"Enslaved by Freedom!"

The Apostle Paul was no stranger to plenty and certainly no stranger to want.  He writes a piece that suggests how one should live out his faith. It is in these various circumstances that he finds contentment.  Such contentment then gives him freedom.  He writes,

"Not that I speak of want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.  I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need..  I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:11-13).

There is one thing that this man understood and it was and continues to be what allows the Christian to enjoy contentment and comfort in the most dire of circumstances.  It is this "God is God and I am not!"

How can this be?  It is all in building a trust relationship with the Heavenly Father.  Paul understood that point quite clearly and in fact such trust underpins much of what he writes about.  He understood that in that trust relationship he was a slave to Jesus--he had freely made the choice to be in a slave-master relationship with God!.  Here is this very trained and accomplished man with accolades beyond number who counts it all as "refuse" and assumes the position of a slave.

While many have chosen to employ the word servant in order to attempt to take the sting out of the original word, however translated or mistranslated it is, in the original the word is "slave." The interesting point is that everyone is a slave to someone or something.  One cannot be a slave unless one has a Master.  Such being so, one must choose carefully one's master whether it be Jesus Christ, the insatiable self, or the evil one.

So it was that the Apostle, vested with great power and authority in the first century church, still understood that he was but a slave--a love slave under the tutelage and direction of his Master, the Lord, Jesus Christ.  It is from that perspective that he sets the example not just for Christians of his day but for every Christian who has named Jesus as his Master!

People of that day unlike we in the west today, would understand the meaning of this since a high percentage of the Roman economy and culture was based in the owning of slaves.  Within that population there were those who chose to be permanently attached to their master and as such never sought freedom.  They freely gave themselves most often it was to a benevolent master.  What a picture of the Christian's relationship with Christ.

Therefore, once one is born again it is into the relationship with Jesus Christ.  As noted then one is to becomes a slave with Christ as the benevolent Master.  So it is that one would sell himself into slavery with Christ thus we might well say, Jesus is Lord and Master, I am not!

Jesus Christ does not demand that anyone enter this relationship.  In fact, if it is not a relationship entered freely and without reservation, no Christian relationship exists.  But here is the key.  If one chooses to be a slave of Christ, he then chooses a life style of obedient service.  Some years ago the USAF had three core values.  "Service before self,  Integrity, and Excellence in all we do."  What great core values for the slave of the Lord.


However, if one does not become a slave of Christ, Jesus it is very likely that he will become a slave of another.  It begins with being enslaved to self and self gratification.  Even those who are altruistic in effort when quarried will often respond with "Serving makes me feel so good."

However noble its beginnings, without Christ such slavery spirals downward into bondage and other forms of incorrect enslavement.  These are not without spiritual elements and thus one become enslaved to the Kingdom of Darkness and to its malevolent master, Satan.

In other words, one is either knowingly a slave of the benevolent Christ or one tacitly is enslaved to self leading to one's enslavement by the malevolent evil one.  Either way such slavery shapes one's life-style.  Such brings changes in thinking--both content and process.  Changes in thinking then brings about changes in attitudes.  Relationships are scaled up or down according to whose slave one might be.  The list goes on and on as to the effects upon the slave.

The notion that to come to faith in Christ and to enter such relationships as He has designed is to lose one's freedom is in fact not true.  It is the one who demands his own way and then becomes enslaved to that way that loses his freedom.  Said another way, in giving one's self to Christ Jesus and then living out life in the power of His resurrection grants true freedom--freedom from bondage, oppression, etc.  Freedom to contentment, faith, trust, and confidence in God.  It is these latter things that once established in one's life grant freedom no matter the circumstances in which one finds himself.