Freedom, Obedience, and Surrender
A question comes to the minds of many people—especially young people: Did God not create us free? Why, then, do we not live in complete freedom?
Therefore, tonight, God willing, I shall speak to you about freedom, the relationship between freedom and obedience, and the life of surrender.
Indeed, God created us free. But our freedom is often destructive and harmful. Through it, we hurt others and hurt ourselves, destroy ideals, and transgress the boundaries of others… Is this freedom?!
Therefore, there is no absolute freedom except for God alone. As for human freedom, it is restricted freedom, conditioned upon not transgressing the freedoms of others and not harming oneself by indulging in evil and sin.
Before Satan fell, he was an angel whom God had created with freedom of will and freedom of thought. Through his freedom, he fell and ruined himself. And through his freedom, he continues to harm and lead human beings astray. It is destructive freedom…
Likewise, the first human being was created free, and through his freedom, he chose death for himself, fell, and was expelled from Paradise. And through this freedom, he continues to fall and rise again.
Therefore, out of God’s compassion for humanity, He does not leave human beings to their freedom alone.
God established safeguards for humanity to guide this freedom and to rebuke or punish it when it deviates. Among these safeguards is the conscience: whenever a person wishes to deviate according to his own desires, the conscience stands against his freedom.
And since the conscience itself can also deviate or become weak, God established shepherds and guides, fathers and counselors, to stand against this freedom.
To guide this freedom toward awareness, God established the commandments from a religious perspective, and nations established laws and regulations, so that human beings would not be left to their freedom lest they misuse it and harm themselves and society…
Since human beings, through their freedom, can break the commandment and violate the law, God therefore established authority and granted it rights:
He established authority within the family, such as the authority of parents over their children. The commandment says, “Discipline your son with an iron rod.” He also established authority within the state and said, “The king does not bear the sword in vain.”
God also established authority within the Church:
He said, “Whatever you bind will be bound, and whatever you loose will be loosed” (Matthew 18). He also said, “Whosever sins you forgive, they are forgiven them; and whosever sins you retain, they are retained” (John 20). The Apostle Paul exercised this authority concerning the sinner in Corinth and used the verse, “Put away from yourselves the evil person.”
Should every person act as he wishes, according to his freedom, without the Church intervening in his conduct?! The Church would then be destroyed, filled with heresies and false teachings, and those who deviate would corrupt the conscience of the people!!
Likewise, should a person act according to his freedom while disregarding the authority of the state? Certainly not. For it was said concerning the corruption of the era of the Judges: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6).
Is authority opposed to freedom? Should a person rebel against it?
No. Authority is necessary to protect society from the freedom of those who deviate, and also from the freedom that a person uses against himself.
Thus, we find that the law prohibits suicide, and at the same time prohibits the use of narcotics, because in this case a person harms himself. Authority must therefore stop him and take away the knife with which he would kill himself.
A human being does not possess himself absolutely before God and the law.
Therefore, a person must not misuse his freedom and say, “I am free when it comes to myself.” No, he does not belong to himself alone. He also belongs to God, to society, to the family, and to goodness…
You do not belong to yourself; rather, you belong to the One who purchased you with His blood, saved you, and redeemed you, so that you became His. Likewise, you belong to the society in which you live, to your homeland, to the Church, and to your family. You do not live in absolute isolation; rather, you live in a society to which you have rights and which has rights over you. Therefore, you do not belong to yourself.
You are an asset belonging to society, and your loss is a loss to society…
So do not say, “I am free to do whatever I want with myself,” and squander your health through smoking or drunkenness. Your health is an asset belonging to society and to the Church.
Do not squander your money indiscriminately, saying, “I am free to do whatever I want with my money.” Your money is part of the common wealth, and you are merely its steward.
Therefore, society may place a person under legal guardianship if his conduct deteriorates and begins to lead to a loss that may harm others.
Society has the right to do this because that person has failed to use his freedom properly, and his actions have begun to cause harm.
Therefore, we must understand the proper concept of freedom.
We cannot leave a knife in a child’s hand and tell him, “You are free to stab yourself with it as you wish…”
For this reason, a person’s freedom must be restrained if he uses it against himself. We do not call this restricting freedom; rather, we call it preserving freedom.
A river has two banks. They are not restraints upon it, but rather safeguards for its waters. Without them, its waters would spill out and turn into swamps.
Should we oppose the two banks, or should we recognize their necessity and benefit?
Freedom is ruined by ignorance. Therefore, God established the conscience, the commandment, counsel, guidance, and laws.
Likewise, freedom is ruined by lust, as happened with the Prodigal Son. His father left him to his freedom to do as he wished, until he realized that this freedom had ruined him. He therefore preferred obedience to it and returned to his father’s embrace in repentance.
Freedom requires maturity, intellectual and spiritual maturity… Those who are immature may misuse freedom.
True freedom is a person’s liberation from within…
Whoever walks in sin in the name of freedom is a slave to sin, not a free person. Whoever submits to a particular habit is a slave to that habit, not a free person. Such people have not yet attained freedom…
These people are not free; they merely exchange one master for another.
They imagine that they are free in their deviations and corruption, whereas they are slaves to these deviations and under their dominion. True freedom, however, is the freedom of which the Bible says:
“If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
Freedom is for a person to be liberated from the dominion of habits and desires, and from the dominion of sin and Satan. Whoever’s heart and mind are liberated in this way can use his freedom properly…
There is nothing to fear from freedom in the case of such a person. It does not harm him. On the contrary, it benefits him and others, and it does not conflict with the commandments. Such a free person cannot complain about a commandment or a law, because he does not have to force himself to obey. Rather, by his very nature, he obeys these laws even if they have not been issued.
There is absolutely no contradiction between obedience and freedom. The Lord Jesus Christ was completely free, and He obeyed the Father with perfect obedience. He combined freedom with obedience.
God wants us to be free and to be righteous!
We can combine freedom with righteousness if we are inwardly liberated from sinful desires, so that our personal freedom no longer inclines toward sin, and our obedience encounters no inner difficulty caused by a desire that prevents it…
When God created us in His image and likeness, He created us free because He is free.
He also created us righteous because He is righteous. We combined freedom with righteousness and freedom with obedience to God, because desire had not yet entered our hearts. Indeed, we can grow from obedience to the Lord into a life of surrender while remaining free, as long as there is no deviation within us…
God gave humanity freedom, through which a person can, if he wishes, break God’s commandment; indeed, he can even deny the existence of God.
But freedom must be accompanied by responsibility…
God gives us the freedom to do as we wish, and at the same time, He holds us accountable for what we do, and we must bear the consequences of our actions…
As for the person who lives in obedience according to the commandment, responsibility does not fall upon him, but rather upon the one who commands or guides him.
A person who lives in obedience to a father of confession and follows his guidance bears no responsibility in this matter; rather, the responsibility rests with the guide, the father of confession. Likewise, a soldier bears no responsibility for war; the responsibility rests with the commander who gives him orders.
Therefore, the humble who obey are delivered from responsibility.
At the same time, is there a blessing in obedience? Are there benefits to obedience?
Among the benefits of obedience are gaining from the experience, knowledge, and understanding of the person whom you obey, as well as having him bear responsibility on your behalf. This obedience requires trust and humility. The Prodigal Son followed his own desires and did not seek his father’s counsel concerning what he intended to do. Therefore, he bore responsibility for his actions and paid the price. It would have been better for him had he lived in obedience.
Obedience does not weaken one’s character; rather, it strengthens it by adding the knowledge and experience of others, provided that it is obedience in the Lord…
The most beautiful aspect of obedience is the unity of the will to which it leads.
It is not a form of martyrdom, as some people say. Obedience that feels like martyrdom is the obedience of beginners, who force themselves to obey and suppress their own will, which is directed elsewhere.
As for obedience in its perfection, it is obedience accompanied by the union of wills. It is obedience with joy, like the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Father, whose will was the Father’s will. There is no forced submission in such obedience…
When obedience is mingled with love, a person surrenders his will with complete joy.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III — Al-Keraza Magazine — Ninth Year, Issue 39, September 29, 1978.
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