Christians Don’t Flaunt Freedom

There is a troubling trend in American Christianity to flaunt our freedom in front of everyone. I’m not sure what the reason is, but the desire for constant attention from ‘the opposition’ brings hatred rather than respect. If only we learned more lessons from the ancient Church.

In those days, Peter went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran and told that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, “You are mad.” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel!” But Peter continued knocking; and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell this to James and to the brethren.” Then he departed and went to another place.

Acts 12.12-17

After Peter was set free by God, he secretly made his way through town to where he knew he would find friendly brothers and sisters in Christ. He even ‘shushed’ them and quietly told them the story of the angels and the chains. This is a good example for us today.

Rather than screaming from the housetops that we are not bound by the rules of the world, we should live our faith quietly, yet always ready to defend our faith. Peter didn’t hide his faith. He just didn’t flaunt it. There is a difference.

The Church commemorates many martyr saints where their silent but unwavering faith inspired others to join Christ. We don’t hear about Christians ‘taking to the streets’ in the Acts of the Apostles. Many were dragged in front of city councils, but they didn’t go looking for trouble.

Just think of some of the ‘hot button’ topics of our day. What if, instead of protesting outside Planned Parenthood, we Christians quietly helped women in crisis to avoid abortions? What if, instead of tearing down trans-activist flags, we Christians quietly helped them in their struggle?

While there are cases, not many in reality, of saints tearing down pagan temples, more pagans were converted to Christ by witnessing quiet unwavering faith. Tearing down temples, the equivalent to public protests today, brough more anger than inspiration. We should inspire.

We live in a free society as Americans. So long as we are free to worship God, and live in the Orthodox Christian manner of living, we should focus on quiet unwavering faith. We should focus our attention on inspiring others to Christ rather than bullying them to Christ.

Back to today’s reading. Saint Peter was eventually caught and killed, but not before inspiring great crowds to join the Church and commit their life to Christ. If we really want America to become Orthodox Christian, and we should, then we should focus on inspiration.

We should never flaunt our Christian freedom as a ‘badge of honor’ because while it may be true that we are free, flaunting our freedom is prideful. We are called to humble faith, not prideful faith.

God has freed us from the chains of sin. Like Saint Peter, we must quietly make our way through life avoiding conflict if possible, so we can inspire others to join Christ and walk away from sin. Frankly, it was quiet unwavering faith that converted Rome, not pride.