Sunday, June 13th 2021  |  Galatians Ch. 5

How do you define freedom? We generally think of freedom as the autonomous right and power to do whatever we wish, without external restraint of any kind. In the West and in America especially, this definition of freedom, with autonomy itself being seen as a virtue in itself, has become the dominant view especially in the last century, starting with the Roaring 20’s. And that is a good general definition of freedom, if it ignores the corrupting and self-centered slavery of human nature itself after the fall of Adam. But absolute autonomy is not how the ancients viewed freedom, nor how the Word of God views it. The ancients viewed true freedom as the actualized power and ability to restrain one’s self, to subdue one’s lower nature and its vices and desires, and to find freedom and glory in the expressions of the greater virtues and desires. The self-controlled soul is the free soul.