I've been asked "What is freedom?" and to that I have come up an answer. I've been asked "Does responsibility come with freedom?" and again, I came up with some answer off the top of my head. I've asked myself recently "Are we ever really free?" and I'm going to try to find an answer now.
Contrary to many people, I am not so sure we ever really have freedom (but I am thinking this through as I type so perhaps my thought will change). The way I see it is: we're all a slave, or bound, by something. For Christians, it is Christ. For other religions, it is the moral code or deity. For non-believers, or anyone else riding the fence, aren't they still bound by things? I'd think so. Maybe it's pride, vengeance, anger, sex, love, other material things... etc.
So is there freedom? The definition of the word is: the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved. However, by my thought above, are we not all the very opposite of that? Looks that way to me. You can say you're free to do whatever you want, but it seems like you're, we're, still bound by something.
Hmm, all right, maybe we have to be bound by something. Maybe that's just the way humans are? Perhaps. Or maybe, by being bound by something we can find some sort of freedom? That freedom that we all seem to desperately seek. That seems a more probable thought.
Let me take my faith for a test ride here: I believe in God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and in the truth of the Bible. The Bible, God's Word, is truth; truth is said to set one free. By choosing to bind myself to the law of Love found within the Bible, accepting the Holy Spirit, and following Christ's example, I may be bound to those things but because it is truth, I am free.
Okay then. So can I say that we can be free but only as Christians? Do other things bring freedom when bound to them? -shrugs- I dunno, does anything else say, and prove, that it can provide freedom in such a way as the truth and love of Christ? Beats me.
I am quite aware that this thought process begets many more questions that must be answered for a full understanding of any answer to my primary question and perhaps in time I will have a more thorough understanding of the concept at hand in some sort of entirety.
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I like this.
ReplyDeleteHaving thought about it, I concluded you're right. You're either a slave to sin, or a slave to righteousness (Romans 6/7 ftw). You're always enslaved to something.
Sooo I'd rather be enslaved to something that isn't going to corrupt and destroy me.