“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.”

While they promise them liberty

The liberty that false teachers promised here is freedom from moral constraint. Preaching sensual pleasure must have been popular even on that day.

There is an ever-recurring confusion between liberty and license. Legalistic repression is no biblical value. The Bible asserts the right of individuals to make their own decisions. However, the Bible also asserts that our choices need to be responsible. We need to be accountable for the decisions we make. Freedom must operate under the framework of principle. We make choices based on principle.

False teachers promise liberty, but they cannot produce liberty. Politicians cannot create liberty. Only God can deliver true freedom.

Ga 5:1, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”

God bases true liberty on the principle of grace. Legalism attacks liberty. We cannot bully people into absolutes. Taboos will not produce absolutes. Neither can social action produce spirituality. True spirituality originates in God’s provisions on our behalf. 

Bible freedom also must operate within God’s overarching divine institutions, such as human government or the family.

they themselves are slaves of corruption

What a contradiction! False teachers promise liberty while they themselves are under slavery to their “corruption.” Their slavery was slavery to apostate sin. Sin vanquished their freedom.

No one can promise liberty without dealing with the root of spiritual slavery – sin. They are slaves to their own “corruption.” This is why politics (liberal or conservative) cannot solve man’s problems. Eliminating poverty, establishing a minimum income, or raising social security will not resolve man’s problem. The more we try to legislate to society, the more we enslave it. Politicians promise us the moon, but they can’t deliver.

for by whom a person is overcome

In the name of political freedom, people are in political bondage worldwide. Similarly, if we let religious leaders “overcome” or defeat us with their apostasy, we become their slaves!

by him also he is brought into bondage

The very people who say that they are giving us liberty enslave us. The very thing they promise us is the same thing they take from us. Socialism promises liberty but takes freedoms from the people to whom they promise it. Socialism ends in giving power and authority to politicians and government. Socialism always emphasizes the herd concept. God’s Word always emphasizes the rights of the individual. 

PRINCIPLE:

Where we eliminate the absolutes of the Bible, we enslave ourselves to sin.

APPLICATION:

The false teaching mode of operation is to promise liberty yet enslave their converts in sin. Religious pundits say, “We will set you free from your medieval religion. We will emancipate you from Victorian Christianity. We will free you so that you can do what you please. The puritanical morals of the Bible are passé.” They do not tell you that they are enslaving you to another system.

Mt 15:14, “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”

People today willingly consume apostate teaching, especially doctrine that frees them from biblical teaching. They love to hear it because it appeals to their lower nature. Little do they realize that this enslaves them to “corruption.”