Real Freedom

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”  Matthew 6:24  NIV

Serve – The world is preoccupied with freedom these days.  It is current political coinage.  In the West, our conception of freedom has been extended to include a doctrine of entitlements and rights no prior civilization could have imagined.  Freedom is the watchword of a global civilization bent on bringing liberty and justice to all.

But the believer must guard against such panacea.  The believer holds a worldview that is not grounded in civil liberties, inalienable rights, and legislated entitlements.  For the believer, the Biblical worldview is the only standard for faith and practice.  Nationalism, even nationalism coupled with political “freedom,” is of no value if it does not reflect God’s created order.  Yeshua gave us a warning about adoption of false freedom when he said, “No man can serve two masters.”  It is significant that he did not allow the possibility of independent autonomy as a choice.  From Yeshua’s perspective, the options are limited to the choice of masters.  Either way is still the way of the slave.

We should not be surprised.  Yeshua understood the world from the perspective of a man deeply affected by Hebrew scriptures.  When we examine his spiritual heritage (and ours), we discover that the goal of human existence is not freedom at all.  The goal and fulfillment of human existence is found in the choice to be a volunteer slave to God.  The essence of this goal is found in the Hebrew root ‘bd.  This root is the basis of the Hebrew words associated with slave and slavery.  Hebrew is the language of slaves.  When the nomadic tribe of Jacob settled in Egypt, its social-political structure began a transformation that ended in slavery to Pharaoh.  For at least two hundred years, the extended tribe, numbering in the thousands, felt the cruel hand of forced oppression.  The experience left an indelible mark on the Hebrews.  In fact, the culture of slavery was so ingrained in the mindset of the Hebrews that God was unable to erase its debilitating spiritual effects from an entire generation in the wilderness.  When the Hebrews left Egypt and became a separate nation under the hand of God, they did not automatically abandon their ethos formed under slavery.  Instead, they defined themselves in terms of past slavery and redemption.  God was the God Who led them out of Egypt.  The yearly celebration of the exodus event defined their origins.  They came from a culture of slaves.  Their history was a history of slaves.  And Yahweh is the God of slaves.

The Hebrew ‘bd  suggests that a follower of YHVH is a slave for life.  Of course, it’s voluntary, and because it is voluntary we often forget that we are not independent individuals determining our own fate.  The biblical model is not based on the freedom of the individual.  Freedom is not the goal?  How could it be a right?  The goal is ‘bd, a slave for life.    What then is freedom?  It is slavery to a benevolent master – hear and obey (shema).

Topical Index: serve, slave, master, ‘bd, Matthew 6:24