The following can be found in the publication Freedom! by Adam Kokesh (thefreedomeline.com)
Freedom is what you have when no one is forcing their will on you. Everyone inherently recognizes this as a good thing because we all value our power to make decisions. We all value making decisions without being threatened. Unfortunately, most of us have not taken the time to consider the precise nature of freedom and its foundation in universal undeniable principles. Applying those principles to big issues may be complicated, but the concept of freedom is not. When applied consistently, it shows the way to a more harmonious society.
If somebody is forcing their will on us, clearly, we are not free. So perhaps it is helpful to think of freedom not as a substance, but as an ideal state of social harmony in which no one is forcing their will on anyone else. A violation of freedom is an attack on a particular victim whose will is being forcibly hindered by taking their life, stealing their property, or threatening them with assault. Freedom is not just an ideal state of society, but a moral code for respecting the rights of others.
Self-ownership is an integral part of being human. You own yourself. You own your body. You own your labor. For anyone to assert otherwise is to attempt to restrict your freedom or make you a slave.
Because you own yourself, it is wrong for someone to initiate force against you or your property. Acceptance of this simple fact is the foundation of a free and peaceful society. This universal non-aggression principle applies to everyone, and it is therefore wrong to kill, injure, assault, steal from, or threaten another person. Anyone who directly violates others, supports the violation of others, or violates others on behalf of someone else is holding us back from achieving our potential through the harmonious and mutually beneficial transactions that take place in freedom.
However, I also want you to be free from the constraint of time and death on top of other enslavements such as government, and self-enslavement. For an eternity, man does not have the power to make themselves into eternal Gods. We even know that the universe will come to an end, what happens to you then? Even if you can make yourself timeless, or ageless, can you make yourself so mighty that you can survive and thrive past the end of everything? By definition that is not going to happen. Even if you escape the tyranny of Government and other men, even if you don’t have a guilty conscience because you are perfectly good at all times, you are still under the tyranny of time.
Christian freedom isn’t about becoming a slave of God, or a servant of God, it is about learning to be a child of God, who learns to live with his father, as a little child lives with their loving parent.
So much of the scriptures have been centered on servant, bond servant, and constrained to, or managed by, but who are those verses talking to? There is a Greek word called Oikonomia which is used only a few times in the whole scriptures, but through this we learn the critical understanding who did the hard work, that we get to revel in it.
Luke 16
1 Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager (oikonomos), and this manager (houtos) was reported to him as squandering his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management (oikonomia), for you can no longer be manager (oikonomeō).’ 3 The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management (oikonomos) away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management (oikonomia) people will welcome me into their homes.’ 5 And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He *said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 And his master praised the unrighteous manager (oikonomia) because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. 9 And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.
There are 4 forms of management, but 3 instances of these words are oikonomia, so what we are talking about here is the position of manager. A person who carries the weight of managing what he has been put in charge of.
- 1Co 9:17 For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will (by assignment), I have a stewardship entrusted to me.
- Eph 1:10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him
- Eph 3:2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you;
- Eph 3:8-9 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things;
- Col 1:25 Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God,
- 1Ti 1:4 nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.
When you read these verses in context, you see that Paul was trusted to be the manager of the grace message, we walk in the fruit of proper management under Paul. This isn’t something we have to manage. It isn’t our labor to work in. It isn’t our bond servant position; it was Paul’s and the other Apostles. We are the results of that good management. We have the pleasure and privilege to share in that grace message, and share it with others. However we are not the managers of it; for all apostles have been directly appointed by Christ Jesus, not even by prayer and lots as the other apostles tried to appoint the replacement for Judas (Acts 1:26). As I keep saying, we get all the benefits, but none of the labor, and all we have to do is to believe and accept. A lord who does not violate Non-aggression Principle (NAP) is a lord worth following. Jesus is that Lord.
Brian By Experience 