Truly Free
This week in my devotional times I’ve had a recurring theme. Starting in 1 Peter 2:16 I was struck by the command to: “Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.” In discussions, especially about politics, the idea of freedom is often the subject. As a free people who have never experienced slavery and as partisans who drove out the foreign tyrant over two hundred years ago, we often take our freedom for granted and misidentify what freedom means. To many freedom is the power to decide at all time and on all subjects. It is often seen as freedom from all outward direction. It is often assumed that when one’s life is lived truly free then it is lived for the individual alone, but this is the antithesis of biblical freedom.
In this chapter we are told, in conjunction to the free life we are to live as servants of God and to show proper respect to everyone: brethren, God and ruler. Peter then does something striking. He jumps from a command to live as a free man to telling slaves to submit to their masters. Biblical freedom goes far beyond individual liberty and self-interest. All human beings put their own interests first, but in slavery one must put the interests of a master ahead of one’s own. As a slave I must live where my master tells me, go where my master directs me and spend my days in the employ my master gives me. How can a slave still follow a command to be a free man. Is he to run away? How can he because the command to live freely is tied to the command to submit to his master. The only way I can reconcile these two is to consider the difference between submission out of fear and force and consider chosen free submission. I can be a slave who cares for my master’s interests because to do otherwise would result in punishment or I can serve my master as a choice.
To explain, let me share with you an experience in the Army as a paratrooper. When you are unsaved and in a very dangerous line of work you will compensate with superstition. Sometimes things will happen in prep for a jump that will make you sure that this time will be the last time, that this time you would die. One evening preparing for a night jump (I always hated night jumps), the rigger handed me a parachute. Instead of grabbing the harness, I missed with my right hand and caught the riser, which broke free. If this had happened in the air my chute would have failed. Needless to say, my awareness of the danger in my chosen profession went up a notch. For the rest of that night I was sure my number was up and I would splatter on that drop zone. As we were waiting for the green light to jump I remember thinking I was going to die and wondering what I was doing. I also started to weighing options—knowing that once the light turned green it was too late to stop because I would be thrown out of the plane if need be. Up until the green light I could quit, unhook and sit down, but after the green it would endanger the other jumpers to have me stop. This meant that I was going out of the plane no matter what. I could go out with pride or be thrown out like a sack of potatoes, but I was going out. I realized that I could not control if I died or not, but I could control how I met it and jumped. From then on, whenever the light turned green there was no more fear, just determination.
In this way, even if we are slaves, or in service to another we can be free, by choosing to serve with the best of our ability. Peter was not contradicting himself we he commanded a life as a free man and submission to a slave owner. He was telling us to be committed, to be willing to serve and not to go through life only in response to coercion. If I am enslaved and choose to be the best I can be for the good of a master and for the good of my community then I am living as a free man. Peter commands slaves to do this, not because he values the institution of slavery, but because he wants the Christian slave to influence his master and hopefully see him brought to salvation.
The greatest life of freedom is a life lived in service to God. This is the life that is to be commended, not the life expended in selfish-license.
