Real Freedom – Sunday, July 08, 1984
Freedom means many things, depending on our age and our circumstance…on our experience and perspective.
For a teenager, freedom may mean a day out of school.
For a citizen in some countries, an opportunity to travel.
For a sick person, it may mean relief from pain.
But those who penned the constitution of the United States looked upon freedom in long-range, universal terms. They defined those activities with ringing clarity—freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble and freedom to worship.
The founding fathers recognized the close relationship between religion and personal freedom.
The Lord, Himself, granted human beings their free agency, but he counseled us that if we want to be truly free, we must use our intelligence: “…know the truth and the truth shall make you free,”1 He advised.
Freedom is more than the absence of restraints. One of the responsibilities of freedom is to impose limits upon ourselves. Only by choosing to restrict our own freedoms can we be truly free. The paradox of freedom is that, in order to be free, we must do some things we may not especially desire and deny ourselves some things we do want.
Freedom is not the same thing as license, and those who confuse freedom with license are destined to lead lives of confusion and chaos.
Free agency is the right to make choices. Freedom comes from making the right choices.
The Lord understood these distinctions, and so, at the same time, He provided us free agency. He also provided us guidelines to help us use our free agency wisely. Some of His guidelines are in the form of commandments; some are in the form of wise counsel in sacred books; and some are in the form of observations by inspired men and women.
And so, as we search for freedom we must also search for truth, for one comes from the other. If we search with a faithful heart…through prayer…and with singleness of purpose, that we will find the truth which will make us free.
1 New Testament, John 8:32
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July 08, 1984
Broadcast Number 2,864