In recent years we’ve seen how declining moral standards have become increasingly acceptable in societies around the world. Most have embraced the idea that freedom should enable us to live however we please, which is more often than not contrary to God’s commandments.
The Bible is clear we cannot simply follow the desires of our heart. The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah wrote: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). The Apostle Paul also warned: “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:6-8).
Paul also wrote about the life-styles and behaviours that would prevail before the return of Jesus Christ: “… in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1-4).
Mankind has rejected God’s commandments and has sown the ills we now suffer as a society. According to a 2015 poll, Barna Group found that around two-thirds of American adults either believe that moral truth is relative to circumstances, or haven’t given it much thought. Only one-third believe moral truth is absolute (https://www.barna.com/research/the-end-of-absolutes-americas-new-moral-code/).
Without absolute truth, people are left free to gratify their desires according to their own interpretation of moral truth.
Christ declared absolute truth regarding principles and morality is found only in God’s instruction book. He spoke about truth and freedom, promising, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32), and also prayed to His Father concerning His followers: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17).
Once we realise that Jesus died on our behalf to pay the spiritual death penalty for us, we then ought to understand our reasonable service is to dedicate ourselves to Him as a “living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1). Scripture instructs us to: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). Jesus, quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3, said: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
Serving God means that we consciously seek to do His will in our lives and allow Jesus to live within us through the literal power of God’s Holy Spirit to inspire our thoughts and guide our actions (Galatians 2:19-20). A bondservant of God strives to live according to His perfect law and partake of the many blessings that He desires to give us (Matthew 11:28-30).
Freedom is a paradox. If we are free to do whatever we please, we become a slave of our desires. However, if we choose to serve God as a bondservant, then we are no longer a slave of sin and can know true freedom, which requires accepting Jesus as our Lord and Master, and the perfect law of God as a boundary for our self-destructive desires.
