoy. And we ask that you would free us from the smallness of living only for ourselves. Teach us to use our freedom the way you intended — in service, in love, in generosity toward others. We know that to be our highest calling; through Jesus Christ. Amen.

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