Read: 2 Peter 2:10b-22

Free to Follow

They promise them freedom, but they themselves
are slaves of corruption. (v. 19)
In college, I attended several dance shows. The freedom the dancers expressed came from countless hours of practice. What popularly is called “dancing”—stepping out and flailing one’s body—is not true dance. Dance requires restraint and structure. The beauty of the dance is not from spontaneous actions but through the ease of movement that is a result of hours of diligent work. Through purposefully training their bodies, true freedom is able to emerge.
Peter is writing to a church surrounded by a culture that adored freedom from restraint. The world had grown “bold and willful” (v.10) in pursuing their desires. Their motto seemed to be: if it could be done, it should be done. This lack of restraint, like a flailing body on the dance floor, led more to injury and pain than liberation. They had become enslaved to their own desires (v. 19). Sound familiar? Peter could have been writing just as easily about our world today.
Instead of unrestrained freedom, Christ grants freedom to follow him. Our Lenten journey is an exercise of just such freedom. This freedom is exercised in restraint—refusing some practices, beginning others. It involves placing ourselves on the path of Christ that we might, by the work of the Spirit, walk in his freedom. —Stephen Shaffer

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the true freedom of life in Christ