What does it mean to be free? I heard David Carr (the drummer of the popular Christian band Third Day) say something along the lines of, “Ultimate Freedom is when we say, ‘I can do anything I want, but I am going to choose to do what is right.’” That statement struck me as being full of wisdom. We immediately think of freedom as doing whatever we want to do, when in fact freedom is much more than that. Ultimate freedom is not “doing” whatever we want to do but it is “being able” to do whatever we want to do and “choosing” not to do it. Let me explain:
The Bible speaks of us having freedom or the ability to do what we want. For instance, the apostle Paul tells the Corinthians that they can do whatever they want, everything is permissible for them but that certainly does not mean they should do everything that is permissible for them to do. Not everything that we have the ability to do is beneficial for us.
“Everything is permissible for me”–but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”–but I will not be mastered by anything. “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food”–but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. - 1 Corinthians 6:12-13
It is likely that Paul is quoting the Corinthian congregation who is boasting about their ability to do anything they pleased. Paul points out that such freedom does not benefit the Christian. They claimed that their sexual practices were as natural as eating and digesting food and therefore it was ok to indulge in such acts.
Paul declares that while we may be free to fill the burning lusts of our flesh, it is not beneficial and it is not true freedom. The lusts of the flesh can become our masters, controlling us. We become slaves to our inner desires, our flesh, and our lusts. Being a slave to sin is not freedom.
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. - Galatians 5:13
Paul tells the brethren in Galatia that they should never use their freedom to do the wrong thing. Freedom does not mean we should go out and do whatever we please, however freedom does mean that we can serve God to the fullest. We have the ability to use freedom for the things that are benefical to us such as serving God and others in love.
Live as free men, but do not use your feedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. - 1 Peter 2:16
The apostle Peter declares that we should live as free men, but not for our own evil. He says this in relation to submitting to every authority instituted among men. To live as free men is to live under authority of men and yet to not use such freedom as a cover up for evil. We are still under the authority of God as servants of Christ.
While the Bible declares that we are free and anything is permissible, it is clear that those things are not beneficial to believers. Ultimate freedom is not doing what we want. Doing whatever we want, when we want, is selfishness and we become slaves to desire. To be free is to have the ability to do anything, but to choose to do what is right. Freedom from sin and guilt is in Christ and in our obedience to Him.
Wow! this is an excellent post.
I’ve always struggled with the “everything is permissible” phrase. I mean, how is *everything* permissible as a follower of Christ when He spells out many things that we *should not* do? Or does teh permissibleness come about because of the fact that God’s grace covers all of us as believers?
Paul is not saying that sexual immorality is allowable or permitted as a Christian, he is simply quoting what the Corinthians were saying. They were saying that they could do whatever they wanted to do (”everything is permissable”), but Paul was saying that while it may be within the power of the individual to participate in these things, it is certainly not benefical thing to do(but not everthing is beneficial). It’s permissible in that it is something you are able to do. It’s not beneficial, however, in that it is not God’s purpose, it is sinful.
Indeed! All people deserve Freedom, it’s the most important thing! But no one should be free to get away with sin (or at least those sins that are defined as crimes against humanity). Indeed a great definition of Sin is “Limiting the Freedom of other people. - Or robbing people of their Freedoms”
And you can further see the opposing dynamics of Freedom and Sin when you look at the world and its history. When the United States economy was based off of slavery, the slaveholders participated in crimes against humanity and robbed slaves of their Freedoms. The slaveholder had many freedoms. He could go wherever he wanted. He could buy whatever he wanted to buy. He controlled his life. He made active decisions for his future. He had a Free Will and lived a peaceful existence.
On the other hand slaves where severely limited. They were bound to their masters and had to do whatever was commanded of them. They could not go wherever they wanted or buy whatever they wanted. They could not make their life decisions or control their future. They had no free will and most lived unmerciful existences.
If you’re not a monster or a Demon you oppose that situation. History is filled with such examples worldwide and to this day the world is filled with similar Injustices. But we should also oppose all forms of Freedom Robbery and “serve one another in love.”
And I think paying too much attention to petty things (like which foods are evil or not? Which is the proper sexual attitude?) can lead us off the beaten path of what’s really Important for our Neighbors and Brothers and Sisters.
John I would have to disagree with you. A definition of sin would be “those things that are hostile to God.” The things that God declares as sin and the things that are against Him and His glory are sinful things. While crimes against humanity can certainly fit into that category, that within itself is not a very good definition of what sin is. Sin takes on many forms and to limit it to simply crimes against humanity is insufficent.
Jesus declares the greatest commandment to be “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart.” That means that first and foremost sin is a crime against God Himself. Then Jesus said, “the SECOND one is like the first, Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” This would be a crime against others. To focus so much on the human side of spirituality is to miss the point all together since Christianity within itself is about God and His own glory.
Freedom is like swimming. Though you might do anything you want, it’s a lot more pleasant experience when you follow the basic rules to stay afloat and not drown.
I’ve been working on a mini-series that takes one through this concept. It argues for a righteousness from God that is shown in the fruits of the spirit and in general obedience. When the heart is turned by God, to God, for God’s purpose, the good works cease to be legalistic or pious, but are ratified through the joy of the Lord within us.
Great points you have here! I may link to this one on the series.
But Pressed, you can’t ignore the Reality of things.
If I deny you your Freedoms you cannot “Love the Lord with all your heart”. Without Freedom for your Body to live and your Mind to think peacefully you will have a severely weakened if not cut off relationship with God.
For instance, in the case of the Holocaust victims, the people were put into concentration camps until many just died of starvation or other torture. Okay, they couldn’t serve God by helping their Neighbor there. I mean they could help by assisting them in psychological support and sharing food rations - which is surely Godly, but it wasn’t enough. The forces around them were too powerful for them to overcome and outside Neighbors did not come to help them. Once their Bodies were dead they couldn’t serve God at all.
And the past and present is filled with such examples in varying degrees.
Now if “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart” means helping people whose Freedoms have been limited like these cases, it can still both be Jesus’s first command and the second commandment at the same time.
And to put it another way. What is really “hostile towards God?” We can’t hurt him. I mean he lives in heaven or some other place. The only people we can hurt is other people here and maybe the Earth itself (which when hurt badly would certainly hurt other people).
I think a good God’s main concern would be for his creation. I doubt he’s concerned with himself that much.
John D,
I have to disagree with you on the points that you’re trying to make. I understand that you believe that humans should be free, free to choose, free to make decisions, free to determine their own paths, however, freedom is found only in Christ. True freedom means that we can choose to do what’s wrong, or we can choose to do what’s right. In any situation, whether we are enslaved, whether we are in a concentration camp, we are still called by God to do what is right. The Jews who were arrested and tortured still had the opportunity to choose to do what was right with the situation they were in, or they could choose to defy God. No matter what, no matter how much we go through, no matter how beaten down and neglected we are or feel that we are, we are still free to choose to live a life glorifying God.
As for your last statement in your final entry, “I think a good God’s main concern would be for his creation. I doubt he’s concerned with himself that much.” I am going to use John Piper’s words, which he shared at the Passion conference this winter, “God loves His glory more than He loves us.” This, John, is so true. How could a God who created us, who knew us from the very beginning of time, who knows every hair on our heads, not desire to be glorified for what He’s done. God created us to bring glory to Himself, not to bring glory to us. When we take God’s glory for our own and make ourselves look better, we are slapping God in the face. We were put on this earth for one purpose, to sing the praises and glory of God, until one day, we will spend eternity in heaven, continually glorifying Him as well. How could God glorify us, a wicked, despicable people, who constantly blaspheme His name, using our freedoms to do completely the opposite of what He calls us to? While God does love us unconditionally and does forgive us when we ask to be forgiven when we use our freedom for evil gain, we are blessed that we even have the opportunity to glorify Him, after all, He created us. When we bring glory to ourselves and turn the focus on us, we are falling into the trap of a prideful, arrogant spirit, and God is not glorified through this, at all.
John 13:32 says “If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him at once.” Jesus desired for God to be glorified, rather than for the glory to be brought to Him. We can only find glory in God, for when we glorify Him, he is glorified, and then we will be glorified through Him, just as Jesus was.
Kendall,
I don’t think you are using your imagination on this one. My point was that the obligation for the Christian as well as everyone else in the world for that matter should be to the Peace of the human race. I’m not trying to say that you have to reject God to do this; in fact I think Jesus as well as others in the Bible support it!
Let’s take your argument seriously. Look back at the Holocaust. What do think they were Praying? Was it “Dear God, you know the number of every hair on my head. I am living in indescribable painful misery here. Thousands around me are dying of starvation - they look like the walking dead. I can’t believe I’m living in this real hell on earth. And I will probably die very soon. I know that you love your glory more than you love me. — Praise God!”
Or was it “God please do something to help us, anything! This is not Right. No human deserves this torture! This is utter Evil! I miss my children; I miss being a human being! Send in the Rebels; make the guards fall asleep so we can escape. Or even give us strength so we can fight the guards and we’ll escape ourselves!”
Of course I’m not saying we can know what this misery was like by not having lived it myself. But we can still use our imaginations. All that’s needed is to recall an Unjust moment of your life or a friend’s life and then apply how you felt to the situation being studied. Or just ask, “Would I want that done to me? Would my supporting that make me a Hypocrite?”
The point of Freedom is that people deserve to be free to live peaceful lives. And of course people should be free to make the decisions that personally affect their lives! Is it Moral for a human being to control another human being’s life? Would you want to live as one of the slaves in America in the 1700 and 1800s? Would you want to be one of the millions throughout history (and today) who have been killed for having different religious beliefs or different ideas on how the society is ran? Killed for coming together to worship or for just talking to each other about the world? - That’s what Immorality is. That’s what Evil is.
I would agree that people do deserve to be free from all these things that John has mentioned and live free and peaceful live, but John, that is only half the picture of what freedom really is and it isn’t even to coolest part.
A bigger picture of freedom does not only manifest itself in physical ways that John has described but also in spiritual ways as well. And that is what ultimate freedom is. Freedom from sin. Freedom from that awful, binding, and dabilitating effects of sin.
Of course John’s definition of sin seems pretty narrow as well I have to point back to what Pressed said, sin are “things that are hostile to God.” Every sin is against God and it set up an eternal seperation from Him. The ultimate freedom repairs that seperation.
Christopher,
I think we are in agreement! The freedoms I’ve described are the most necessary precursors to getting on with what life really has in store for us. When people are free to control their bodies and minds without any Immoral restrictions, only then can they live their lives in the most “spiritual ways” possible!
Swimming and Freedom:
Slavery is also like swimming. Make one false move and your master chops your head off. Okay maybe swimming is a little easier than that.
I think Freedom is more like watching the sunset. Maybe you go to watch it just to marvel at its beauty. Maybe you go to watch it because you can bring your family together with you and have a picnic together. Maybe you stay all night and watch the stars come out. Maybe you bring all your friends and meet new friends and it becomes this big thing and you enjoy it with many. Maybe your son has a child and you watch the sunset with her too.
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