Thursday, July 09, 2009

Taking captivity captive


In Ephesians 4:8 is says
"When he [Jesus] ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive".
Jesus, our messiah, takes captivity captive. He said at one time that he came to set us free. If Jesus' mission was to set people free, as his followers we most make sure that we don't make people captive. If we are honest too often the church has bound and held people captive instead of bringing them to Jesus who sets them free.
The institution of the church has held many people captive. We feel this need to insure that our institution or program survives. The institution or program holds us as slaves. We become competitive with other churches and other programs within "our church". Instead of serving in love and freedom, we end working because of guilt and fear.
Guilt and fear are two weapons the church has often used to keep people under control - enslaved. Enslaved to our institutions or to our idea of morality.
But Jesus died to set us free. And the one Jesus has set free is free indeed.

1 comment:

Sister C said...

Good words Ben. I'm glad your back to blogging and putting your insights out there.