Imprisoned by your Freedom?

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.(Gal. 5:1)

My religious background is a patchwork of various Christian denominations, each slightly different, yet all claiming the same major doctrinal tenets. I attended a Presbyterian church from the age of birth to somewhere around the middle of my grade school years. The next church for our family was a Congregational church where we stayed through the remainder my grade school years and into my freshman year of high school. At age 14 we switched again to a Nazarene church which I attended with my family until, at age 20, I decided to attend a Church of God (out of Anderson, IN) where there were more young people near my age. Somewhere during this denominational journey I made a decision to become a Christian and accept Jesus as savior, although I did so more out of a compulsion to avoid the fiery pit of hell than a clear understanding of what I was really getting into.

In 1985 I was married and began a journey through a few more versions of the Christian church, again with the same basic doctrine (belief in the Trinity, that Christ died for our sins and was raised, etc.) but variations on minor points and practices. Our new family stayed in the Church of God, the denominational affiliation of our college, and we were active in the local congregation for several more years. Upon moving to Texas in 1990, I began attending a Nazarene church again for a short time, then on to a Baptist church where we stayed until moving again around 3 years later. Our next move took us into the crazy world of the Charismatic believers. The freedom from ritual along with the contemporary music drew us in to this church home until we again moved. Since that time in 1993 we have moved several more times, but stayed in non-denominational, charismatic churches.

I tell you all of this denominational history to give you a limited idea of my background in the Christian faith and so you can understand why, to some degree, I have questioned so much of the teaching I have heard. I guess in some ways it has been beneficial to my spiritual development to have such a varied background, since this has allowed me the freedom to search out truths for myself. I know many people that have spent most of their years in one particular denomination and as a result have trouble with questioning their denominational training. They feel almost as though it is sinful to consider that what they have been taught may not be the full truth. Feelings of guilt overcome them if they question the fullness of their experience and start to wonder if maybe God has something more for them. This indoctrination leads to a type of enslavement that Charismatics would label as Legalism or Religiousness. I believe that this type of 'religion' and following ritual, rules and traditions for the sake of conformity is what Christ came to set His people free from.

As of late however, I have seen another form of enslavement that some non-denominational, inter-denominational or charismatic believers seem to be falling in to. It is an enslavement to their supposed new found freedom from legalism or a religious spirit. While it is true that as a believer in Christ, we are free from the strict legalism of the old covenant and the practice of dead rituals, it is also true that we can easily become captivated by our obsession with trying to appear non-religious. We must remember that to follow Christ in a non-religious manner is to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, not to be preoccupied with engagement in worldly activities that will signal to others that we are free. This type of pseudo-freedom actually has another name... bondage. We can be deceived so easily by our flesh into thinking that we should participate in things that will offend the religious legalists to show them what freedom looks like. This is not freedom!

Christ Jesus died on the cross for us so that we may truly be free to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in every area of our lives. True freedom will allow us to make decisions and involve ourselves in activities that bring glory to Him without purposely offending our brothers and sisters that may have differing doctrinal beliefs. We must remember that while all things are permissible, not all things are beneficial. We are reminded in the New Testament that we are to be considerate of those that may be caused to stumble because of our exercise of freedom. While we will not allow ourselves to be resubmitted to the bondage the Holy Spirit has led us out of, we must also take seriously our responsibility to the body of Christ and to avoid pride and arrogance which will lead us into bondage of another sort. I urge you all (as I remind my self) to examine yourself daily and to follow in humble submission to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the only true way to the freedom God has for each of us.