Where is freedom found?

Galatians 5:13-15

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Freedom, it's not just a pipe dream, it's a calling. Thinking about that statement, that we were called to freedom. It means that when we live in some kind of bondage, we are not fulfilling our calling. Again, Paul issues a disclaimer, the freedom he speaks of is not a freedom of the flesh. It is not an absolute freedom to live as we please, do as we please. That is so opposed to the gospel message of surrender, sacrifice, and carrying our own cross. No, it is the freedom to live out what is innate in all of us, being created in God's image. It is the ability to not be under the control of some compulsion or sin. It is the freedom to honestly seek and obtain our heart's desires.

So where is this freedom found? It is found in submission, of all the ironical places. Submission to God and to one another. It is found in love. Not ooey gooey love, but Godly love that lays down its life for the sake of others.

It is not the kind of freedom that some want. But it is the only true freedom some will ever know.