What If Freedom Is Not Doing Whatever You Want?

June is a month filled with messages about freedom.

Advertisements tell us to be ourselves. Social media encourages us to live our truth. Cultural voices urge us to embrace our desires, express our identity, and reject any boundaries that might limit our self-expression.

The assumption beneath much of modern life is simple: freedom means doing what you want.

At first glance, that sounds reasonable. After all, who wants to be controlled? Who wants unnecessary restrictions? Why shouldn't people follow their hearts and pursue whatever makes them happy?

Yet there is a question worth asking: What if our definition of freedom is wrong?

On vacation recently, there was a small pond with some fish, just outside the place I was staying. I reflected on them… A fish is most free when it is in water. Remove it from the water and place it on the beach or the grass, and it may appear to have greater freedom. No more boundaries. No more restrictions. No more limitations imposed by the pond, river or ocean.

Yet the fish does not become more free. It dies.

The very environment that seemed restrictive was actually the place where it was designed to flourish.

The same principle applies to human beings.

Our culture often treats God's commands as limitations on freedom. Scripture presents them as the path to it. This is what Peter is getting at when he writes:

"As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct" (1 Peter 1:14-15).

Notice what Peter does not say. 

He does not say, "Become holy because God wants to make your life miserable."

He does not say, "Become holy because God enjoys restricting your happiness."

He says holiness flows from identity. "As obedient children." God's people are called to reflect the character of their Father.

That raises an uncomfortable question for modern people. What if following every desire is not freedom?

What if it is another form of slavery?

The ancient church father Augustine observed, "A man has as many masters as he has vices."

Think about that for a moment.

The man who cannot control his anger is not free. The man consumed by greed is not free. The woman enslaved to the approval of others is not free. The teenager controlled by social media is not free. The executive driven by career ambition at the expense of everything else is not free.

Their desires are calling the shots.

Modern culture often assumes that restraint is the enemy of freedom. The Bible suggests the opposite. Sometimes restraint is what makes freedom possible.

A train is free when it runs on tracks. Remove it from the tracks and it does not gain freedom. It crashes.

The Christian claim is not that our desires are always wrong. Many desires are good gifts from God. The problem is that sin has distorted them. Left to themselves, our desires do not naturally lead us toward life, joy, and flourishing. They often lead us away from them.

That is why every culture, including our own, eventually discovers that unlimited self-expression cannot carry the weight of human existence.

We are living in one of the most liberated societies in history. Yet loneliness remains widespread. Anxiety continues to rise. Depression is common. Addiction is everywhere. We have unprecedented freedom to define ourselves, yet many people feel more confused about who they are than ever before.

Perhaps the issue is not that we have too many restrictions. Perhaps the issue is that we have lost sight of what human beings were created for. The prophet Daniel offers an interesting example. Living in Babylon, he faced enormous pressure to conform. Everything around him encouraged compromise. Yet Daniel refused to surrender his deepest allegiance to the culture around him.

Ironically, that refusal made him one of the freest men in Babylon.

Kings issued decrees. Political rivals plotted against him. Powerful men sought to manipulate him. Yet Daniel remained remarkably unshaken because his identity was anchored somewhere deeper than public approval.

He belonged to God.

That kind of freedom is increasingly rare.

Many people today live at the mercy of public opinion. Approval becomes a master. Reputation becomes a master. Desire becomes a master. Success becomes a master.

Jesus offers something different. He does not simply tell us to suppress our desires. He offers to transform them.

The call to holiness is not ultimately about rule-keeping. It is about restoration. It is about becoming what we were created to be.

As C.S. Lewis once observed, every person is becoming either more glorious or more dreadful. We are being shaped by what we love.

The question is not whether you will be mastered by something. The question is what will master you.

The modern world says freedom comes from looking inward. Scripture says freedom comes from belonging to Christ.

One path says, "Follow your heart." The other says, "Trust the One who made your heart."

Those two roads lead to very different destinations. 

Peter's call to holiness is not a call to less freedom. It is a call to true freedom. The freedom that comes from knowing who you are. The freedom that comes from belonging to God. The freedom that comes from no longer being ruled by every passing desire. The freedom that comes from becoming what you were always meant to be.