The Lie of Freedom

“Freedom” is one of the most American words. It may bring to your mind campy images of bald eagles overlaid on waving American flags, or of fireworks, or the sound of country music. On the other hand, freedom may bring to mind paintings of the American founders, and the words of the Declaration of Independence—“inalienable rights” including those of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It shouldn’t be surprising that, as our collective mental grip on our history and our virtue loosens, corrupted ideas of freedom emerge. Indeed, many Americans have very wrong notions of human freedom. Though they may not say it aloud, some people, and even professing Christians, live as though freedom were the most important thing.

If freedom is the most important thing, what might “freedom mean here? In this case, it means the ability to do what you want. In fact, many people assume that a chief function of government is to ensure that no one is prevented from exercising his personal freedom by anyone else. For example, the purpose of traffic laws might be framed as preserving each citizen’s right to get home safely.

Universally equal and comprehensive freedom, though, is not possible. At some point, freedoms obviously conflict. We saw in 2020 that the freedom to be free from the fear of sickness was prioritized over many, many other freedoms, including the freedom of saints to gather. This is how it always is. Someone somewhere—and eventually a government, by its laws—will prioritize the freedoms. Some group’s interests will have all the liberty at the Number One spot, and the second group on the list will be required to accommodate Number One. Then Number Three will be forced to accommodate the prioritized freedoms of Numbers One and Two, and so on down the list until the last group’s freedom is heavily restricted by the permitted behavior of everyone else.

The moral of the story is that there is no such world where every person is allowed to exercise unlimited freedom. Because we are sinners, and we corrupt everything we touch, systems of ranked freedoms like the one described in the previous paragraph will eventually come to benefit unrighteous people covetous for money and grasping for power.

2 Peter 2 warns of false teachers who promise freedom God does not permit. These false teachers may promise unexpected things to their hearers because they are not restricted to speaking the truth. In fact, “by reason of [them] the truth shall be evil spoken of” (v. 2). Their words, according to verse 3, are false and driven by covetousness, but on first impression they are “great swelling words of vanity” that “allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness” (v. 18). Verse 19 says that false teachers promise their hearers liberty. Of course, this message of pretended freedom is not limited to the church. However, whether primarily spiritual or political, both types of smooth-talking influencers speak in contradiction to God’s design. It is obvious that God does not give humans the right to do whatever they want. He certainly did not commission the institutions of family, church, and state to give sinful men free reign of their desires. God says clearly that those who are given over to personal license, “themselves are the servants of corruption” (v. 19). “Servants” is the correct word to describe such individuals because, as Peter goes on to say, “of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought into bondage.” In other words, we become servants of whoever or whatever we allow to conquer us. In the case of sin, it is not only bondage, but destruction. The “pernicious ways” described in verse 2 are destructive ways. Verse 1 says plainly that the false prophets themselves “bring upon themselves swift destruction.”

Peter gives three examples of God’s judgment on groups who rebelled against God’s order to exercise “freedom.” He speaks of the angels whose behavior encouraged human corruption before the Flood, the humans that perished in that worldwide cataclysm, and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that were completely destroyed and uninhabited today. If those examples weren’t serious enough, God calls prophets of sinful freedom “natural brute beasts” in verse 12. They are like the angels, the antediluvian world, and the sodomites in that they despise government—that is, they hate any kind of imposed restraint. Such people are presumptuous, self-willed, and “not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries (v. 10). While God’s justice waits, they “count it pleasure to riot [behave disorderly and recklessly] in the daytime” (v. 13).

In the end, God will have His justice on men who defy all restraint with their version of freedom. Some of the harshest words in Scripture are reserved for such false teachers. They will “bring upon themselves swift destruction” (v. 1). Their judgment “now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not” (v. 3). They are “cursed children,” for whom “the mist of darkness is reserved forever” (v. 17). This chapter contains some of the most aggressive condemnation anywhere in the Bible. The language alone is a sober reminder of what God thinks of a culture and a world that does whatever it wants.

We are given the responsibility by God to do what He wants, and to conform our desires to Him. Regardless of what the demonic charlatans say, human freedom is always to be subordinate to God’s revelation. Christians cannot, and should not, tolerate sinfully abused freedoms in places where we have influence or leadership. LGBTQ are not welcome to practice whatever perverseness they prefer. Justice systems must, MUST, punish the wicked so that the innocent do not fear for their safety. Freedom, even in America, must always be subject to God’s Word.

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The above article was written by Jonathan Kyser. He is a pastoral assistant at NorthStone Baptist Church in Pensacola, FL. To offer him your feedback, comment below or email us at strengthforlife461@gmail.com.

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