Personal Freedom ...

Friday, Feb 6, 2015. With a friend I had a long discussion about freedom last evening. It was about personal freedom, about what binds our own emotions and actions. He was upset about the behaviour of another Christian - and we discussed how he could get rid of the emotional stir …

Between war and personal challenges …

The question of freedom has many layers and dimensions. On the radio we hear about the war in the Ukraine and about the war in the middle east. There is no freedom there to escape, we hear about victims, about death, about suffering. We are shocked, again and again shocked! And our questions of personal freedom seem to be a luxuary problem.

Yet, as soon as we leave hot war behind, and perhaps even in the middle of the war, we come to the personal questions. And the bible addresses these topics again and again, for example in 2nd Peter 2:

17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

Personal bonds …

Whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. What is binding our mind, our will, our goals and our emotions. Philosophers have tried to find these bonds of our reason. Immanuel Kant with his monumental book on pure reason tries to find the framework and structure under which our mind operates. Social science and medical science tries to investigate the bonds of our emotions.

It is quite interesting that the bible deals with these bonds in much detail. The ethics Jesus talks about is about freedom from the bonds of human corruption. The New Testament teaches that human freedom is obtained only when we trust our life into the hands of Jesus, of the eternal God. It is about loosing onself into the kingdom of God, finding and living truth and love and mercy in full.

Often Christians talk about a time in-between. The realize that they are somewhere between the bonds of our life and the freedom which the bible talk about. The freedom which Peter wants us to gain needs decisions, it needs active participation, it needs living faith. This freedom is to be caught; day by day we need to lay our hand on it, day by day we need to trust ourselves into the Lord's hands. (RWEP) ... more texts