As Americans, we value our freedom, and regardless of our political beliefs, we're united in the idea that we want to do what we want, when we want, how we want. Any laws that impinge on those areas are often subject to being ignored, or at least negotiated away.

In Christ, we're offered a very different kind of freedom - a freedom from sin, from death, from the corruption of this world. But it is not a freedom that says I can now follow my own impulses and desires. The Bible shows a paradox of freedom from sin combined with enslavement to Christ, and if I want to be a disciple of Jesus, I will be called to leave my own preferences, my own desires, my own culture behind!

In John 13, Jesus takes it upon himself to get up from the table and wash the feet of his disciples. Having instituted the Lord's Supper during that evening's Passover meal, he now presents an object lesson to his disciples, who had been bickering off and on for almost three years about who would be greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus reminds them if he - their Lord and Teacher - was willing to serve, then how much more should they desire to serve each other, even in ways that require humility and even debasement? The point was not to create another ritual, but rather to show a willingness to address a real need, to show a genuine kindness to one of your brothers or sisters. It's not about imposing something on someone for the purposes of looking of feeling "pious." It's about knowing the need of that person in that moment, and reaching out to help at the expense of yourself.

Jesus sets the standard, calling for us to love each other as he loved us.

In John 2, we read about what appears to be the first of two examples of Jesus cleansing the temple in Jerusalem. In doing so, we read the full account of the story which the Jewish leaders used to accuse Jesus during his trial. But rather than claiming that he would destroy the temple, Jesus appears to not only say that the Jewish leaders would destroy the temple of his own body by crucifying him, but that in reality, they were in the process of destroying God's temple through their abuse of power, corruption, and refusal to regard God's temple as holy.

In promising to raise the temple in three days, Jesus alludes to his own bodily resurrection, but he also reminds us that just as he has power to take his own life up again, so he also gives promise of new life to everyone who is brought into God's spiritual temple, the church, which is Jesus' body.

In the second half of Luke 8, the author includes four stories depicting the power of Jesus as he went about doing miracles. But at the heart of each of these stories, there is an element of fear. In each instance, we see a person(s) dealing with fear in an interaction with Jesus.

• The disciples in the boat
• The townspeople with the herd of pigs
• The woman with an issue of blood
• The ruler whose daughter was dying

These stories highlight four concerns, four questions that many people ask even today in the presence of Jesus:

1. What if Jesus expects too much of me?
2. What if Jesus makes me give something up?
3. What if I'm too unclean for Jesus?
4. What if Jesus can't solve my problem?

Why is love "the greatest commandment?" And how is the love of the Bible different from the love of the world? Ultimately, we find that love in the Bible describes a characteristic that stems from and revolves around God. We are called to love in the way that God loves BECAUSE God loves.

Jesus calls it "a new commandment," "that you love each other as I have loved you." In truth, God has always called His people to love Him as well as His people, but until Jesus, we never truly saw what that love looked like in practice, and the extent to which God was willing to go in order to redeem His people.

In this lesson, we talk about the transformative work of God's love, and how it leads us into every other aspect of our service in Christ, inspiring us to seek God in everything, to fulfill God's commandments, and to love each other in the way that Jesus loved us, even to the cross.

If we want to interpret the Bible in a way that allows us to be united in our teaching and our practices, we have to understand how to handle questions where the Bible is (or appears to be) silent. We often do a poor job of explaining how and why we interpret scriptures the way we do, and it can lead to division as well as accusations that we are selectively interpreting passages to fit tradition. We never want to do that, and we never want to be afraid of going back and examining our beliefs through the lens of determining what God wants, not what we want.

To do this, there are some underlying attitudes that have to exist, and one of those is found in the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4. Jesus tells her that "God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." There are a lot of ideas on what this might mean, and in many cases, we simply interpret this as meaning that "as long as you believe the truth that Jesus is the Messiah, and you seek God in your heart, then God accepts your worship."

However, that definition doesn't fit the context of Jesus' discussion, particularly in what he has to say about what it means to be "spirit" or "spiritual." And in fact, Jesus consistently defines truth as not just a basic concept of himself, but rather everything that he taught, every word that comes from the Father. 

Ultimately, when we worship God "in spirit and truth," we are approaching God by putting away the worldly influences and concerns that color our judgment, and we are accepting not just some, but ALL of God's teaching as truth. That impels us to interpret scripture not by saying "God will accept whatever I do," or "God never says I CAN'T do this," but rather "How can I best conform my thoughts to God's thoughts?"

In the story of Cain and Abel, we see a contrast between a brother who offered a pleasing sacrifice to God, and one who did not, and how that jealousy and bitterness turned into the world's first case of murder.

As we read this story, we can find a wealth of lessons and insights, but I'm focusing on three:

1. My sacrifice isn't valued by how much I value my sacrifice.
2. We sin because we choose the wrong path.
3. God judges according to His mercy, not ours.

What does it mean to be godly, and how does the idea fit into the passage in 2 Peter 1?

Peter writes to add to your steadfastness godliness. As we've seen, he seems to be building these virtues upon each other in a natural progression that shows how Christians ought to mature in their relationship to God and to each other. As I add virtue, knowledge, and self-control, I build the foundation for living a life of service to God, doing good, seeking a greater knowledge of God's will, and applying that knowledge to my life both in what I do and in what I reject.

We talked about steadfastness in the previous lesson, which indicates that I need to continue in these virtues throughout the course of my life, consistently seeking God even when it becomes difficult - even when it costs me.

Godliness continues this idea of growth, because it calls me to see God in everything I do, every decision I make, every relationship in which I am involved. I do the right thing not just because it's the right thing (as we discussed in the lesson on virtue), but because it is in God's nature to act in this way.

The idea of godliness seems be that of everything in my life pointing me to God, as I seek to more closely conform myself to God's will.

We typically use the word "piety" rather than godliness, and in our culture, piety seems to be more and more interpreted as "self-righteous" or "hypocritical. But in reality, godliness is an expression of the opposite: it calls me to humility as I look to God and see myself, and how far above me God sits. It doesn't leave room for looking down and seeing who is below me.

We see three areas specifically where the Bible applies the concept of godliness:

1. Holiness (2 Peter 3:9-13): how do I live my life? Am I conducting myself as one who is part of the temple of God? Do I see my actions and attitudes as being reserved for submission to God and not self? When we live godly lives, we see ourselves as sanctified for God's work. I can be a moral person and still be ungodly; I can be a regular churchgoer and still be ungodly.
2. Worship (1 Timothy 3:14-15): How do I behave "in the house of God," as Paul phrases it to Timothy? When we see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, are we motivated to express that devotion to God in purity, in joy, and in complete submission? When I approach God to express worship, my attitude ought to always reflect a desire to seek God's will, to worship as God has called us to worship Him, and it leaves no room for worship that is designed purely to make me feel a certain way about myself. it leaves no room for elevating human tradition to the level of sacrament.
3. Teaching (1 Timothy 4:6-10): We teach the word of God in its purity and its entirety, because that's what builds us up and brings us closer in fellowship to God. We don't spend time on topics unrelated to our spiritual growth, diving into speculations as Paul warns Timothy and Titus on a number of occasions. Godly teaching is always about pointing people toward God, whether in understanding His divine character and plan, or learning how we can conform our own lives and character to His.