The Bible’s View On Liberty And Freedom (Liberty Lite)
Liberty Lite: Exploring the differences and similarities between liberty and freedom
My fellow Patriots,
What does the Bible say about liberty and freedom?
There are many perspectives on liberty and freedom; perspectives from the right and from the left; perspectives from history and from the present. With that in mind, it is important for this series, Liberty Lite, to start from the perspective of ultimate Truth, to have something by which to compare all other things to it; in our case: the Bible.
There are many verses throughout the Bible that speak of freedom. From the Old Testament, Isaiah 61:1 reads, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.” Clearly there is an idea surrounding liberty which involves not being in bondage, being able to make your own choices and decisions instead of those decisions being made by others.
What about the New Testament? Well from 2 Corinthians 3:17 the Bible says “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” The New Testament also speaks of liberty being where God is; so God is one of liberty, of being able to make your own decisions, your own choices, not having decisions made for you by others.
Of course, there is risk to this, because bad choices can lead to bad outcomes. Now the big question is: does the Bible place limits to your liberty and to your freedom? According to the New Testament in 1 Peter 2:16, it says “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves to God.” Clearly with liberty and freedom, there are restraints to what you can do with that liberty and freedom. The Bible is not an advocate for absolute freedom with zero restrictions.
If one wants to understand what the specific restrictions are to freedom, they can simply and quickly read the ten commandments in the Bible which reads in Exodus 20:1-17:
“Then God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
From the Bible’s perspective there are healthy restrictions to absolute freedom, but there is still freedom. As this series progresses to other perspectives on freedom, it should be noted which ones align closely with the Bible and which ones are not so close.
So take this first article of Liberty Lite and ponder it, maybe you’ll come to different conclusions or maybe you will agree with me; regardless comment below and let me know what you think.