1 Peter 2:16

1 Peter 2:16 ‘Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as. covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.'

‘Act as free men' -‘live as free men'. 1. Christians have been liberated from sin (John 8:32). In addition we have also been liberated from superstition, distracting anxiety, the fear of death, guilt, etc…2. ‘Any great Christian doctrine can be perverted into an excuse for evil. The doctrine of grace can be perverted into an excuse for sinning..' (Barclay p. 245) (Romans 6:1; Galatians 5:13; Judges 1:4). 3. ‘Because his readers might think such extensive submission to authority would be oppressively restrictive, Peter explains that true freedom is consistent with obedience to God's will…True freedom, true ability to choose and do what one really wants to do, comes….in entire submission to God as his obedient servants (cf. James 1:25; 1 John 5:3).' (Grudem p. 121) 4. ‘Some Gentile sects, confusing liberty with libertinism, maintained that grace meant deliverance from all law (a view likewise held today by those who subscribe to the doctrine of impossibility of apostasy), and the Jews, on the plea that they were in possession of the oracles of God, often claimed immunity from law originating with man.' (Woods pp. 73-74) 5. Various voices in our society talk quite. bit about freedom, liberty and rights. But true freedom isn't doing what you want to do, or casting off all restraint. Rather, true freedom means being liberated from selfishness, and being free to serve God and others. The sweetest freedom is choosing to do the right thing, even when such. choice brings hardship and discomfort.

‘and do not use your freedom as. covering for evil' -‘a pretext to do wickedness under' (Robertson p. 102). POINTS TO NOTE: 1. Can you spell ‘relevant'? Nothing has changed. There will always be people, even professed Christians who think that ‘grace' means that our sinning is no longer. big deal. To some ‘Christian liberty', ‘or saved by grace', becomes the slogan to justify anything they want to do. 2. As today, some Christians might have thought that their conversion released them from any obligation to obey the laws of the land (i.e. my only King is Jesus). In the verses that follow, the slave might think that his freedom, set him free from his earthly obligations. 3. Some have claimed that we in the Church of Christ always qualify ‘grace'. But the apostles had to do the same thing (Romans 6:1; Galatians 5:13).

‘but use it as bondslaves of God' -1. There is no such thing as absolute personal liberty. We are always and ever. servant of someone or something (Romans 6:16; 2 Peter 2:19). 2. Freedom must be used and used properly. 2. ‘The Christian is not an isolated unit; he is not an individual and nothing else…Only in Christ is. man freed from self and sin and passion to be as good as he ought to be…Freedom comes when. man takes the yoke of Christ upon him..' (Barclay p. 246) (Matthew 11:28). The following verses examine how our freedom is to be properly used.