Better than Freedom

Patristic theology, and traditional teachings of Orthodoxy from the Church fathers of apostolic times to the present. All forum Rules apply. No polemics. No heated discussions. No name-calling.
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GOCPriestMark
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Better than Freedom

Post by GOCPriestMark »

“Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”

There are two gifts of God which he here points out. The “freeing from sin,” and also the “making them servants to righteousness,” which is better than any freedom. For God hath done the same as if a person were to take an orphan, who had been carried away by savages into their own country, and were not only to free him from captivity, but were to set a kind father over him, and bring him to very great dignity. And this has been done in our case. For it was not our old evils alone that He freed us from, since He even led us to the life of angels, and paved the way for us to the best conversation, handing us over to the safe keeping of righteousness, and killing our former evils, and deadening the old man, and leading us to an immortal life.

St. John Chrysostom Homily XI On Romans Chapter VI [Verse 18]

It is not like I was looking for something to post about freedom today, I wasn't. But this is part of St. John Chrysostom's commentary on the Epistle for this Sunday.
Essentially he says; though freedom is a great gift, yet it is an even greater gift to become a servant of righteousness, to be called a son of God.

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Priest Mark Smith
British Columbia

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