Below is a piece I wrote sme time ago. An excerpt on freedom was taken from this piece and used to start a thread of Christian freedom, but his post offers the piece in total.
-Our call to a new way-
In times past we lived with only regard for our kin and ourselves. Then men were nearer to beasts. At this time man was content to take rather than give, with acts of giving beyond kin being an aberration. Man was as a beast. Most civilized man has moved beyond this point. As true civilization progressed man began to live with regard for not only self and kin, but also community. Man here became truly man. It was at this point that man began to consider the merits of taking and giving in closer to equal measure. Selflessness even made some inroads into human consciousness, but like giving at any level on the last stage, such was an aberration. Man was as a man. Here in large measure man remains, but not all man to the glory of God our Father in the name of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ who is the lamb provided by God to take away the sins of the world. We have been called to a new way of life, a call for which the one calling was shortly thereafter murdered for. Obviously I speak of Jesus Christ. While Jesus was not the first to call men to more charitable lives, he was the first to do so in such a clearly articulated manner and in such a pervasive way. So selfless was his way, so pure his heart, and so pleasing to God, that even death could not hold him and he rose bodily to his heavenly reward. Christ became for us and showed us the path to The Last Adam, to Divinus Hominis. The man on this path yearns to give rather than to take, to add to life rather than to subtract from it, to place his fellows even above himself, and to care for all, be they kin, neighbor, brother, or enemy. Man here becomes as God even as Christ the Lord is as God. These are the three conditions of humanity; beast, man, and divine. It falls to each of us to decide which path we will pursue. Is this not the path we have been called to? If so then what are we to do, being free as we are (though free from sin, not free to sin)?
It is below us to sully our hands with blood or ill gotten gain. Shall we defame God as those who kill in His name or those who sell the gospel of His Son by such things? What is it to us if we walk the earth with little that moth and rust destroy when even a spark of our essence could at once lay this world down and raise it up again in a moment? What is that essence but the spirit of Almighty God, our Eternal Father who dwells in us? Ought we to not offer ourselves as living sacrifices for the illumination of the world according to the teaching of Christ Jesus our Lord? Should we mix the pure water of heaven with the mire of state, attempting to externally enforce upon all the sweet internal calling of so few? Can the sword strengthen the law of heaven? What alliance can there be between the way of love and purity that are spirit with the weapons of strife and corruption that are flesh? Know that in tightening your grip on the worthless little of this age you lose hold of much both here and in the age to come. Whatever you lust after and waste yourself to possess possesses you, making you a slave. Regard nothing as your own and all is yours and can never be taken from you. Love all, knowing that hatred springs from fear and we have nothing to fear, being immortal and beyond death. Be joyful, knowing that sorrow springs from hopelessness and we have no cause to be hopeless as Christ is King, our Father is God, and the Kingdom shall remain forever. Live in peace, knowing that strife stems from contention and we have no cause to be contentious our victory already being gained and our losses being none. We are free from bonds, if only we would accept our freedom, having need of nothing apart from our God and our Lord. Moreover, the service to the kingdom we are called to places no heavy yolk upon us, and give us no special need as even our faithful service preformed in liberty, the law selfless love alone being our charge. We have no need of special assemblies as our every gathering is blessed. We have no need of peculiar diets, as there is no food unclean to us. We have no need of special garments, as virtuous acts are our robes. We have no need holy days or Sabbaths as every day we live is holy and a Sabbath in Christ Jesus our Lord. We have no need of perpetual fasts, rites, or rituals, as the whole of our lives are acts of worship and living sacrifices. We have no need of sacred sites or pilgrimages as wherever we set foot is holy ground. We have no need of a temple, as the holy spirit of God dwells within us. We need only to love God, to love our neighbor, and to thankfully receive those things that God supplies in Jesus name.
Let the walls that seem to separate us falls as the walls of Jericho so that there may be no factions among us. Have you forgotten, my siblings, the prayer of our Lord as it is recorded in the book of John? Was it not his prayer to God that all those who believe to be one as he and the Father are one? In point of fact, it is by our unity that the world shall know that God sent Christ Jesus and that the Father loves us even as he loves our Lord. Is it better then to work with our Lords prayer or against it? Who among us would wish to oppose the wishes of Christ Jesus? Are any of us so holy and wise that we have no need of our siblings in Christ? We are all members of one body, with no portion being greater than the whole. Are you ignorant that there is but one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all? One cannot be divided and yet there is division, so there must be more than one, but not of the true body, which was, is, and will indeed be one. That which divides is not of the true body, but from the enemy.
Dear ones do not to be counted among the enemy, betraying Christ by active opposition to his prayer of unity. As was spoken by our Lord Jesus, a house divided cannot stand, yet though we now seem divided, we also know by our Lords word that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church. Where then does this leave us since we seem so divided? Might not the master of the house return to review his servants? Does not judgment begin in the house of the Lord? We have no other God but the Father and no other Lord but Jesus Christ whom God has placed at his right hand until all his enemies become his footstool. There is none but Christ who was sent by God, crucified, raised from the dead and into whose name we might be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. As such let us keep the council of Paul to not be tossed and carried about by every wind of doctrine that originates in human trickery and skill. Love one another as Jesus loves us and accept as siblings all those who confess Jesus as the Son of God and as Lord and who bear witness to their confession not only by word, but also by keeping the commandments of God, which Christ summed up as love God, and love your neighbor. Let all other divisions be counted as rainless clouds profiting nothing. I pray to God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that your hearts may be fertile ground by which the seed of this message may be received. My love is with you all in Christ Jesus and peace to the brethren, with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
JVS