«　WEEK 23　DAY 2　»

　　John 8:32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

　　34 Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.

　　36 If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.

　　When the year of jubilee comes, we not only are returned to God as our possession, but we also obtain freedom and are released from the bondage of slavery. Today many people talk about freedom, civil rights, and human rights, but if man does not enjoy God, he cannot have real freedom....When people only speak about freedom without being returned to God, the result is that many problems are produced, and many evil things are brought in. Who has obtained real freedom? If someone says that he is so free that he can go freely to gamble, he does not realize that he has fallen into the slavery of gambling and is under more bondage than ever....The biblical principle is that we must first be returned to God before we can have freedom. If we want to obtain freedom without being returned to God, the result is that we do not have true freedom. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 4, "The Jubilee," pp. 24-25)

　　There is a sinning factor, an addiction to sinning, within man. This factor, this addiction, is Satan himself, and man is his captive. He has captured man and dwells in him as the inciting sin. First Satan captured us; then he came to dwell in us as the inciter, the instigator, of our sins. The result is that he has become our illegal master, and we have become his captives to the extent that we are unable to do good and can only commit sins. In the Bible, Satan is also called Beelzebul. According to the original language of the Bible, Beelzebul means "the lord of the dunghill," from the name meaning "the lord of flies." The top of a dunghill is covered with flies. As the lord of the dunghill, Satan specializes in leading flies to feed on dung; hence, he is also the lord of flies. Since he is the lord of flies, all sinners are like flies that follow Satan to "feed on dung." They go wherever there is a stench, following Beelzebul to feast on dung. Even upper-class people are like flies. Beelzebul can disguise himself with a high-class appearance so that all the "flies" following him appear to be of a high class. Such persons...dress nicely and are very cultured, and when they dance, they seem elegant. In actuality, however, they are "eating dung."

　　All the descendants of Adam are the captives of Satan; everyone has been captured by him. After he captured us, he entered into us as Beelzebul, the lord of flies, and began leading us about to commit sins. Deep in his heart, no one wants to sin, but when a person becomes addicted and is stirred up by Beelzebul, he has to follow, allowing himself to be led around "by the nose." Afterward, he regrets it and may say, "I am so stupid; what was I doing? Why did I have to do that?" Although deep in his heart no one wants to sin, eventually everyone sins. No one has control over himself, and everyone has become a slave of sin. This is why the Lord Jesus said, "Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin" (John 8:34).

　　Freedom means release, to be freed from all bondage, all heavy burden, all oppression, and all enslavement. Paul says that all things were lawful to him, but he would not be brought under the power of anything to be its slave (1 Cor. 6:12). Everything in our life can be a bondage to us, and we can be slaves under any matter. To pursue education is to be enslaved, and to not pursue education is also to be enslaved. The poor are ruled by poverty, and the rich are ruled by money; the Chinese expression for miser refers to one who is a slave of money. The jubilee is a matter of possession and also of freedom. The jubilee is to return those who are poor and who have lost God back to God as their possession, and it is also to proclaim release. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 4, "The Jubilee," pp. 29-30, 33)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1984, vol. 4, "The Jubilee," ch. 3