Enslaved
I don’t know about you, but one of my biggest fears is being incarcerated. The feeling of being locked down, around people I don’t know, being told what to do and how to do it 24 hours per day, and kept away from my loved ones and friends, is a scary thought.
As I probably mentioned before, I frequently got into trouble when I was younger. I remember being able to talk my way out of most situations during my high school years. However, when I got a little older it didn't work so well. After I continued messing up, and even spent a few nights in a county jail, along with a 30 day suspended sentence... this was a wake up call for me. I knew I could never get used to prison life - never. I began to watch myself and aimed to clean my life up - externally that is.
A close friend of mine at the time went in a different direction. He ended up getting caught doing a robbery on a night thankfully I wasn’t with him. He served a 10 year sentence, most of it at Middlesex County prison. I remember visiting him on the weekends. In the beginning it was very difficult for him. After a few years, it didn’t seem to bother him that much any more. He began to get used to the imprisonment. Myself on the other hand, I stopped getting in trouble with the law, but looking back, was I really 'cleaned up' or free?
I cleaned myself up by staying out of trouble, but kept at a life of sin. I started a business, made some money, felt great about myself, helped people when I could, but God was no where to be found in my life. I had no idea that I was just as unclean and imprisoned as my friend.
Now this was more than 25 years ago, but even presently as a follower of Christ, I can fool myself and if I’m not careful, allow sin to creep in. If I don’t instantly hack it away, it makes itself comfortable. I know I will begin to get used to it if I don't kill it dead on the spot.
At first, we struggle with sin. But unless we continue to fight, and refuse to serve it, we will end up giving in just a little, and a little more, then a little more. And before we know it, we’re imprisoned by it, accepting it as normal. It then wins. We begin to serve it. It becomes our master, rather than us mastering it (Genesis 4:7).
Jesus calls all this being ‘enslavement' to sin. He says that everyone who commits sin is the slave of it. The very concept of slavery to sin implies bondage. True followers of Christ must never become enslaved to anyone or anything other than Christ. This means mastering sin and refusing to be enslaved by it even for one second.
Tomorrow, in John 8:34-36, we look at our second teaching on ‘true and false discipleship’, taking a good look into what it means to be enslaved to sin and how to avoid it.
If you can, read some of these additional verses for some prep work for tomorrow’s teaching: Galatians 4, Genesis 21:1-21, Romans 6 and Deuteronomy 15:12-17.
Know this as you read the above verses... if you’re a child of God, Jesus Christ saved you from not only the bondage of sin, but also its power. The victory is yours but sin and the enemy wants to make you believe the opposite. Don’t believe the lie. The old self is dead to sin. Jesus makes you free indeed. Truly believe this and the devil flees.