Is it possible to be free AND a servant? Is it possible to gain more freedom through deeper service? In humankind's darkened thinking, the answer seems to be, "No!" However, God's ways are not man's ways, and His thoughts are higher than man's thoughts.
The Apostle Peter understood the "freedom paradox," and he wanted his churches and all the generations of believers that would follow to understand that true freedom is only found when humans give themselves wholly to the service of God.
Paul would take it a step further. He would refer to himself as a "slave" to God. He understood true freedom was not total self-serving living but selfless service to God. For Paul, the greatest manifestation of freedom he could ever attain was to be a slave, bound by divine love to Jesus Christ.
This flies in the face of all human thinking. Like everything else about Jesus' Kingdom, it is upside down to this broken and sinful world. It has to be because the Kingdom of God is perfect, and this world is broken.