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Day 7: Do Not Use Your Liberty to Enslave Yourself

“Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything. (1 Corinthians 6:12)

There is great liberty in following Christ. Paul knew it, rejoiced in it, and proclaimed it: “For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

Here, Paul is urging the young Galatian Christians to delight in the freedom found in Christ and to refuse to submit to those commanding them to embrace the Jewish Old Covenant regulations. The freedom found in Christ is not a license for immorality or sin. Rather, it is a release from the burdens of the Law, the hopeless grind of, through human effort, trying to measure up to the standards of a holy God and gain his approval. The cross changes everything. For the Christian, righteousness is found in the gift of God in Christ by grace through faith. Righteousness is not found in attempting to obey the hundreds of laws prescribed in the Mosaic Covenant.

But Christians dare not think that because Christ has clothed them in his righteousness that they are free to act in an unholy manner. That is the thrust of Paul’s teaching in the latter part of 1 Corinthians 6:12. Though many things are permissible, it is possible to be mastered by those things. “Things” here could be anything that is permitted—engaging in an activity or consuming a substance like food, drink, or a mind-altering drug like marijuana. Christians have the liberty to engage in all sorts of activities, but that does not mean those activities are necessarily good. One test for whether something is good, according to Paul, is to ask the question, “Will this activity master me?” or, “Will this activity enslave me?”

Paul’s logic in the passage is straightforward. The Christian has been created and bought by the Lord. Therefore, he owns us body and soul. He alone has the ultimate right to direct us (1 Cor 6:19-20). He is Lord of our bodies. 

Tragically, too often Christians, who have been set free by Christ, use that freedom to engage in behaviors that enslave them. The result is that activities and substances effectively replace Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives. Addiction is often defined as compulsive substance use or behavior despite self-harm or negative consequences. When Christians risk harm to self or others to feed an addiction, they have been mastered by that substance or behavior, effectively denying the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  

So use your blood-bought freedom in Christ to surrender gladly to the Lordship of Jesus. He is a good and compassionate shepherd. His offer is life and fullness of joy. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. In contrast, sin is a cruel and merciless master. Do not use your freedom to run to sin. Rather, use your freedom to cling to Christ and his ways.

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