Freedom and Love
As part of the weekly Men of St. Martin’s Bible study, we have been studying the Gospel of Mathew. Recently, as I read Mathew 8-9, I was struck by something: Jesus’ words have the power and authority to cast out sickness, paralysis, fever, demons, spirits and even to still the storms and waves. When He speaks, there is nothing in creation that has the freedom to say “no” to Him — except us. In other words, we are the only entities in all creation that have the freedom to say “yes” or “no” to God. In Mathew 8-9, we see people hearing Jesus’ words, flocking to Him and obeying Him (e.g.: the disciples), or rejecting Him (e.g.: the scribes and Pharisees).
Why is that? The more I reflected on this question, I couldn’t help but conclude that it is because God loves us. God loves us more than anything else He created, more than birds, loy mountains, vibrant trees, majestic beasts, deep oceans and salty seas. He loves us and has created us in His image, which includes freedom and dignity like He has. He isn’t forced to love us; indeed, if this were so, He wouldn’t be God at all! And likewise, He doesn’t force us to love Him; because if so, we wouldn’t reflect His image. And we believe that His uncompelled love for us is displayed for all to see in the death of Christ on the Cross and His resurrection from the grave for our sakes.
What a privilege it is that of all creation He loves us and has given us this gift of freedom! As the Psalmist exclaims, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or his children, that you care for him.” (Psalm 8:4, my translation) Thus, to love God freely and without compulsion becomes the greatest human act. It shows that we are freely disregarding other things. To love God freely shows that we know God is more precious than anything else offered in the World.
My prayer has been that I would not misuse the freedom that the Lord has created me with, to choose things less than God over God, but rather to have the eyes of my heart opened, so that I may worship, love and submit all that I have, heart, mind, soul and strength to Him.
