The Limits of Our Liberty

 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” —The Declaration of Independence

 

"For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them" —the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:19

 

"We are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights." Among these rights is the incontrovertible right to liberty. The Declaration of Independence affirms that entitlement, as does Natural Law and Holy Scripture.

 

But liberty is not the highest good. There is one higher: the right to set aside our rights for the sake of others.

 

Paul was a free man and had rights as a human being and as a Roman citizen—rights he enumerates in 1 Corinthians 9—and, on  occasion, he expected others to honor those rights (Acts 22:25-29). 

 

Yet he was willing to set aside his rights when, by insisting on them, he put the cause of Christ in jeopardy. "I do it (set aside my own freedom) for the sake of the gospel," he insists, "that I may share with others in its blessings" (9:23). It's in this context that Paul compares authentic Christians to Olympian athletes:

 

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified (9:24-27). 

 

Track athletes shouldn’t train on beer and pretzels and expect to compete successfully. They exercise self-restraint,  setting aside their personanal freedom in order to run well. This should be our discipline as well, for our race, unlike a Roman foot race and its fading laurel wreath, has eternal consequences: the ultimate salvation of men and women, boys and girls. In a mixed metaphor taken from the sport of boxing, Paul speaks of giving himself a "knock-out punch"[1] in order to obtain that prize.

 

We should then be willing to set aside our personal liberty for the sake of that higher goal. Jesus himself is our example: He voluntarily gave up his right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" in order to save us (Philippians  2:4-8). Paul goes so far as to insist that our Lord in his incarnation, “emptied himself" of his right to the independent use of his attributes as God to bring eternal salvation to the world.[2]

 

I should be wary, then, lest I, by insisting on my own liberty, become an also-ran.

 

David Roper

10.2.21

[1] Paul's Greek word here translated "discipline my body" ("buffet my body" in earlier translations) is a technical boxing term for an uppercut that puts an opponent on the canvass—something akin to Mammy Yoakum’s fabled “Goodnight Irene” punch.

[2] Paul is very careful in his choice of  words. He does not say that Jesus set aside his deity but that he, in the incarnation, “emptied himself” of the independent use of his deity and always acted as a man solely dependent on his Father (John 5:30). 

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