This weekend many will be celebrating the Fourth of July with picnics, parades and fireworks. This celebration dates back to 1776 when colonial citizens revolted against their English rulers and founded our nation. It is rooted in a desire for freedom, and with many hard battles fought to give us the freedoms we now enjoy and have been blessed with.

Freedom is nothing new. We all look for various freedoms — like to be free from pain and suffering, free from oppression and hardship, and to be free to express ourselves. As a nation, we enjoy free speech, freedom to worship, and freedom to bear arms, to name a few. But those freedoms are always under threat of being lost. We must be vigilant in defending those freedoms.

As a believer in Jesus, I have also found a more profound “freedom,” one that begins with faith in Jesus. Because of what Jesus has done for me, I no longer live enslaved to sin and death. I am free! I no longer need to fear sin, death, or the devil.

St. Paul describes this in Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

St. Paul reminds me that Jesus sets me free from the guilt and the power of sin in my life. And he warns me not to return to my sin, lest I be tempted again into that yoke he describes as slavery. When you lie, you become a liar. When you have sex outside of marriage, you are an adulterer. When you drink too much, you are a drunkard. But Jesus comes to set us free from the guilt, shame, and bondage of all of our sins, to wipe the slate clean. And that slate needs cleaning, daily!

But that freedom comes with responsibility. St. Paul writes (vv. 13-14) “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”

Jesus came to set us free, not just as an individual, but as a people, and as a nation. As you celebrate your earthly freedoms as Americans, don’t forget the responsibility to guard those freedoms, especially for those less fortunate. And if you are a Christian, live out the freedom won for you through Jesus Christ. How do you do that? St. Paul concludes by saying, “The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

As you go about your festivities this weekend, look for ways to show God’s love in your life, by finding ways to show love to others, especially those that might not expect or deserve it. And if you don’t know the freedom Christ has in store for you, visit a church, talk to a Christian, or a pastor! God wants to set you free to be all he wants you to be!