Men: “Free In Christ”
MEN! Since God has made us free, we belong to Him.
Reflecting on This Fourth of July of 2025, I come to a deep realization that we are a special kind of free people as Christians and servants of the Lord. We are Free…Servants of God. Free from the control of sin, the ordinances of the Old Testament Laws and death. Now also bound in Christ and not our own, but slaves of God in Christ, bought by Jesus’ precious blood. We are Freedom/Bound!
Our nation is free only because it has been God’s sovereign will to ALLOW US to be as free as we are. The same could be said to us as individuals. We can do nothing without God, we could BE nothing without Him as well.
Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!” This shows us that our choice to serve and worship God has something to do with our freedoms too. EVEN THOUGH the underlying framework of any freedom we have still rests in God’s decision to choose us.
There is a duality to our freedom then. Our choices with God’s choices.
As Men, we may oversee or “be in charge of” several people at any given time, our family members, employees, church or bible study members, etc. We have been given spiritual authority over a ministry then, right? To be a blessing. To be a leader.
Titus 3:1-5 helps us see a bit of our role in using our freedoms and guiding others in theirs:
“Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,”
There is a lot here in this scripture, but the summation is to teach with instruction, compassion, without partiality. Soberly moving forward, aware of our own past, sinful lives, and reflect on our experience of salvation when Jesus did indeed, set us free. This becomes a humble way to lead.
1 Peter 2:16 warns us: “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”
Men, we must use our freedom in Christ. To work out our calling, remembering where we came from and Who brought us out of our hell-bound lifestyle. We should walk with wisdom as we so teach it, lest we become hypocrites, or worse, use the bondage of legalism or fleshly desires to obtain control of others. We are not here to put people back into bondage. We are here to share Jesus, who will set then free just as he set us free.
Galatians 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Let us not give someone else a yoke of bondage, but show them, by example, teaching and preaching, how to be a slave of Christ and thus truly free.
A man who enslaves others is NOT a godly man. A man who leads in Christian freedom, which includes the law of love in Christ, is a man indeed. A free man.
In Christ Jesus, God saved us. God bound us to Himself. How much more free could we be?
~ Blessings,
Steven Camara
