Luke 12:48 (CSB) — 48 …From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be expected.
Many Christians are taking the time to be thankful to God for the freedoms enjoyed in the United States. Some may also be apprehensive about the direction of this country. Some are puzzled by what is being witnessed. But, nonetheless, Independence Day remains a time when many Americans express their gratitude to God in various ways for the privileges of our civil freedoms. And these freedoms are still numerous.
So to Christians who are taking this time to express their gratitude to God for the privileges of their freedom, read and re-read this passage: we are accountable to God for how we use the privileges he grants us.
First, I think it’s necessary to dispel a common myth:
Galatians 5:1 (CSB) — 1 For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Our freedom is purchased and secured exclusively by the blood of Jesus. God raises nations up and brings them down. He grants times of freedom and allows times of oppression. But, even when governments or cultures become hostile to God, we are free because of the blood of the Lord and the promised Holy Spirit we’ve received in his name! Therefore we stand free in Christ alone!
I spent approximately ten years living under one of the most hostile communist regimes in the world today. We did street evangelism. We prayed for the sick. We shared the gospel with communist party members and baptized those who believed. We even shared the gospel with police officers. Christians are not free because of the government, we’re free because of Jesus Christ! Yet it’s also true that we face fewer obstacles in open environments. So churches in America are able to operate in ways that Christians in persecuted environments can’t even dream of or imagine.
Therefore, listen carefully: while God grants us blessings to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17), to take these privileges only for our own enjoyment and pleasure, to accumulate wealth and indulge our individual happiness, we will answer to God for how we used his blessings.
Consider Jesus’ parable:
Luke 12:43–46 (CSB) — 43 Blessed is that servant whom the master finds doing his job when he comes. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and starts to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 that servant’s master will come on a day he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unfaithful.
Many Americans are using their freedoms to accumulate more and more wealth for themselves. Their primary concern in preserving their freedoms seems to be solely to secure their own interests and enjoy as much happiness for themselves as possible. On occasion the free-exercise of religion is raised like a banner to rally political support, but I can’t help but point out that, in many cases, those who raise this banner show by how they spend their time, money, and energy that the advancement of God’s Kingdom has absolutely nothing to do with their life beyond one hour on Sunday and a token check in the offering plate.
Obviously I’m writing in generalities. I personally know many Christians who are sacrificing for the Kingdom of God. I see many good brothers and sisters who are denying themselves, taking up the cross, and following Jesus! Praise God! But broad generalities are important precisely because they do characterize large groups of people. And it is troubling that so many Christians can accurately be described in the manner above.
So I think it is worth taking the time while we thank God for the privileges of our freedom to ask these questions of ourselves so that we can truly thank him in sincerity, free from hypocrisy.
Who are we seeking with the privileges of our civil freedoms?
Who are we serving with these privileges?
And whose kingdom are we advancing?
A Dedicated Faith 