Human rights and ethics have become a significant concern in the modern world. Be it the war of Ukraine vs Russia, Palestine vs Israel, the #BlackLivesMatter and those ACAB moments during the early pandemic, the so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) initiatives, and more. I usually have a neutral-oriented unwritten rule where I prefer to write competitors and enemies in an alphabetical order for the sake of fairness, so I should write “Russia” first before “Ukraine”, and “Israel” before “Palestine”. But that would just anger a small, but significant amount of readers who are currently willing to protest and do anything for the sake of “protecting the ethics and sustainability of humanity”. And sometimes, for the goodness taught according their religions. Unfortunately, as a fellow Christian, I’m afraid that such efforts do nothing for God. Boycotting a certain product for supporting warfare does not even count as a graceful act in the Bible. And God never promises us “liberation and true freedom” as what the world promises. The fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), aka. the things that we Christians expect to have after following His teachings, only consists of the following: [22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 NIV See? Where is the “freedom” that some people are finding? The freedom to live and express yourself? None were mentioned in the fruit of the Holy Spirit. But the freedom and human rights agenda are still building up the world in many ways, up to today’s 2024 Paris Olympics where the official mascots are based on the Phrygian cap, a popular conical hat in Europe that is often associated with liberation of the slaves. The Olympic (and the Paralympic) Phryge, official mascots for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic games. The Gospel never promised true freedom, yet “freed-from-sin” Christians are still depicted as slaves. In Christianity, freedom is depicted as a transfer of ownership and control from one party into another. In most cases, it’s about the transfer of our lives from Satan to God, but there are certain freedoms that were rights transfered by God into us, our human beings. Genesis 1:26-31 is clearly an example of the latter, but something just feels off in Romans 6:15-23. Many Bible language translators added an interesting headline about this part of the Scripture: “Slaves to Righteousness”. But this time, I am using the NLT version that does not include it: [15] Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! [16] Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. [17] Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. [18] Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living. [19] Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. [20] When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. [21] And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. [22] But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. [23] For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:15-23 NLT Clearly from verse 19, apostle Paul had to describe our new Godly relationship as, well, a slave to God, his righteousness, and his holiness. Why all of this? 1. Instead of promising freedom, God wants to exercise Himself as “the good Master”. It is true that our relationship with God is referred in many Biblical translations as “the Master and His servants”, not “the Master and His slaves”. But in some languages, the word “servant” is mostly synonymous to the word “slave”, like Malay’s hamba. Crossway, the publisher behind the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Holy Bible, have endorsed an article that deeply addressed the case of slavery as mentioned by Paul in Romans 6’s “slaves to righteousness”. In general, the Bible explicitly prohibits the forceful and violent acts of slavery as commonly depicted around the world. The Word of God also compels people to stop volunteering themselves into slavery, and encouraging them to get out from it if they can. So, knowing that word “slave” already had a bad connotation among the Jews and Romans, why Jesus decided to say something that could be associated with slavery: [28] “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭28‬-‭30‬ ‭NIV‬ There is a reason why God is often referred in English as “Lord” with the uppercase L, and even the all-uppercase “LORD” for Yahweh, while the lowercase “lord” often refers to a master who often own and control slaves. From the parables from Jesus Christ, we can always see God being depicted as a Father and a Master. Take The Parable of the Bags of Gold in Matthew 25:14-30, for example. [19] “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. [20] The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ [21] “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ Matthew 25:19-21 NIV And as Christians expect to know God as a Father and a Master, we can start to see more clearly, where Satan is trying everything to ruin the image of the Father and Lord, by making real fathers and lords fall into sins and label them bad. So is the depiction of God in Psalms 68:5-6: [5] A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. [6] God sets the lonely in families,    he leads out the prisonerswith singing:    but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. Psalms 68:5-6 NIV And our mission, still part of sharing the true Gospel, is to reintroduce the true images of the Father and Master. Not to join the growing mindset that masters are bad and will always be bad. 2. The “freedom agenda” is sinful in nature. So, if the Master wants to prove himself as Righteously Good, how about the evils? The one who breaks and runs away from the Master? In the Bible, we can see the first two recorded sins, from a fallen angel (Lucifer) to the fall of Eve and Adam, are nothing more than the gnostic, woke, liberation agenda that people are outreaching today. [12] “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! [13] You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; [14] I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ [15] But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. Isaiah‬ ‭14‬:‭12‬-‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬ [1] Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” [4] “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. [5] “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5 NIV See? It's all about breaking free from a system that bounds humanity (or spiritual beings) that shall be considered unethical by modern standards. But who gave the original idea of master and slave? Who give the original idea about systems? Is it definitely God who became the Master of His angels and the creator of the great systems of Earth and spiritual beings. 3. Because according to God, characters matter more than power. When you look at the case of Joseph, the one who probably wrote the most inspirational quote of the Bible: [20] As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. Genesis 50:20 ESV ...was a person who lost all his human rights to become slaves, and (stupidly, according to the worldly standards,) never attempted to kill himself as his human rights have already been killed for tens of years. Even though his rights were emasculated when he was sold, Joseph was still able to exercise self-control. He did not rebel to get out of his slavery. He was even faithful in his work, until the same God blessed the master's family. Even though he lost his safety when he was thrown into prison, Joseph was still able to exercise patience and loyalty. He even had to wait longer because the wine steward and the baker forgot to tell Pharaoh about his message and their testimonies. Then, when he had gained freedom as the ruler of Egypt, he still had self-control, continued to rely on God's wisdom and did not abuse his position. And finally, even though he had the right to take revenge on his brothers, he was very mature in self-control that those Instagrammable verse quotes were spoken and recorded in the Bible. And now what, Jesus Christ, our good Exemplary Servant and Master, also do not consider His rights as the Master, just like Joseph who did not fight to get his human rights back. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: [6] Who, being in very nature God,    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;[7] rather, he made himself nothing    by taking the very nature of a servant,    being made in human likeness.[8] And being found in appearance as a man,    he humbled himself    by becoming obedient to death—        even death on a cross! [9] Therefore God exalted him to the highest place    and gave him the name that is above every name,[10] that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,[11] and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,    to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11 NIV So, another thing about Jesus. Being 100% God and being 100% human, we believe Jesus as the great example of how humans should think and act. Apparently, He wants to prove that He does not need to do every God thing to make everyone convinced that He is God. Yes, He exercised His authority a God through healing and repelling evil spirits, but He never, for example, showed people off that unlike humans, he always walk in tangible miracles (e.g. flying or walking on water). Today’s pride is the definite opposite: everything must be shown on public to announce the difference and denounce God. Just like the Tower of Babel against the commandment of God go and “spread the Earth”: [4] Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4 NIV [27] So God created mankind in his own image,    in the image of God he created them;    male and female he created them. [28] God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:27-28 NIV The list of characters that God expect from us, believers, are listed as the Fruit of the Holy Spirit which contains nothing related to “freedom from slavery”, but self-control is one of them. In other words, God decided to make you free for a purpose, but the purpose itself is not freedom. Just like the beginning of this article, I believe that freedom in Christ is only all about that transfer of ownership. We are still owned by God as the Creator, and running our from our Owner is practically a sin that He treats very seriously. At the end, “free” does not always mean Holy and saved. Because it's plain simple: freedom to do anything also means freedom to sin in anything. And it’s symbolic and ironic at the same time that Stephen, the first recorded martyr of the Gospel, was dead because he was disliked by a group who called themselves the Synagogue of Freedmen, or the Libertini guys, in other translations of the Holy Bible (see Acts 6-8). Historical records suggest that, well, they are former slaves who are freed through manumission in the Roman empire. And did you know what kind of gift the Republican Rome gave to these ex-slaves? A hat. But not an ordinary hat. But the pileus hat, but later mistaken to be the Phrygian cap that also happens to represent the French revolution, and the official mascots of the Paris 2024 Olympics! So, the next time I saw another “woke” or “freedom” agenda, it’s just nothing but the spirits of the freedmen, just trying to fight and target the true Christians to be the next martyrs of Truth, like the cybermartyrdom of “transphobes”. As we come to the End Times, and evil people became more evil than ever, so are our goodness, gospel, and strong theology. Key Takeaways In Christianity, freedom is simply a transfer of our ownership from evil to God, and our responsibilities from God to humanity. Just as how Satan is ruining people’s perceptions of the Holy Father, Satan is also ruining the image of the Holy Master by ensuring that worldly fathers and masters are always bad, inhumane, and evil. For God, good characters (see the Fruit of the Holy Spirit) are more important than breaking out yokes and chains. While the world teaches us that freedom is “breaking out from slavery,” Christianity is nothing more than conducting ourselves as slaves to God.

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