Live in Freedom

Hi there, and welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading, titled Live in Freedom, was written by Lisa M. Samra. In Texas, where I grew up, there were festive parades and picnics in Black communities every June 19th. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I learned the heartbreaking significance of Juneteenth celebrations. Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas learned that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation giving them their freedom two and a half years earlier. Enslaved people in Texas kept living in slavery because they didn't know they'd been freed. It's possible to be free and yet live as slaves. In Galatians, Paul wrote about another kind of slavery, living life under the crushing demands of religious rules. In this pivotal verse, Paul encouraged his readers that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Believers in Jesus had been set free from external regulations, including what to eat and who to befriend.

Many, however, still lived as if they were enslaved. Unfortunately, we can do the same thing today. But the reality is that Jesus set us free from living in fear of man-made religious standards the moment we trusted in Him. Freedom has been proclaimed.

Let's live it out in His power. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Galatians chapter 5 verses 1 through 7 and 13 through 15. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Mark my words. I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ. You have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

You are running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? Now picking up at verse 13. You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself.

If you bite and devour each other, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for setting us free from the burden of oppressive rules. Help us to fully realize what it means to live as those who have been freed and to use our freedom to help others find theirs. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Tony Collier and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.