Like a Fish Out of Water
Like a Fish Out of Water
The phrase “like a fish out of water” needs little explanation if you’ve ever actually
seen a fish out of water. What was a few moments before the definition of grace
and beauty suddenly becomes a wriggling, flopping, creature bent on chaos.
Now imagine seeing a fish swimming along in a clear mountain stream, living his
best fish life. Then someone comes along and snatches him out of the water,
tosses him onto the grass, and declares him, “Free from the bondage of water!!!”
Keep that image in mind for just a few minutes.
We live in a world with a tragic misunderstanding of what freedom is. For far too
many people the word freedom means the ability to do whatever they want,
whenever they want, without consequence or challenge.
We’re told that the sin of homosexuality is really just the freedom to “love who
you want”. Transgenderism is the freedom to express your “gender identity”.
Shouting vile words of hate and anger are “freedom of expression”. And in the
most tragic example we see the murder of unborn children called “reproductive
freedom”.
None of this represents a true understanding of Biblical freedom. The freedom
we read about in the New Testament has nothing to do with our external
circumstances, or relationships, or desires. The freedom we find in Christ, the
only freedom that matters, has to do with our relationship to our Savior.
Peter tells us that we should live as people who are free. But the freedom that
Peter describes doesn’t look like people doing whatever they want. The freedom
that Peter describes looks like honoring our fellow man, submitting to the
government, and serving God.
1 Peter 2:13-17 Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution,
whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him
to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is
the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the
ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your
freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor
everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
If you read beyond vs.17 you’ll see that this even applies to slaves. Even slaves
who are mistreated and beaten by their masters.
1 Peter 2:18-20 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not
only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious
thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering
unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you
endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a
gracious thing in the sight of God.
How do we explain these ideas that are so seemingly contradictory? Peter tells us
to live as people who are free, then gives a long list of who we should submit to,
even when they’re cruel and harmful to us. Peter resolves this apparent conflict
in vs. 21-25.
1 Peter 2:21-25 For to this you have been called, because Christ also
suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his
steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When
he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not
threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He
himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and
live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were
straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer
of your souls.
The case that Peter lays out is this… Christ, as our creator and the king of our life,
lived as a servant, washing the feet of those who would betray him and died a
cruel death for the sake of those who crucified him.
The freedom that Christ experienced as our all-powerful God was a life lived in
subjection to his father and consistent with his all-just, all-loving, and all-
merciful character. True freedom is found in living a life pleasing to God
because, as Peter says, God is a Shepherd who found us as straying sheep and
healed our wounds.
The freedom we see in the Bible is a life free from the condemnation of sin,
serving the one who gave us that freedom.
Remember the fish we talked about earlier? When the fish was removed from the
environment he was designed for, when he was taken away from what he truly
needed to live and prosper, he wasn’t “free”. And just like with that fish, we can’t
find freedom outside of the life we were designed to live.
True freedom isn’t found in serving nothing, or being a slave to ourselves. True
freedom in this life is found in serving the one who has given us hope in a better
life to come.
- Eric Wise
Accept what is . . .
Let go of what was . . .
Have faith in what
will be.
He that would live in peace and ease
must not speak all he knows
nor judge all he sees.
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