As servants of God,
live as free people,
yet do not use your freedom
as a pretext for evil.
1 Peter 2:16
Martin Luther grew up in a horribly legalistic time. God was pictured as angry, even vindictive. And human life was lived in fear.
Therefore, when was finally able to read the scripture and discover the concept of God's amazing grace, he was set free. So was much of the Christian world.
We humans have an unfortunate tendency, though. When change occurs, sometimes we don't change by inches; sometimes we swing the pendulum wildly in the other direction. Therefore, many of Luther's followers hurtled the pendulum hard in the direction of permissiveness. In fact, many argued passionately that should sin wildly so that they could prove that they believed in grace rather than works.
Today's verse obviously contradicts that kind of cockeyed logic. We must not, indeed, use our freedoms as a pretext for bad behavior.
Freedom, instead, should encourage us to live boldly rather than blandly. God calls us to love and serve and worship and proclaim. As we do those things passionately, we'll make occasional mistakes, but we should forgive ourselves and keep marching forward, trusting that God first forgives us.
Boldness! That's the freedom God grants to us.
In Christ's Love,
a guy who wants his pendulum to swing
toward the first words in this verse ...
Let me be "a servant of God."
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