- True Liberty
Present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. – Romans 6:19
People who are enslaved have very little liberty. Whether they are victims of human trafficking, under a totalitarian government, or hopelessly addicted to drugs or alcohol, nobody intentionally seeks to become a slave. Countless lives have been and are being lost in the effort to achieve liberty… or in defending it. Imagine what it would be like to have almost no say over what you do. Conversely, in order to live safe and peaceful lives, citizens must be subject to the laws of the land. Paul explains that Christians are also to be subject to each other. Today’s verse directs believers to be slaves to righteousness. And being this type of slave is a really good thing!
This type of servitude means you follow God’s dictates in what you do, what you think, and what you say. You let His love direct your relationships, freeing you from demanding or intrusive human compulsions and desires. It is like changing the default format on a computer or device so it automatically goes back to that certain setting. Request God’s help in making your personal default be to love. When in doubt about what to buy, where to go, what to do, what to say, ask the Lord to reveal what the loving action is. Being a slave to righteousness is true freedom.
This liberty leads to sanctification, the process in which you become a holy vessel set apart for God’s use and service. He releases you from the bonds of sin and deception. You become a reflection of His righteousness as you live out the Lord’s purpose and plan for your life. It is the work of the Spirit (1 Peter 1:2), but also something you choose to do in partnership with Him (2 Corinthians 7:1). Remember to pray for the country, for God’s will to be done in it and in each heart. As the nation continues to commemorate its 250th anniversary this year, pray that Americans would become God’s willing servants, doing what is right and good in His eyes.
Today’s Verse: Romans 6:19
I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: John 17:6-19
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
