Proverbs 27:17

Proverbs 27:17

Sunday, December 18, 2022

Jude 1:4 (Daily Verse and Comment)

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  Jude 1:4

(4) For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. 

  2 Peter 2:19

(19) While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 
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The 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant surmised, "Freedom is the birthright of man; it belongs to him by right of his humanity, in so far as this consists with every other person's freedom."

It is ironic that while many people in the United States feel a sense of increased "freedom" in areas of personal immorality and unethical behaviors, their civil freedoms have been steadily eroding all around them. Laws are passed every day by lawmakers that restrict the freedom of movement and activity we have so long enjoyed and taken for granted. Many of these laws trample our constitutional rights as citizens of the United States. Unrealized is the fact that this loss of physical freedom is a reflection of the willful disregard for the laws of God.

In his early-20th-century book, The Civilized Mind, Lynn Harold Hough wrote this insightful statement,

The escape from the Ten Commandments through violating them has never kept its promise of giving a new freedom. The experience is like the attempt to escape from the law of gravitation by defying it. The result is likely to be at least a bad fall. The philosophy of license is really a network of clever lies. The apostles of license are all the while promising that which they cannot give. You cannot become free physically by defying the laws of nature. And you cannot become free morally by defying the laws of ethics.

Is it wise to give the government heavier chains to restrict freedom? At what point do these "benevolent" chains become the chains of slavery to an unholy tyrant? The answer is the point at which a nation and its leadership reject the instruction of a righteous, benevolent God. Only God can guarantee liberty. It is not enough to say we are Christians; we have to live as Christ lived.

True Christians can take comfort in this: The laws of God and the freedom they guarantee stand solidly and immutably in place for those whose thoughts and actions are based on love. Not even the conspiring governments of this world can destroy that.

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! (Galatians 5:13-15)

Our true freedom is not in the protections and guarantees of any earthly government but in the liberty assured by God Himself to those who live their lives in benevolent service to one another.

— Martin G. Collins

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