For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Galatians 5:13-14).

Before we begin to examine the fruit of the Spirit in some detail, we must understand that a foundational principle of the kingdom of God is freedom. This is a fundamental principle of what it will take to possess our Promised Land or to walk in the promises of God.

We are told in II Corinthians 3:17: “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” This could have also been translated,“where the Spirit is Lord there is liberty.” Therefore, understanding freedom is crucial for us to understand how we will possess the land and how we will bear the fruit of the kingdom, which is the place where He is Lord.

Freedom is not just the absence of bondage, but it is the liberty to pursue all that we were created to be. Those who use their freedom to do evil or to do nothing will end up back in bondage. True liberty is not static, but it is the freedom to pursue. True freedom is also linked to what we pursue.

Because of the toil of bondage in Egypt, many may have had a vision of a Promised Land where there was no labor at all. Such would not be a very good place for long nor would we remain free for long. Just as man was put in the Garden to cultivate it, man was created to labor. Even psychology has determined that a person will go insane if deprived of meaningful labor. However, there is a great difference between the toil of bondage and freedom to labor to become what we were created to be.

Toil was the curse, and toil does not mean just hard labor, but difficult and painful labor. This indicates a struggle rather than a blessing, which hard work can be. Toil actually deprives us of who we are, while the labor of liberty sets us free to be who we really are. Toil saps us of our life and energy—the works of freedom actually help to regenerate our soul. That is why the Lord said in Matthew 11:28-30:

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

 

"Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.

 

"For My yoke is easy, and My load is light."

A yoke is for work, but when we are yoked with the Lord and His purposes, which is what we were created for, we actually find rest and refreshment for our souls instead of weariness. The work may actually be harder when we are laboring for the Lord than it was when we labored for “Pharaoh and his taskmasters,” but it will be far more fulfilling. 

This is why many people have a basic goal of going into business for themselves instead of working for someone else. This is a step in the right direction, but it is not necessarily the same as working for the King. Even more than being created for labor, man was created to have a special relationship to God, which is even more fundamental to whom we are. Without that relationship we will still be empty, regardless of how successful we are otherwise. The greatest reward that we could ever have, more than any treasure or possessions we could gain on this earth, will be to hear on that great judgment day: “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21) The greatest reward is to know that we brought pleasure to the Lord.

Now we do not have to wait until the judgment day to know the approval of the Lord. Neither do we have to go into traditional ministry or a “Christian business” to work for the King and His kingdom. In fact, you can start today regardless of what job you have. As Paul wrote in Colossians 3:23-24:

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men;

 

knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

It does not matter how cruel the drudgery that your present job seems to be because you can turn it into worship. If you do your work for the Lord, rather than just for the company or your employer, you will begin to experience the greatest freedom and great satisfaction in your work that you can imagine. This will happen though the work itself may not change. It is better to be a slave and have the presence of the Lord than to be a king without Him. If you experience this, you will be a free person regardless of what job or position you are in. If you do not know this truth, you will never be a free person regardless of what job or position you are in.

The freedom of the kingdom is in the heart, not our circumstances. If we will become free in our heart, then it will usually carry over into our circumstances. Even if it does not change our circumstances, we can have a feast right in the presence of our enemies.

I have experienced working for myself by owning my own business. It can be very satisfying. However, in many ways there can be a major bondage that comes with it, such as not being able to just leave the job at 5:00 o’clock, on weekends, or anytime for that matter. It was not long before I started to envy the people who worked for me because when they were off of work they were really free. I was not. I may have made more money, but time is more valuable than money, and I lost the ability to have my own time.

There is a principle about bondage that we must also understand so that we can use our freedom rightly. Jim Bakker confided that after he was released from prison it was almost impossible for him to make even the simplest decisions. In prison his “decision maker” atrophied and it took years to exercise it enough for him to take authority and responsibility again. In prison every decision was made for him, so when he left prison, even making a simple decision was terrifying. This is the reason why many who get out of prison actually want to return after being out just a little while. Some will even commit crimes hoping to be caught. To these the greatest freedom was to not have any freedom, and therefore not have to make decisions.

This is why Israel left Egypt in one night, but it took forty years to get the Egypt out of them. After just a few difficulties, they even desired to go back to bondage in Egypt rather than continue their quest toward freedom. It is the same for Christians who are set free from the bondage to sin, but are terrified, and often fail purposely when they are told that they have to choose not to sin.

Mankind was created to be free, and there is no question that this is the best state to be in, and the only one in which we will ever become what we were created to be. However, there is a good reason why Paul wrote for slaves to not be worried about being a slave, but rather to consider themselves the Lord’s freedmen. He also said that those who were free were the Lord’s slaves. Paul did say that if a slave had the opportunity to become free, they could do this, but they could be free without doing it (see I Corinthians 7:20-24). Freedom is hard, and it requires a maturity that not many yet have.

I personally believe that the present employee to owner relationship is a form of slavery, though it may not be as comprehensive as forms of slavery used to be. There were slave owners who cared for their slaves, and those who mistreated them, just as there are employers who care for their people, and those who mistreat them. Even so,  without question the employee serves the employer. However, I encourage people to take Paul’s exhortation that if one is called while a slave or employee, they should not worry about it because they can be just as free in Spirit. If you really want to be free and not be someone else’s employee, it is not a sin, and you can become free of this relationship, but it may not make you free. The truly free are free in any circumstance, in any job, in slavery, and even in prison.

With freedom comes responsibility. If you are free to make decisions, you are also responsible for the consequences of your decisions. When I was free not to have an employer, but became the employer of others, suddenly I was not just looking out for my own family, but for those of all of my employees as well. Soon I was in the place where my decisions could affect many people. This was by far a heavier yoke than I had ever known before.

The freedom to make decisions is not without cost, but can be the heaviest yoke of all. It is almost impossible to see or understand until you experience it. I have watched many people who were constantly critical of their boss, pastor, or even their government, but when they were promoted to a similar responsibility, they completely changed their views.

As we are warned in Galatians 6:7: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” (Galatians 5:13). If you have been critical and rebellious as an employee or as a church member toward the leadership of your church, you can absolutely count on having to face the same as an employer or church leader. The things that you thought and were perhaps totally convinced of when you were an employee or church member, you will almost certainly see very differently when you are in the position of leadership. This may seem impossible to you now, but it is true, just as no child can really understand what it is like to be a parent until he or she is one.

Right now we all have the freedom to choose our own attitudes, and it is definitely in our best interest to choose a good one.  “...Do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” We are even commanded to love our enemies because unless we love them we will not be able to judge them right. In fact, we will not judge anything right without love, as we are told in Philippians 1:9-11:

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,

 

so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;

 

having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

We see here that “real knowledge and all discernment” is the result of love abounding. This is also how we will be able to “approve the things that are excellent,” be “blameless until the day of Christ,” and be “filled with the fruit of righteousness.” So true freedom, which is what we have been called into and is our condition in the kingdom, is for the purpose of loving God and loving others. Love is the greatest freedom. Selfishness is the greatest bondage.

True love is always proactive. True love serves. You can do that right now regardless of the job or position you are in. If you start now and remain faithful, you will bear fruit and you will be trusted with more freedom because you will be ever more responsible.

True love “does not seek its own” (see I Corinthians 13:5), so we should not be seeking love in order to just be our own boss, but in order to carry even more of the burdens of the people—to serve them. Then we will be yoked with Christ and the burdens will not be heavy, but we will actually be exhilarated by them. Such is a worthy goal—to be freer to carry more responsibility and to bear more fruit for the sake of the Lord and His people. I would never want to discourage anyone from seeking this, but neither would I want anyone to not understand the responsibility that comes with it.

God’s people are called to be “kings and priests” with Christ. There is no greater honor that we could ever have. The rest of creation marvels at this opportunity given to mankind. It is a worthy quest to want to grow in authority when it is based on love for our King, serving His interests, and serving His people. True authority in Christ is actually a form of slavery, but to be a slave of His is the most free we can ever be.