The Truth About Freedom

I’ve stopped watching the news constantly throughout the day as seemed necessary when the pandemic first hit. New information, details and instructions seemed to evolve daily. Then violence filled our city streets. A cry for freedom prevailed.

Whether the freedom of racial equality or simply the freedom not to wear a mask, freedom seems the prevailing issue. I’ve been thinking a lot about freedom lately. I find it fascinating that if we go back to the beginning of freedom granted by God to the first man, freedom came with a stipulation. Think about it for a moment. 

“Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;  but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” ( Genesis 2:7-17)

Freedom is a gift granted by God. In His love, He placed a qualifier on this freedom as explained to Adam and for Eve as well.  He saw the bigger picture. He knew that if they ate fruit from the wrong tree, they would die spiritually for eternity. He loved them too much to let that happen, finally driving them out of the garden, where the tree lived, to protect them from themselves.

Freedom is not to be taken for granted. In our nation we are offered the privilege of the freedom found rarely in so many other nations… freedom to speak, freedom to worship, and the freedom to ask our government for change. But this freedom comes with a stipulation. We have a government put in place to protect us from ourselves. The government is made up of broken and imperfect individuals, and yes, we hold them accountable.

But God promises if we will respect the authorities over us, we can trust Him to be the final judge. We can trust Him to act in our defense when we believe and trust in Him.

Peter tells us in the Bible, “Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor (or in our case the president).”  (I Peter 2:16)

Let’s look at freedom again and consider obeying the directives set out by the One who created it.