Free Indeed

John 8: 31 – 36 (NIV): To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Freedom is perhaps the most precious gift a person can receive. No other comfort can be fully enjoyed if a person is not free. More than a million men and women have given their lives so we can be free in our country and that makes it the greatest country on earth.
How sad, then, to live in America – the land of the free – and not be truly free. Jesus said if you sin you are a slave to sin. Slaves have no rights. Slaves do what their masters tell them. Millions of Americans are slaves to some addiction, for example, and cannot break free from it. And any sin is addicting. Paul said he would not be enslaved by anything other than Christ.
It's interesting that the Jews who were speaking with Jesus in this passage said they had never been enslaved. They had not only been enslaved more than once in their history, they were slaves to the Romans at that very moment. Denial does not set a person free! Only a life in Christ can do that. Apparently these Jews did believe in him and he was encouraging them to hold on to his teaching because he knew that persecution would come.
And that brings us to American Christianity today. The church throughout history has thrived during times of persecution. Why? Because persecution weeds out hypocrisy. This is why church father Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” I'm thankful for my free country, but I am concerned about the state of the church today. I believe the greatest assault against our faith is apathy. We want to be comfortable and Christians have never been called to be soft. We want to feel at home, but we are not at home here. Our citizenship is in a “better country” (Hebrews 11:16).
If we, as the church, want America to be truly free, we must stand against the sins that enslave us. We must stand up for the innocents and we must stand up for the family. Will that make us uncomfortable? Yes, and if we are uncomfortable here on earth, then we know we are true followers of Christ. Jesus said the world hated him and it will hate us too if we follow him. People are longing for freedom and it is not a country that can give it to them, it is the church.