Salt, Paint...

 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. (Galatians 5:13)

 

The word pure isn’t in this verse, but it was the verse of the day on the Bible platform I use, and while it doesn’t include the word, it adds to our understanding of it. We are to be free. Freedom is pure. But, we must not use our freedom to indulge our flesh, because indulging our flesh introduces impurities to that freedom.

When I put it that way, it seems easy. It’s black and white. Murder, theft, rape, abuse, treason, adultery, drug abuse - these all clearly contaminate. No problem. But let’s say I put a few grains of salt in your morning coffee or a drop of black paint in your gallon of white paint. Is your coffee or your paint contaminated? Several years ago, I learned a neat trick. Adding a little salt to bitter coffee removes the bitterness. Salt can make things taste good and can help preserve them. Salt is a good thing.

This past winter, I got some white paint for my Florida room. They started with the base that certainly looked white to me, and added some black, and (I think) a couple other colors. It still looked white, but now it was (technically) a shade of white. I chose that shade among all the others, and I like it. It’s a good thing.

But we also know that salt contributes to high blood pressure and eventually ruins the flavor of the thing to which it was added. And we know that at some point, if we keep adding black paint, we won’t be dealing with a shade of white anymore. It will become a shade of gray. Neither salt nor black paint are bad things. But adding a few grains or a drop contaminates. The thing we have put it on or in is no longer pure. We may tolerate the difference - we may even like it, but it’s no longer pure. The same is true when we add “flesh” to freedom. It may seem OK or beneficial, but it is probably no longer freedom because the flesh is insidious.