Sin and freedom
Part 2
If you don’t like the word “obey” then I agree with you; I don’t like it either, but after many years of trying to avoid this conclusion, I think obedience has to be accepted. The idea of “following” God, or “living in tune with him” seems entirely positive to me, and in practice following God and obeying God amount to the same thing. However, I didn’t want to hide from the word “obey”, so we need to recognise that this is what we’re doing. We can feel those secular hackles rising: “How dare you suggest that I should obey anyone – even God; I demand complete autonomous freedom”. Well, OK, you’re free to do that if you want, but I think you will find that your “complete autonomous freedom” comes with hidden strings attached – the weakness of the will that makes it prey to seizing advantage for itself at no matter what cost to others, the tendency to justify self-interest as though it was righteousness, the following of fashionable ideologies as though they were true. Christians claim that it is only in the light of God’s goodness, truth and love that we are enabled to choose what is pure and good and lovely. It is in committing to living in tune with him that we receive the strength and guidance that allows us to live in true freedom. On our own, we are often powerless to be the person that we really want to be, but with God, that way of living becomes possible. By ourselves, we fail to live up to our ideals, but giving ourselves into his hands, thinking we were surrendering to his will – as indeed we are – we discover that our own will now has a clarity and depth that it never had before. Enfolded in his love, we discover that following his way becomes truly freedom to live life fully, for we have come to love as he loves, so that “following him” has become the same as fulfilling our own deepest desires.
Spiritual Devotion 