"The point that I am making here is that we all serve something in life. We all serve "gods" in so far as what we serve promises us, even if in our own minds, life in some sense. And so the question is whether or not what we serve is setting us free to live life in the fullest as consistent with who we are and the nature of the world, or are the things we serve putting us in bondage such as to deprive us of real human flourishing. Perhaps another way to explain this is to say that we are really never absolutely free. Our freedom is always a relative freedom -- relative to serving something that serves our human flourishing, or something that doesn't. Freedom, whenever it is spoken of, is always relative to something we are set free from in order to be free to. And so the question is this -- are we serving that which can deliver what we really need to flourish, or is it something that saps life from us? When we want "freedom," isn't it that we are really wanting to give ourselves to something that is life giving and life fulfilling?
It is therefore perhaps a great irony to some of us that the very word "sin" that we often associate with "freedom" and "fun" is used to describe something that enslaves us throughout the Bible! (Rom. 6:20). That is to say that our lives can never be a life of no service (of no "gods"), rather our lives are always lived serving something. And if it promises us "life," however we define it, then it is our "god(s) in a sense. " And so the question is this, can what we ultimately serve deliver real and abundant life? If it can't, it is oppressive, promising life, if but in our own minds, but unable to deliver it in any full and deep sense.
And so one reason we need God is to be free -- free from the fear of others opinions of us if we serve other people or social prestige, free from the fear of failure if we serve our jobs, free from the fear of condemnation if we serve morals or religious devotion even. And not only do we need God to set us free FROM the things that oppress us, we need God to set us free TO the fullest experience and participation of those things that God has given us to enjoy! To be sure, it would be for another time, to talk about all the "do's" in the Bible -- sex and romance, wine, vocation, deep and meaningful relationships, the arts, nature -- the list could go on and on as to the "do's" that pertain to all of these things and more, and always with a basic caveat, "do it better with God than without!"
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