We would say it differently in our day.
We would use the word, "allow" or "permit."
Paul is speaking to a church which was incapable of taking a stand against the ones who brought things which limited them.
Without full freedom we cannot be fully free!
In so many areas it is possible, like Lazarus, to still be bound by the grave clothes of the past.
It is possible, in spite of having found God's Salvation, to find the life of God choked by old structures which we have never fought to free ourselves from.
It is possible to tag the new onto the old, and live all our lives bound with "ball and chain."
It is possible for knowledge, "taught by the precept of men," (Is 29.13)
to supplant the quickening influences of the Spirit of God.
And it is possible for the things the brain has learned,
to supplant the vision that the Spirit of God would give.
It is possible for our fears to become greater than our trust.
"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (Jn. 8.36)
What a place is offered us.
What a place to dwell.
Unbound!!!
Free to "follow the Lamb, whithersoever He goeth." (Rev. 14.4)
Free to lift ones eyes to God's horizons.
Free to hear God's voice.
Free, like Peter, to step out of the limited safety of a floating boat,
and walk the waves with the Savior.
Amen and Amen!
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