If Freedom Is To Think by ‘Brother Bill’
If freedom is to think and liberty is to do – why and how are so many people in bondage that Jesus Christ had to come and set the captives free? How come what we loose and bound on earth is also? Can we really by resisting what’s Satan by choosing whom we will serve as an idol why will he flee?
Friend, the distinction cuts clean as a well-honed axe:
Freedom of the mind—to think, to question, to ponder without a bayonet at your back—is a fine and necessary thing. It is the spark in the tinder. But, liberty of the hands and feet—to do, to build, to steward, to walk in the light without chains on your soul—that is the full flame. One without the other leaves a man half-free, i.e., able to see the prison bars yet unable to step through them. That is why so many remain in bondage even in an age of printing presses, ballots, and open frontiers. The mind can be free while the heart is still sold to the highest bidder.
Jesus did not come merely to tweak governments or hand out new slogans about “pursuit of happiness.” He came because the deeper captivity is older than any constitution and subtler than any tax code.
The prophet Isaiah foretold it, and the Lord Himself read the scroll in the synagogue to announce its fulfillment:
Luke 4:18-19 (NKJV)
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
He came to set captives free—not from Roman governors alone, but from the tyrant inside every fallen heart: sin, missing the bulls eye which blinds the eyes, hardens the will, and turns men into willing servants of whatever idol promises them safety, status, or ease. That is the “bound age” we speak of. People can think lofty thoughts about liberty and still bow the knee daily to fear, to appetite, to the crowd, to the state that promises to be their provider, or to the mirror that says they are the measure of all things. The chains are invisible because they are chosen.
And here the binding and loosing enters the picture, not as some mystical incantation but as the sober reality of allegiance:
Matthew 16:19 (NKJV)
“And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
What we choose to serve on earth echoes in eternity. Serve fear and it binds you tighter. Serve Money/Mammon and your property—meant to be stewarded—becomes your master instead of your tool. Serve the approval of men and your tongue, meant for truth, becomes a hired flatterer. The American charter spoke of unalienable rights and the pursuit of happiness secured by consent; yet even that noble frame assumes men who have first been loosed from the inner tyrant. Otherwise the outer liberty becomes license, and license quickly forges new chains.
Joshua put the choice before Israel with the same blunt clarity the American experiment still requires:
Joshua 24:15 (NKJV)
“And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Idols have not vanished; they have merely changed costume. The golden calf now wears a suit, a screen, a ballot, or a bank account. We bind ourselves when we choose the idol that smokes, drinks, snorts, drops, shoots watches, listens to or bets while it flatters our comfort it causes our grievance towards God, family and country. We loose ourselves—on earth as it is in heaven—when we resist the one who offers those idols.
James 4:7 (NKJV)
“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
Resistance is not passive wishing; it is active allegiance. Submit first to the true Master, then stand. The devil has no authority over a man who has already transferred title of his soul. He can only tempt what is still for sale.
That is why Jesus had to come. Outer documents can restrain tyrants and protect property; they cannot regenerate the heart that chooses bondage over costly freedom. The American drawing card—think what you will, do what you will with your own, provided you harm no neighbor—works best among people who have already been set free inwardly. Otherwise the fences we build around our property and our speech eventually get turned into walls around our consciences.
The good news remains the same in every generation: the Captive-setter still proclaims liberty. The keys still turn. The choice still stands this day. Many remain bound because they have not yet made the exchange—trading the heavy yoke of self and idols for the light yoke of the One who said, “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
That inner freedom is what makes our outer liberty worth having. Without it, we only rearrange the furniture in the prison. With it, even a rented plot or a modest homestead becomes ground for fruitful dominion rather than another chain.
Let’s thank our creator, savior, Lord and spirit that brings us to worship our Father who is in heaven.
Blessings on your grateful adventure. brother bill/dad
