Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Corinthians 3:17
In 2007 I wrote and published my book, Silenced in the Schoolhouse, from my research for my doctoral dissertation. My premise was that Biblical literacy had a direct affect on the behaviors of people. As part of my research, I spent over four years reading the writings of America’s founders. It was clear that these men were extremely knowledgeable about the Bible and believed that non-sectarian (non-denominational) Christianity should be the foundation of our nation and education in schools. The believed this because they realized that the only way people can have freedom is if they do not have oppressive laws from a centralized government to control their behaviors. However, they also realized that without these laws, there would be anarchy. Therefore, they came to the conclusion that if the hearts of the people are ruled by the Holy Spirit, then laws would not have to be passed to control behaviors. This made them realize that freedom gives people the right to live according to the dictates of his conscience. But, there was one condition. Man’s conscience must be anchored on a belief system that placed loving God and loving your neighbor above yourself or else the nation would never survive. The Bible teaches us that we are either led by the Holy Spirit or we are led by our flesh (Galatians 5:14-26). Our flesh uses our lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride as our motivator (James 1:12-16; 1 John 2:15-16). The Holy Spirit uses our love for Christ, because of what He did out of love for us (1 John 4:19). Therefore, when we are motivated by God’s love to Him, it motivates us to love our neighbor above ourselves to please him. We do not need laws to control us, we have the Spirit that we received at the moment of salvation who gives us liberty. Meditate upon this: After what He did for us, isn’t it our reasonable service to give our lives in service as a living sacrifice to Him (Romans 12:1-2)?
