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2 Peter 2:18-20 – Enslaved Freedom
Should I call this concept “Free Slavery” or “Enslaved Freedom?” The oxymoronic aspect is immediately obvious. Sadly, what it describes is not so obvious, nor so immediate.
The text which describes this uneasy alignment is found in 2 Peter 2:18-20 HCSB For uttering bombastic, empty words, they seduce, by fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error. (19) They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them. (20) For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first.
Preachers, who deceptively claim to preach Christ but still live like the world, can be attractive to weak Christians struggling with their fleshly desires. No one likes living with a guilty conscience, nor with personal struggles. The ones who escaped slavery begin to think, “Hey, I don’t have to change!” Freedom! So they think.
These preachers of impiety promise freedom. Freedom can be a powerful motivator, especially freedom from guilt. However, by “freedom” some simply mean free from rules. Freedom from rules leads to freedom from morality. Freedom from morality leads to … losing control … which leads to addiction, disease, guilt, broken relationships – slavery. For by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved (2 Peter 2:20 NASB).
Rules and morality are not designed to enslave us, but to free us: Freedom from sin and the effects of sin and also freedom from ourselves. God’s way is the good way. God’s way is true freedom. But sadly, the slavery that comes from moral freedom is not so obvious, nor so immediate. And these preachers and their captives are more than oxymoronic. They are morons!
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