Love

Our God is a freedom loving, freedom giving God.

The 4th of July is a time when Americans celebrate their independence and freedom. When you're off this weekend with family and friends, watching fireworks and grilling burgers, you need to know that God is right there with you celebrating! Our God is a freedom loving, freedom giving God.

In the beginning, God created us to be free. See Genesis 2:16. He created us to be trusted and to be trustworthy. As he created the earth he said, "The whole earth is yours! Go create, be fruitful, fill the earth, enjoy, I entrust everything to your care. All the plants, all the animals, all the seed-bearing plants, the land and the sea, I give you."

Some people believe that God is opposed to freedom, that God is too restrictive, suffocating, and coercive. But nothing could be further from the truth. Galatians 5:1 (NIV) says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Freedom has always been God's purpose and design.

The opposite of freedom is slavery, or control.

Of course, the opposite of freedom is slavery. If you don't like the word slavery, the opposite of freedom is control. Control is what we do when we don't trust one another. One of the results of the fall, detailed in Genesis 3:16, is that instead of trusting his wife, Adam would "rule" over Eve, and try to control her. And she in turn would resent him. This is why Tom Cruise and Katie are getting divorced! He was too controlling!

One of the great ironies of history is that we celebrate freedom, but we don't trust freedom. This is why we have so many laws and regulations, locks on every door, security systems, surveillance cameras, drones in the sky, prisons, law enforcement agencies, and government bureaucracies. Freedom scares us. What if people use their freedom to do evil? What if they make selfish choices or self-destructive choices?

Isn't it ironic that God created us to be free, but we prefer to control one another? Isn't it ironic that God created us to be trusted and to be trustworthy; yet we're so distrustful of one another? We're cynical.

A person gets his paycheck, but we don't trust him to live responsibly. So we invented taxation to take his money away. We elect leaders to make judgments of how best to spend his money. We enact laws to create fear and to punish men for non-compliance. The whole notion of control is rooted in cynicism and distrust-- that people cannot be trusted to use their freedom redemptively and that people's freedom needs to be limited. It needs to be controlled so they will do what's best for another person and for self.

As Americans, we celebrate freedom-- but we don't trust freedom.

There is always this fear of what happens if people don't use their freedom responsibly. What if they don't make healthy choices? What if they don't save for the future? Help those in need? Act justly when it's in their power to act?

This 4th of July is an important time to ask yourself what you believe about freedom. Is freedom too risky? Should it be given? Should it be taken away? Do rules, laws, regulations, and controls create a better society, or does freedom create a better society? You already know how God feels about freedom. He created us to be free! He created us with a capacity to be responsible, to be trusted, and to be trustworthy. It was for freedom that Christ set us free! Why then do we have such a big problem allowing freedom? And is moderating or controlling each other's freedom an effective approach?

Is the problem freedom, or is it a lack of love?

We all want to live in a better society. But is the problem freedom, or is the problem love? Isn't it true that no matter how many laws we pass, and no matter how valiant the effort to exert control over others, our problem is getting people to love?

When I was a kid, my sister and I would get into heated fights. I have a scar on my forehead from when she hurled a matchbox car at my forehead, and I had to get stitches. She was quite proud of herself! I was always the victim, and never the aggressor! Sometimes Dad would grab us and make us kiss and make up. It didn't work. We'd kiss each other's cheek and go through the motions, but we never turned the other cheek! You can get people to do almost anything, but you cannot get them to love.

Consider this list of evil things. Physical violence. Child abuse. Murder. Terrorism. Stealing. Robbery. Extortion. Polygamy. Prostitution. Rape. Sex trafficking. Pedophilia.

All of these things are illegal, right? We have laws forbidding these things. Yet all of these things still happen. You can cage a man like an animal for these crimes, but can you take the animal out of a man? Despite all of our laws, people still do these heinous acts. Laws don't take the animal out of a man, nor do laws change societies. We hope that fear will deter people from doing these things.

Even if we could eliminate all these things, consider this second list of evil things out of Galatians 5:19-21 (NIV). "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."

Do you notice what all these things have in common? None of these things are illegal! You can pretty much do all of these things without breaking a single law, or being thrown in jail. But is there anyone in this room who truly believes that anything on this list is good? Only a sociopath would believe that society is better with these things!

We cannot legislate away sinful behavior.

But here's the issue. What do we do about these things? Everything on this list falls outside the scope of our laws. We cannot legislate these, nor do we try. We certainly cannot enforce them. They mostly fall into the personal realm.

Do you realize we can be good, law abiding citizens in regard to the first list, while completely neglecting the morality of the second list? And isn't that exactly the problem we have in America? We avoid the heinous crimes, but we're all too willing to fall into the gross morality in this second list.

The boys on that school bus didn't break a single law as they launched volley after volley of hate on their elderly bus monitor. A political leader stayed within the letter of the law, but behaved unethically, when he exploited a loophole to receive a double pension. An activist exercises his free speech rights while stirring up dissension and hatred.

As you can see, the law has limited effectiveness on the first list. And the law has absolutely no effectiveness on helping people abstain from the evils in the second list. But we're not finished yet! As you know, basic human morality and decency is as much about what we should be doing as what we shouldn't. Thus, allow me to share a third list from Galatians 5.

The fruits of the Spirit are evident in Christ-like lives.

The first list includes heinous acts outlawed by every society. The second list includes evil acts that should be avoided. This third list, however, includes those positive acts of morality that we should be actively engaged in. Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV) says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self‑control. Against such things there is no law."

Think about it this way. We may be able to deter a man from engaging in sexual immorality. We can shut down his strip clubs. We can purge his computer of every vile image, video, and corrupt song track. We can go all Islam and enforce modesty laws so he doesn't even see so much as a woman's ankle. But even after removing all these negative things, what power do we have to cause a man to act lovingly, faithfully, gently, patiently, or peacefully toward his wife? It's one thing to cage an evil man who is guilty of heinous evil. It's one thing to deter a man from doing immoral or unethical acts. But it's quite another to compel his love!

You see, morality isn't just the absence of evil. It's the presence of goodness and kindness. It's the presence of love. Our problem isn't freedom. It's a lack of love. Even though we abstain from many immoral things, we don't proactively love enough.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV) says, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

In "Letters to an Unborn Child" David Ireland wrote to the child in his wife's womb partly knowing that he might never see the child. While his wife's pregnancy developed, David was dying of a crippling neurological disease. He wrote this in one of his letters.

"Your mother is very special. Few men know what it's like to receive appreciation for taking their wives out to dinner when it entails what it does for us. It means that she has to dress me, shave me, brush my teeth, comb my hair, wheel me out of the house and down the steps, open the garage and put me in the car, take the pedals off the chair, stand me up, sit me in the seat of the car, twist me around so that I'm comfortable, fold the wheelchair, put it in the car, go around to the other side of the car, start it up, back it out, get out of the car, pull the garage door down, get back into the car, and drive off to the restaurant."

"And then, it starts all over again. She gets out of the car, unfolds the wheelchair, opens the door, spins me around, stands me up, seats me in the wheelchair, pushes the pedals out, closes and locks the car, wheels me into the restaurant, then takes the pedals off the wheelchair so I won't be uncomfortable."

"We sit down to have dinner, and she feeds me throughout the entire meal. And when it's over she pays the bill, pushes the wheelchair out to the car again, and reverses the same routine. And when it's over -- finished -- with real warmth she'll say, 'Honey, thank you for taking me out to dinner.' I never quite know what to answer."

How do we find such powerful love?

Since we cannot coerce such powerful love, how do we find it? How do we generate it? How do we infect our lives, our marriages, our families, and our society with it? How do we get people to use their freedom to love?

Galatians 5:5-6 (NIV) provides a clue. "But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."

As we turn toward our time of communion, a couple of critical points are in order.

First, every act of love is an act of faith. Love more powerfully motivates people than any other thing. Love does what no law can ever do. It inspires and it compels. Don't put your faith in people. Put your faith in the power of God's love to transform people.

Love doesn't come from us. It flows from God, through us, into the lives of others. It cannot be coerced, legislated, or manufactured. It can only be received from God and shared freely. 1 John 4:7 (NIV) says, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God."

Righteousness, love, and the fruit of the Spirit come through the Spirit. We only need to open ourselves to the activity of God's Holy Spirit, through faith, to begin experiencing deep change. Faith is like sailboating. We hoist our sails in faith, but God provides the wind that carries us forward into righteousness, faith, and love. And love begets love, until all the world is born anew in God's love.