Freedom To Love

We live in a time and a place where liberation is demanded from all sectors of our society.

In all walks of life – men, women and even children are demanding the right to live unrestrained by laws or the opinions of others. They view laws as an imposition, impinging on their freedom.

There are laws in God's universe. And His desire that we live by them is not an effort to restrict us or restrain us – it is a world of freedom He offers.

As fallen human beings we imagine that the highest of virtues is to be left alone; to be allowed to live life autonomously, free from laws that encumber us; laws that limit us from making our own choices in life.

Sadly, this so called “freedom” has led to life-damaging, life-destroying addictions of every kind. From alcohol to drugs to sexual activity to violence. Instead of becoming free, man has become the worst kind of slave.

Powerless to escape, what was once thought of as the right to engage in something enjoyable has now become an inescapable, life-debilitating habit.

The sad irony of it all, is that those who insist on pursuing these things in the name of personal freedom eventually lose control over them and forfeit any choice entirely.

Now they are driven by the very behaviors they ‘freely' chose. The more he insists on self-centered freedom, the more enslaved he becomes.

Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” John 8:34

Apart from the liberating work of the Holy Spirit, sinful man is a slave to his passions. He no longer has the choice not to sin.

As Augustine said, fallen man is born, non posse; non peccare – ‘not able not to sin.'