To Be a Slave to Nothing

The question of freedom is always before us: what it is—and how much men were meant to have—and how much freedom one can have within the limits of the law. To begin with, we can only conclude that the Lord God meant men to be free, and that the principle of compulsion is not part of the divine plan and purpose—for freedom is a fundamental ingredient of growth.

From scripture we recall one of the most quoted of all recorded comments concerning freedom: “…know the truth, and that truth shall make you free.” This is a commandment as well as a promise—a commandment first to know the truth, to search for it, to seek it. And the next step to knowing it would surely be to accept it; and with the sincere search and acceptance of truth, freedom would surely be found.

But aside from scripture, we turn to a question asked of Seneca, and his answer also: The question: “Thou inquirest what liberty is?” And his answer: “To be slave to nothing…”

It isn’t always others who enslave us. Sometimes we let circumstances enslave us; sometimes we let routine enslave us; sometimes we let things enslave us; sometimes, with weak wills, we enslave ourselves. Sometimes we partake of detrimental things that we think will soothe our nerves or our minds or our imaginations, things we think will help us to escape from reality. But no man is free if he is running away from reality. And no man is free if he is running away from truth.

It isn’t only chains or guards or prison walls that can keep a man from freedom. A person isn’t free if he has habits that he can’t control. A person isn’t free if he can’t control his thoughts or desires. He isn’t free if he is bound by superstition, or by fear, for fear itself is a kind of compulsion.

Real freedom leads to voluntary discipline, to self-control, and to intelligent choice—to choose to take good counsel, to choose to keep the commandments, to choose to live within the limits of the law, not because we have been compelled, but because we have used our freedom to make intelligent choice—because we have used our freedom to discipline ourselves, and so are not enslaved. “Thou inquirest what liberty is? To be slave to nothing…”