Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to a special-edition series of the Kingdom Perspective.

What should we do in the face of the coronavirus pandemic?

We must determine not to be driven by a selfish understanding of freedom, but by how the Bible defines freedom—which is, loving obedience to God’s commandments, especially the command to love one’s neighbor.

Biblically speaking, freedom is not defined by rights (i.e. me getting what I want without the inference of others), but by obedience to God’s commandments. Freedom as defined by individual rights may be helpful political ideology. Indeed, as a red-blooded American I certainly think so. However, this is not the most basic biblical understanding of freedom.

Listen to Psalm 119

I will always obey your law,
for ever and ever.
I will walk about in freedom,
for I have sought out your precepts.

Freedom is obedience to God’s commandments. Remember, God commanded Pharaoh to set the Children of Israel free, in order that they might serve the Lord. Submission to God is freedom. And it was after the nation was delivered from slavery in Egypt that God gave them commandments. Why? So that they might fully realize the benefits of that freedom. Freedom is defined not by rights but by obedience to God’s commandments.

Now, if obedience to God’s commandments is true liberty, then what is the essence of what God commands? Love. The New Testament repeatedly reminds us that the law of God is summed up (or fulfilled) in one commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

And that is true freedom.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.