Friday-True Freedom
- Chet Gladkowski
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.
2 Peter 2:19-20
We all want freedom. There’s this ache for freedom somewhere deep down inside of us all. No matter where you go, listen to people all over the world and you’ll hear this message, this plea to be free. What’s the song say?
All the world over, so easy to see!
People everywhere, just wanna be free[1]
Listen, please listen! that's the way it should be
Peace in the valley, people got to be free.
Let’s be really clear. Freedom is not having no rules or laws. Freedom is not doing whatever you want. If there’s no limits of boundaries to what people can do, that’s anarchy. It’s nothing but chaos.
If you think traffic is bad now, just imagine what it would be like if everyone drove with even less thought of the rules of the road. Cars would be all over the place, driving down the middle of the road. On the sidewalk. Across your yard. People could stop and park in the middle of the road. No one would be safe.
And while we see this in real life, the movies give us many examples of how total freedom ends up in disaster. At the end of The Silver Chalice, Simon the Sorcerer comes to the conclusion that he can fly. Caesar even commands Simon to fly. The crowd yells and encourages him to fly. So, he climbs to the top of a tower and steps off into air and falls to his death[2].
If you watch the scene in this movie, it’s easy to see that Simon has lost his mind. As he looks at the crowd below, he really believes that he can fly. But it’s not the truth. He’s delusional. He’s lost control and is living in fantasy.
Whenever we hear someone teaching us about how to live, they can easily be broken down into two groups. People who talk about true freedom and those who promise false freedom. And the false freedom crowd have tied a rope around their necks and made themselves into slaves of evil and wickedness.
As Peter keeps on writing about the false teachers and prophets, he brings us to a fork in the road. We all have a choice about who we are and what we’re going to do. Are we going to follow the false teachers around us, leading us into the same prison? Or are we going to follow our loving creator Heavenly Father that has nothing but the best for us? Are we going to respond to God’s loving kindness by becoming the people he made us to be?
To drive home this idea, Peter says something that almost smacks us right in the face. We are all slaves. The only question is to who or what. Who or what has mastered us. Whatever controls us, we’ve handcuffed ourselves to them and are slaves to it.
Another way to figure this out is to look at our lives and find out what makes us angry. What makes us mad. Once you’ve got your arms around what ticks you off, you’ll have a pointer to what has control over you. We strongly react to what we think is important. What we think is true.
Looking back over the past few days, it’s very clear to me what’s trying to enslave me. Who’s looking to control my thinking. My words, thoughts, actions, and attitudes. You know who it is? It’s me. I want to control everyone and everything because I think I know best. And their purpose is to make me happy.
How do I know this? Because if you were able to watch a YouTube video of my life for a while, you’d see exactly what makes me mad. It’s all those people that stop me from doing what I want to do. Say what I want to say. Be who I want to be.
I can’t explain it, but people that just stop so I can’t get around them, makes me push this anger button inside. When they get to the front of the line after waiting for five minutes, they stare into space and say, “Now, what do I want?” They’ve could have figured that out while standing in line. But nooooo. Why does it seem that I always get behind people like this?
You see, I’ve made myself a slave to my own importance. My schedule and my personal convenience has become my god that I’ve handcuffed myself to. And it’s a really mad boss that brings nothing but frustration and fighting within myself and with everyone around me. If anyone deserved to be frustrated, it has to be Jesus. He was fully God and fully man. Everyone should do whatever he said,l but they didn’t. And what did he do? He prayed for them from the cross while they were yelling and insulting him. Paying for their sins. This is exactly who God is. Our response needs to be one of admitting our wrong and running to Jesus for forgiveness. So, what’s stopping us? Why aren’t we turning away from ourselves and running into his forgiving arms? This is true freedom.
Noodling Questions
List three things that make you mad. Explain each.
Who are the false prophets and teachers around us? What makes them false?
How does following Jesus make you more free?
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