Attitudes of Collaboration III
Romans 12:9-13
Last week we had Teen Challenge come to our church and what a great time of testimony and song we had. God is so good to us in so many ways. The one message though that keeps coming to mind is the idea of freedom and liberty in Christ. This perfectly fits where we are in Romans 12. Now you may ask yourself what this has to do with the attitude of service. Well, liberty has everything to do with service. Let me explain.
Too many people think that liberty has to do with what we can do now that we are children of Christ. They think that they can do what they deem godly because they have liberty. This is true in one sense because we are now no longer guilty but we are forgiven from sin and the penalty thereof.
If you read I Cor. 8, you see the idea that we have freedom in Christ and we can do what God wants us to do. However, the chapter ends on a much different note. It ends with one not doing what he wants because it may offend a brother. This sheds more light on what complete liberty in Christ means. It is not about what we can do or about us at all but rather who Christ can be through us.
Gal. 5 encourages us to not use our liberty as occasion to the flesh and to not be entangled in this world’s devices but to us our liberty to serve one another in other words to just be godly. 1 Pet. 2 encourages us to use our liberty to serve others not self. Liberty has little to do with what we can do but rather who God can be in us. So, will you and I be selfish Christians with base line liberty or will we dive deeper into the liberty that comes with God alone? When we serve others, we serve God and that is the key to true liberty which produces joy, Romans 12:12.