Theology beacon dictionary of theology

But Christian freedom is primarily freedom from the compulsive power of sin (John 8:34; Rom. 6:5-23), man's obsessive illusion that he can secure life and freedom by his own power. "That which the Greeks regarded as the highest form of freedom . . . becomes in the NT the source of man's most abject bondage" (R. Tvente, "slave," NIDNTT, 3:597). Real freedom opens the possibility of a new kind of slavery after the pat­tern of the Liberator (cf. Matt. 20:26-28; John 13:12-17; Phil. 2:5-16; Rom. 6:22; 15:1-3), a ser­vice to the Lord (Rom. 12:11; 14:18; Col. 3:24) and one another (Gal. 5:13; 1 Cor. 9:19; 2 Cor. 4:5; Phil. 2:22) in the bond of peace and love (Eph. 4:3; Col. 3:14).

Christian freedom is a process arising from radical changes in value structure and behavior patterns (Gal. 5:1, 13, 19-23; 2 Cor. 5:14-21) which transforms the whole person (Romans 5—8; 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 3:17-18) and inspires hope (Rom. 8:18-30; the Greek parrhesia in the various NT contexts may be translated as either "free­dom" or "hope"). It begins in baptism (Rom. 6:3-11; Gal. 3:27-28; Col. 2:11-15), which estab­lishes the believer in the community of the free, the Body of Christ (Gal. 4:21-31; Rom. 8:21; Eph. 1:15-22; Col. 1:13-23). But it is not guaranteed by formal membership in the church, for although it is a gift of grace, it must be voluntarily preserved (Gal. 4:9, 21; 5:1, 13; Eph. 6:10-17). Freedom may be forfeited as easily in license as in legalism (1 Cor. 6:12-20; 9:1,12, 15,19; 10:23—11:1; Gal. 5:1-26; Col. 2:16-23). The Christian's theoretical freedom is voluntarily restricted in practice by expediency and the desire to edify (cf. 1 Cor. 4:14—11:1; especially 6:12; 9:1, 12, 15, 19-23; 10:23-24; Rom. 14:1—15:13).

Genuine human freedom has been effectively denied by a number of ideologies, both ancient and modern, e.g., astrological fatalism of the Hellenistic age, hyper-Calvinistic double predes­tination, modern behavioristic determinism. In every expression, whether the determining force be called Nature or God, it has borne the fruit of moral irresponsibility and license, the same abuses as unrestrained freedom. In contrast stands the paradox of Christian freedom, well described by Luther: "A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all."

See LICENSE. BONDAGE, PREDESTINATION, FATALISM,

DETERMINISM, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, CONTINGENT.

For Further Reading: Betz, Paul's Concept of Freedom;
Blunck, "Freedom," NIDNTT, 1:715-21; MacGregor,
"Freedom and Necessity," He Who Lets Us Be, 111-28;
Mundle, Schneider, and Brown, "Redemption, Loose,
Ransom, Deliverance, Release, Salvation, Savior,"
NIDNTT, 3:177-223; GMS, 116-19,265; Wiley, CT, 1:239;
2:130-31, 134, 356; 3:74-75. GEORGE LYONS

FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Freedom of speech is a particularly modern concept usually regarded as the bequest of the Enlightenment. Its roots are much older, surely fixed in the convictions of the prophets and apostles that they were called to freely speak God's Word. It was developed in the Christian humanism of Erasmus and his contem­poraries, and in the forerunners of the Reforma­tion like Wyclif, Tyndale, and Huss. Their quest for freedom of expression was contrary to the in­terests of a totalitarian church. Subsequently, Lu­ther stressed the concept of private judgment, emphasizing the responsibility of every individ­ual before God. While free speech was not ex­plicit in this concept, it was a natural and logical consequence of the doctrine. The logic was de­veloped by men like Castellio, who led the way toward religious toleration.

Vital support for free expression was given by Jeremy Taylor's Liberty of Prophesying. The En­lightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries gave impetus to free speech by appealing to the doctrine of natural right. William Blackstone, John Locke, and Richard Price espoused this pos­ition and the great leader of Methodism, Wesley, declared his fervent commitment to civil and re­ligious liberties rooted in natural right. Never­theless, freedom of expression had not arrived even in relatively liberal England. A common distinction was made between right to personal, private belief and the right to freely express that faith. The latter was denied. In America the Bill of Rights asserted freedom of speech as an irre­vocable benefit. Freedom of speech may be seen as the enduring contribution of religious men in search of an unconstrained witness to their faith.

Any commentary on freedom of speech must address the issue of the lawless and socially irre­sponsible expression of any freedom. No person has the freedom to cry "Fire!" in a crowded the­ater if there is no fire. Freedom of speech requires responsibility and the appropriate time and place for sharing one's opinions. Yet, neither president nor pope have the unqualified right to silence dissenting voices. In time of war there must be a "clear and present danger" before free speech may be curtailed. Refusal by religious leaders to permit free and frank discussion about the issues



228

FRIENDSHIP—FRUIT OF THE VINE


of the faith prevent an adequate exploration of the margins of the faith, depriving the people of God of the truths which Scripture expounds. Sensitive as the issue is, the right of free expres­sion must be seen as one of the great benefits of civil and ecclesiastical society. Scarcely any peril is as serious as the deliberate, coercive restraint of free speech. In the end, to deny it may be far more damaging to any society than the evils which sometimes flow from an extreme form of free expression.

See FREEDOM, ACCOUNTABILITY, CIVIL RIGHTS. For Further Reading: DeWolf, Responsible Freedom.

There are at least three basic elements in friendship. First, there is the element of choice. While we have no choice in the selection of our parents or our siblings, friendships cannot be forced upon us. Friendships are freely chosen.

A second basic element in friendship is that of sharing. Friendships begin with a shared hobby or interest, a shared appreciation of a particular author or composer, a shared fondness for a cer­tain type of food or style of art, or even shared dislikes.

The third element of friendship, that of sepa­ration, logically follows from the first two. On the basis of that which they share, those who are friends have freely chosen to draw apart from the crowd of companions.

Friendships, as such, are amoral. They can be experienced by saint and sinner alike, and they can be either ennobling or degrading. Jesus said, "I have called you friends" (John 15:15); and James reminds us that Abraham was called "the Friend of God" (Jas. 2:23); but James also warns that "friendship with the world is hostility to­ward God" (4:4, nasb). Not only does this warn­ing spell out the danger of friendship with the wrong object, but when taken with John's state­ment that "if any one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15, nasb), it demonstrates the close relationship between friendship and love.

See LOVE, KOINONIA, GREAT COMMANDMENTS.

For Further Reading: Lewis, The Four loves, 87-127;
Marty, Friendship. GLENN R. BORING

FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT. Bible scholars are generally agreed that the fruit of the Spirit differs from the gifts of the Spirit. This distinction seems clear in the NT. The Spirit bestows His gifts severally ac­cording to His sovereignty, for usefulness in the church. The fruit of the Spirit expresses growing Christlikeness of character and is the product of the Spirit's indwelling. No one gift is God's will for all believers, but every manifestation of fruit is God's will for all.

The most familiar passage is Gal. 5:22-23: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, pa­tience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentle­ness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law" (niv). Here the fruit of the Spirit is set against the background of the evil works of the flesh (w. 15-21).

Love, joy, and peace, as the first triad, are con­cerned primarily with the state of the believer's relationship to the Spirit. Patience, kindness, and goodness describe the Spirit's outworking through the believer in his relation to others. Faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, the third triad, indicate the influence of the Spirit upon the character of the believer. No amount of culture, education, or effort on man's part that is not motivated by God's Spirit can produce the fruit of Christian character. Character is what one is. Christian character is what a person can acquire through the growth and development of the fruit of the Spirit.

See GRACE, GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT, GROW (GROWTH), HOLINESS, LOVE, HOLY SPIRIT.

For Further Reading: Carter, The Person and Ministry
of the Holy Spirit; Barclay, The Promise of the Spirit; Ar-
thur, The Tongue of Fire. LESLIE PARROTT

FRUIT OF THE VINE. The most familiar use of this expression in Scripture is no doubt the words of Jesus at the Last Supper (Mark 14:25; cf. Matt. 26:29; Luke 22:18). The phrase is a metonym for wine, which was itself a metaphor of His fellow­ship with them in His heavenly kingdom. The sacrament points forward ("till he come," 1 Cor. 11:26), as well as back to Calvary. Indirectly the phrase "fruit of the vine" could be linked to Jesus' discourse on the Vine and the branches in John 15:1-8. There will be no drinking of the "fruit of the vine" with Christ then if there is no abiding and fruitbearing now.

On the other hand, Jesus' statement reminds one of the symbolism of the new wine of the Kingdom which bursts the old wineskins of Ju-

See holy communion, fruit of the spirit.

God's commands were fulfilled. For example, on the first day God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And so the creation story progresses. God commands, and the work is done.

God also promises. He promised (predicted) judgment if His explicit command was disobeyed (Gen. 2:17). The later record proves that in fact man did die to innocence, to holiness, to fellow­ship with God. But after the Fall, God promised a Savior (or so the word is commonly taken): "her seed . . . shall bruise thy head" (3:15). And Paul specifically refers that "seed" to the prom­ised Savior (Gal. 3:16).

God promised Abraham that in him all nations of the earth would be blessed. No one can read the history of economics, of medicine, of law, or of philosophy, without realizing that the ful­fillment has far exceeded the numerical potential of Abraham's seed.

God also promised that "in the fullness of time" He would send forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law, born of a virgin and born in Bethlehem, and the promises were fulfilled. He also promised that His Son would be denied, abused, crucified; all that was fulfilled to the letter—so literally, in fact, that on the Cross in the final hours, not one bone of Christ was broken.

God promised the resurrection of His Son. All those promises were fulfilled, as Peter so elo­quently testified at the Jerusalem Pentecost: "It was not possible that he should be holden of" death (Acts 2:24).

After His resurrection Christ pledged to "send the promise of my Father upon you" (Luke 24:49). The promise was kept (Acts 1:8; 2:4). And He promised that the gates of hell would never prevail against the Church. As the Church has trusted her living Lord through the centuries, it has prevailed.

God has promised the restoration of Israel to their own land; He has promised "the restitution of all things." Some of these promises have been and are being fulfilled; some seem to be defi­nitely future.

The last book of the Bible, the Revelation, not only promises the fulfillment of God's un­breakable Word; the text often describes just how that fulfillment will be accomplished. Though we cannot, with mathematical certainty, outline the exact events of fulfillment, we Christians are fully persuaded that what God has promised He is fully able—and utterly dependable—to per­form.

The final chapters of the Revelation describe the final fulfillments of all God's promises, to the ungodly and to the godly. And if we believe Gen­esis 1, we shall certainly believe Revelation 21—22.

See perfect (perfection), promise, moral attri­butes of god, prophet (prophecy), hope.

For Further Reading: Baker's DT, 231; "Promise and
Fulfillment," DCT, 277. george E. failing