Galatians 5:13 “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”
When my daughter Bethany was around 8 years-old, she wanted to go along with my mother-in-law and me to a women’s meeting where I was the main speaker. We met in the banquet room of a local restaurant. Bethany wore her new white dress and came prepared with her little notebook and pen to take notes. I could not have been prouder.
They served a buffet-style dinner before the meeting with a smorgasbord of delicious desserts. The combination of being a bit preoccupied with my upcoming message and wanting it to be a special night for her, caused me to be more relaxed than usual with what she was eating and how much. I’m guessing it was somewhere around a fifth helping of chocolate mousse that she told me her stomach hurt. She seemed miserable, so I led her from the banquet room to the bathroom. Right as we reached the door, disaster struck. All those helpings of chocolate mousse came flying across the bathroom floor and on her once white dress. (Thankfully, my mother-in-law came to the rescue and helped me clean her up).
I realized had I been more watchful and given her some limits, the whole mess would not have happened. She was too young to handle unlimited chocolate mousse. She suffered the consequences of too much freedom.
Paul warned the Galatians not to use their freedom as an excuse to indulge. Of course he was speaking to more than the folks in Galatia. Our human tendency always seeks to push the limits, to bend the restrictions. But rules, as much as we might resist them, keep us from turning into slaves of our own passions—Lord of the Flies, Part Two.
God gives us freedom but sets fences around that freedom to protect us from ourselves as well as each other. If I would have limited the chocolate mousse to no more than two helpings, it would have resulted in a much more pleasant night for all of us.
So let’s use our freedom wisely. Use it to serve other people, taking the opportunity to love like Jesus.