2 Peter 2:19 (NIV) They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity--for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
Galatians 5:13 (NIV) You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
I particularly like to warn my American audiences about this. Freedom is not the same thing as autonomy. Freedom does not mean I am a law unto myself. Prince Philip, the duke of Edinburgh, speaking to a hostile university audience that jeered him, stopped in the middle, and in nonregal language he said, "Shut up! Freedom can be destroyed as easily by making a mockery of it as it can by its retraction." That's precisely what man has done. In an attempt to be reasonable, man has become irrational. In an attempt to deify himself, he has defaced himself. In an attempt to be free, he has made himself a slave. And like Alexander the Great, he has conquered the world around him but has not yet conquered himself.—Ravi Zacharias
"The Lostness of Humankind," Preaching Today, Tape No. 118.
Elesha Hodge, comp., Today's Best Illustrations – Volumes 1-4, (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, 1997), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: "FREEDOM".
