True freedom

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

True freedom

If the Son sets you free, you will be truly free. John 8.36

In the minds of many, being free is being able to do whatever you want without hindrance. This is obviously unreasonable, because individual behavior always has consequences for others. It has been rightly said that "freedom ends where the freedom of others begins".

Dictionaries offer several more or less incomplete definitions and one can speak of true or false freedoms. Jesus mentioned the possibility of being freed, made truly free. Because the opposite of freedom is slavery. And you are a slave to many things : drugs, cell phones, cultural or religious traditions, etc. Montaigne, a 16th century writer, quite rightly showed where the shoe pinches, by asserting : "True freedom is to be able to do everything over yourself". Most often, it is to ourselves that we are slaves, to our inclinations, to our senses, to our lusts, to our temperament, to everything we cannot control. But he didn't say how to do it. Jesus taught that this mastery is the fruit of a true companionship with his Word, and the apostle Paul made it clear that it comes from the presence of God in us through his Spirit.

We would like to be able to control ourselves. But, we say, "it's stronger than me."

If we want to be free, let's stop trying, ask God, surrender to his action. Because only He can.

Richard Douliere

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Proposed reading : Gospel according to John, chapter 8, verses 30 to 36.

Source (Live Today)