Freedom and Love

A junior high school girl whom I was counseling once whined "Why can't we all just do what we feel like doing?" She was voicing the adolescent and childhood complaint of  everyone. That's where we start in life: just wanting to do what we feel like doing. We equate being able to do what we feel like doing with freedom. But, as every parent knows, there are constraints to this type of "freedom." And for the rest of our lives, and throughout the history of the human family we deal with the definition of those constraints--the definition of freedom. We enact laws to restrain certain "freedoms". But who or what determines the constraints of freedom? Is there a pool of ancient knowledge or wisdom that we draw from in determining the limits, or definition, of freedom? Or does the whim of every nation and culture determine for itself what is right and good? Do the laws of a nation determine that pedophilia, for instance, is good or evil, and therefore allowed or disallowed? If a nation determines that genocide is legal, is there no objective moral code that is above the law of that nation? And if so, who or what determines this code? Can anarchy work? Or is Edmund Burke correct in asserting that there must be a controlling factor in any society?  When we press these questions deeply enough in light of human history and of what we see in our daily lives, we realize that freedom is associated with good and evil; that there is, in fact, good and evil, and that laws are designed to allow and foster the good and to prevent evil. And it seems evident that good and evil are pre-existent; that is, we humans did not and do not determine that, for instance, rape and murder are evil: they were and are evil independent of our determinations. So they are forbidden by our laws--not allowed within the realm of "freedom". We are not free to rape and murder, even if we "feel" like it or want to. There is necessary restraint on human passions. But what is the limit of this boundary between restraint and freedom? How do we determine what is to be allowed and what to be forbidden? And, more deeply, what is freedom at its core--in the essence of its reality? It seems that a man can be living in a free society and feel chronically enslaved, frustrated, wanting and needing more of something he is not getting. And a man can live in an oppressed society, or even in prison, and feel free and content. Freedom may be predominantly a feeling born of naivete or spiritual maturity. It may be the fruit of looking deeply into life--Reality as it is.
The Bible teaches that freedom is the fruit of a life lived in obedience to the principle of Love--the Love of God as manifested and offered through Jesus Christ. In this Love we are free from the "Law" because the Law is fulfilled in Love.  As Augustine said: "Love, and do what you will." Love delivers us from selfish, destructive and vain pursuits that do not fulfill and lead to increased desire [like addictions]. Unfulfilled desire leads to frustration, which can escalate into anger and bitterness--like the man who recently [at the time of this writing] walked into a church and killed twenty-six people because he could not have what he wanted with his ex-wife. One of the paradoxes of Christianity is that we find our freedom by helping others get free from the enslavement of  sin and delusions. Jesus frankly said  "If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." [Jhn 8:36]  This is the freedom of Christ--the freedom of Love--the freedom for which and in which we were born.