Most people will tell you that Freedom is doing whatever you want whenever you want to do it. But is that true Freedom? That’s not what Charlie Kirk believed. It’s certainly not how you build a healthy life for yourself, your family or your community. Samuel takes a look at what real Freedom is. The kind Charlie gave his life fighting for.
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What is Freedom?
It’s a word or even a rallying cry that was brought into the forefront of people’s minds because of the late Charlie Kirk and his famous white T-shirt that simply said Freedom across the front.
And of course, after his life was taken for trying to promote that freedom, those T-shirts and more importantly, that idea became more precious to people than ever before.
But what did Charlie and others like him mean when they speak about Freedom? Because if you ask most people what freedom is they will say something like,
“Well, freedom is doing whatever you want whenever you want to do it.”
But is that really Freedom? Is that the kind of Freedom that Charlie died to promote?
I would argue not at all! Because the Truth is if you do whatever you want to do, whatever you feel like doing. That virtually guarantees that you won’t have true freedom at all. You’ll end up becoming a slave to your whims and destructive desires. The radical left often talk about desiring freedom. But what do they mean when they talk about Freedom? And is it freedom at all?
It’s personal liberty prehaps but to do what exactly. To smoke dope, to commit sexual immorality, to abort their babies, to mutilate their bodies, to pretend they are something that they are not. But all of those so-called freedoms can be exercised in a prison cell. So, you could literally be a prisoner of the state and exercise all of those so-called freedoms that the radical left are so passionate about.
But what do Conservatives mean by freedom? Well, that’s something very different. Freedom for households, for example, to move from one city to another and start a new business and not get taxed to the point it’s not viable. To teach and train their kids in truth and not propaganda and lies. To live in a way where we say no to many things, so that true human flourishing can take place. So, the question becomes freedom from what and freedom for what.
And the problem we have encountered with many radicals is that personal freedom to destroy their own life and poison the society around them isn’t enough, on top of that, we must all be forced to affirm those choices and pretend like they aren’t poor choices.
Oh, and see themselves as victims of an oppressive system when they face the consequences of their actions. Whether it’s legal issues, failed relationships or mental and physical health problems. So they want the liberty to make their bed however they want, but when they realise it isn’t a very nice bed at all, well then someone it’s someone else’s fault. As my family likes to say “well, well, well if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions.
Which brings me on to the next important piece of all this Freedom business: personal responsibility.
And why is personal freedom important? Well, because doing whatever you want is a bad way to live.
What if you loved highly processed food and just ate whatever you wanted whenever you wanted? Is that freedom? Sure, in some sense, but you’ll become very quickly imprisoned by your lack of physical health and capabilities. And now your freedom in the world has been limited.
Or what about the man in his 20s who lives at home, doesn’t have a job and just plays PlayStation all day because he wants to and should be free to do so? How great is that gonna be in the long term? He’s become completely dependent on his parents.
He doesn’t have true freedom, freedom to have opportunities to make something of his life, to attract a wife and contribute to his community. To receive the rewards of hard work and sacrifice. He will have no real purpose, that may as well be a prison for a young man.
In John 8:34 Jesus says “ Truly, Truly, (which is like super truly) which is really saying something for someone that never lied) I say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”
And so is freedom really living without boundaries? If I walked up to you and said lets play a game. And you say alright, to which I say alright, you move first. You’d likely stare at me blanky wondering what on earth I was doing. And the first thing you’d want to know is, well what is the aim of the game and what are the rules.
A game without rules could be seen as freedom. But is it any fun? No it just lacks purpose and direction and no one is going to enjoy that. Not for long anyway. Doing anything you want is not freedom.
And so just like a game of Chess without rules is no good, and you wouldn’t go listen to an orchestra that all just randomly play away on their instruments whenever they feel like it, and this applies across all of life.
For example, In marriage, a husband and wife have made a covenant to restrict their romantic affection to each other, that is a boundary that you could wrongly argue restricts freedom. But what does it actually do? It provides emotional security for the couple and their children? Among many other things, and so everyone in that family operates with a greater level of freedom because of the security, trust and belonging that the marriage boundaries provide.
And so the Truth is, real freedom can only exist within the framework of rules and boundaries, and this goes back to the Old Testament. When God liberated the Israelites from Eygpt it wasn’t so they could whatever they wanted but so that they could be free to worship him. Which they couldn’t do as Pharaoh’s slaves. And then what did he do? In the Siani dessert he gave them the ten commands and the rest of the Law.
These commands are full of do-nots, restrictions, things they weren’t allowed to do. Do not steal, do not murder, do not commit adultery.
Imagine our country today if we all followed these do nots. Our Court Systems would be virtually redundant, families and marriages would thrive. And yet we don’t, and so our families and communities suffer. So a lack of follow do nots, leads to a lack of true freedom.
The simple Truth is that unrestrained human beings are not free. They are prisoners of their own desires.
So how then can we be truly free. Well we need to know the Truth. And the reason for which we were created. This phone or computer you are watching this on right now was created for a purpose, so is your car and you oven. And this is true for human beings; we were created for a purpose.
And what is that? Well, from a Biblical perspective, it is to be free to love God. So if we really want to be free, don’t resist all rules and restraints but instead embrace the right restraints. The most important ones being the ones God has commanded us to live by. He did design us after all so he knows what will cause us to truly thrive.
And if you are an atheist and all this talk about God frustrates you, his commands are still undeniably the best way to live. But you don’t have know and love God to reap benefits for living in the way that he says is best for you. New Zealand is a secular nation now, but we are still benefiting from a justice system that operates on assumptions of Biblical truth, like Justice for example. As you can imagine many commands of God are part of our legal framework here in New Zealand and well all just know and except that it is morally wrong to break those commands.
And those that do should be held to account. And as we move further and further away from true justice the more our country will pay the price.
And so true freedom is achieved by adhering to the right restrictions, and personal freedom is achieved, as the great Ex-Navy SEAL Jocko Willink says, through discipline. Through doing things we don’t always feel like doing. Feelings are a horrible dictator for your life anyway, you all remember Jack Sparrows compass that pointed to whatever he wanted most in the world. What a disaster that was.
And so embrace the right disciplines in your life and you will have a freedom that is truly worth having. A freedom where instead of being a slave to your desires or a slave to sin you can be free to live in the way you were designed to live.
But for this you are going to need help. Because the Bible teaches we are slaves to our evil and selfish desires. And the answer to being truly free is in the one who made us and the one who lived a perfect life to save us. And because he died and conquered death we can set us free.
John 8:36 says “ So if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed”
The worlds version of freedom, the so called freedom the radical left often fight for is one that brings personal community wide destruction. The freedom Jesus offers is here on earth and for eternity.
So, I encourage you to follow him and experience what true freedom really is. In your life, in your family’s life and in the life of our nation. Oh and don’t allow yourselves to be manipulated and bullied into celebrating the self-destructive choices we see put forward in our Culture. Charlie had to pay for pushing back on these destructive lies with his life as he was out trying to talk to the very people who are held captive by them.
He was there to try set them free, and because he was truly free he was willing to do it despite the threat to his life. That is why he is considered a Myrta and rightly so.
And so, well, we will finish with these words from Charlie himself.
It’s not going to brighten unless we turn up the lights. And the only way you do that is with courage. And so I could be like, “Oh boy, life is so tough.” And you know, keep your head down and do all this and you know, say, you know, just try to lie to get a good grade. Or I could tell you, you know what? Life goes by like this. And I don’t want to live as a coward. And I don’t want that for you either. Because you know what? You know what a coward is? A coward is someone who is somebody different in public than they are in private. They they have like a like, well, I have to be somebody in my dorm room and then once I’m outside, I I have to pretend like I’m for all the SJW nonsense. What you’re deciding to be is the same person in every environment regardless of where you go all the time. And that’s some, you know who that is? That’s a person who’s free.
Charlie Kirk was free, and he is even more so now. And he would tell you that’s because he was set free by the Son, so he was truly free indeed.
