0819 WE ARE ALL ENSLAVED

2022-08-23

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AUGUST 19 = 2 PETER 2 WE ARE ALL ENSLAVED False teachers had infiltrated the church, and Peter gave a clear warning about them, going into quite some detail about the false teachers and their coming demise. One of the central false teachings was apparently a kind of grace-covers-all freedom. In reaction to Jewish laws, the false teachers swing the pendulum the other direction and proclaim that since we are not saved by works or by law, there is no standard for holiness. We are free! It is into this moment that ...

AUGUST 19 = 2 PETER 2

WE ARE ALL ENSLAVED

False teachers had infiltrated the church, and Peter gave a clear warning about them, going into quite some detail about the false teachers and their coming demise. One of the central false teachings was apparently a kind of grace-covers-all freedom. In reaction to Jewish laws, the false teachers swing the pendulum the other direction and proclaim that since we are not saved by works or by law, there is no standard for holiness. We are free!

It is into this moment that we step here.

“They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

Doesn’t “freedom” sound like good news? We are free to do whatever we want, with whomever we choose, and there is no guilt, no shame, no condemnation. Who wouldn’t like to have that kind of freedom? It sounds like an adolescent youth who is breaking free from parental control.

Only one problem with that kind of freedom. There is no such thing. Much as we might want to imagine being totally free from guilt and being controlled by rules and laws, the truth is that we cannot avoid being controlled. It is a simple law of life.

Let’s say, for example, that you want to use your freedom to self medicate with some mood-enhancing drug. You buy some, you take it, and you relish in your freedom, as you feel sheer pleasure for the first time in a long time. But then you come back down. Now you have to buy more. But it doesn’t feel quite the same, so you find that your body has built a tolerance for the drug, and it takes more and more of it to produce less and less results. You are now officially an addict. That means you are a slave to what you have given your life over to do.

“By what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.” That is the law of life that cannot be broken. If you are overcome by sexual fantasies, or by binge-watching some show, or by anything that might be a relatively-innocent habit, then you are enslaved by whatever it is.

Your short cut in life that you imagine makes you the exception to the rules only goes to prove that you can’t break the rules. Speed limits are for others? Eat whatever you want? Relax and let others do the work for you? Always speak your mind? Sooner or later, such a false teaching becomes clear to everyone, including yourself.

Peter says this about those who are trying to be right with God but who are living for the world:

If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.”

‭‭The unbreakable law of life also applies to being a follower of Jesus, by the way. By whatever you are overcome, by this you are enslaved. If we are overcome by Jesus, so that he becomes lord of our life, then we are enslaved by him and his Spirit. By definition, a lord is over a slave, of course.

And yet, Jesus promises freedom. He says that he is the truth. He says the truth will set us free. And so we reach a paradox: the one who thought he was free is enslaved, and the one who willingly enslaves himself is free.

Trapped in an empty world of people running after nothing

For the fate of every man is to die

So let’s fill our cups and drink our wine

And make the best use of the time we have

For tomorrow we may all die

And you want freedom, like a bird in flight

You want to fly on the wing and go off into the night

But by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved

Enslaved

And how far do you have to go to reach the end? And hey, where you going?

And when you reach the end will it be that happy end you’re looking for?

And if you find the way will you let me know that day you find real peace inside?