Freedom is the cry from the heart of America. We have elevated freedom to a level of worship almost. Some have taken freedom and pushed it to a place that no man ever intended. The founding fathers never thought that the freedom of speech could be used to burn the American flag, for which they and others died. Freedom is much more than just the simplistic definition of doing whatever I want whenever I want. That’s a distortion.

How do I know? Consider this question: Who are the freest people to have ever lived? That answer may take some thinking because you have to define freedom first. I think of freedom in terms of who has lived with the fewest rules directing them to the right and proper actions. Free people are responsible people and they seek to do the right thing in all circumstances. Well, who were those free people? Adam and Eve, from the Biblical account of creation. Think about how many rules dictated their actions. One. That’s right. Adam and Eve had only a single rule. Look at these words from God to Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16, niv) Adam and Eve was running around naked. Who called the police on them? They were talking to animals. It wasn’t against the rules. They could do whatever they wanted.

Imagine that for a moment. You can do literally anything you want to do except one thing. What a life of liberty that would be. Nothing would be considered off limits, except for one thing. Imagine if it was peanut butter or chocolate. Imagine if wearing orange shirts was the only rule. Imagine if the only law was a prohibition against playing loud music.

And yet Adam and Eve had to have one more thing to make life better. Just a bite from the fruit off of “THE TREE” would make the perfect place even more perfect. What a crock! And yet, we buy the same story. The results? Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of rules in order to keep us free.

It was when Adam and Eve loved and trusted God the most that they felt freest. And so it is with us today. Our liberty is based on loving and trusting God. The Bible tells us, “It is for freedom that Christ set us free.” (Galatians 5:1, niv) Freedom is the pinnacle of our existence. Perhaps our picture of freedom is more than we ever imagined.