So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free.
Galatians 5:1
We were created to worship and whatever we worship will shape our lives. If we do not worship God, then we will worship other things; usually not idols made of gold but of power, wealth or prestige. Put simply, idolatry is whatever we place at the centre of our lives, defining our choices, desires and experiences.
Of course, worship is not singing. It is priority. You can see what you worship in what you give your energy and attention to. You see it in your bank account. You see it in your diary. You see it in what moves you and energises you. It is like a record at the centre of your life that everyone can hear and that shapes the tone of every room you enter.
The terrible problem is that all idolatry leads to slavery and death. We were made to be like small mirrors reflecting God’s goodness to the world and reflecting the praises of creation back to God. However, when we trade creator for creation, we reflect a lesser glory to the world, rather than the goodness of God. We stop reflecting light and instead find the world darker. Our lives become wrapped up in other things. Identity, relationships, appetites, ambitions, career, money, sex, you name it. The cost is darkness.
Paul says in Galatians 5:13 ‘But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.’ A more accurate translation would say, don’t use your freedom for yourself but rather become a slave for love.
We often think that freedom is the ability to do what we want but that assumes that we have control over our desires. Anyone who has ever fasted or tried to kick a bad habit knows how out of control our desires really are. Paul presents freedom In a different way, he sees is as being able to do what you should and not do what you shouldn’t. The freedom to say no to your desires and to be free to live as you were created to: fully human. To do this, he challenges us to choose the kind of slavery that we want: sacrificial love. Don’t enslave yourself to pride. Don’t enslave yourself to ambition. Don’t enslave yourself to appetites. Rather, look to the Holy Spirit who dwells inside you and place His presence in your life above all things.
You are not chained to your situation, you do not need to be enslaved to your problems, your habits and hang ups don’t need to control you. You can choose love.
What you put in the centre of your life will affect every conversation, every meeting, every room that you walk into.
You won’t always want to choose love but you have the freedom… so use it wisely.
Choose your slavery.
Read the full chapter: Galatians 5
