A number of years ago (about ten?) our daughter was employed by a good business, but the people who operated it did so in what was obviously a dysfunctional fashion. From the outside looking in, it seemed that while they cared about and for their clients, the employees were not respected or well-cared-for.
We encouraged her to look for another job, made suggestions, asked around, but we were pushing a rope, until one day she applied for a different job in the same industry, landed it, and has thrived ever since.
A month or so after she made the change, we asked her why she stayed in the (gosh-awful) job so long. She replied with a self-awareness I did not see coming, “Why does an abused spouse stay in a relationship?” Honestly, I sat at the table with my mouth hanging open.
What is it that keeps us as slaves to sin, employees in a dysfunctional job, abused spouses in a bad marriage?
Don’t hear me suggest that you quit your job or file for divorce. That may be the open door for you, but in some jobs it is my obstinance that makes it bad or my self-centeredness that makes the relationship intolerable. A good honest self-reflection is always called for.
But that self-reflection can also help us to see how we surrender our freedom to live as Christ-followers and act as slaves to sin instead.
As Bob Dylan sang (after his conversion to the Christian faith in the late 70’s), “You gotta serve somebody; it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody.”