What is Freedom? II ...

Tuesday, April 2, 2019. Freedom needs to be taken day by day. Let us discuss dependencies and a special kind of slavery which can be part of our life day by day. What I mean is the following: we all have ideas and images which guide our decisions. We all have mechanisms and reaction patterns, which determine how we act and feel in a particular situation.

Is it freedom to behave like we do? When you are always drawn into a particular pattern of behaviour, is that free? No, it is not. You are influenced by something, by some idea or by a failure in the past. And this is pushing you. It has power over your choices. It determines what you want - or better, it is pushing itself over what you would want and need if this would not determine you!

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31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave2 to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” (John 8, 31-38)

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(Roland Potthast) ... further texts