Human freedom is a social concept that recognizes the dignity of individuals and

is defined here as negative liberty or the absence of coercive constraint (Vasquez et al.,
2021). The moment we exist in this world, we are free and we are automatically given
the rights by the law that come with responsibilities. Given that technically, we are not in
the state of being enslaved nor imprisoned, without restraint, and have the power to act,
think, or speak, still are we truly free? We are, but only for the good.

The freedom of man is God-given. God gave us the life and liberty to live and
love without reserve so that we may seek God in our own accord and attain his blessing
and full protection by holding on to Him with our free will. However, our freedom is not
absolute. There are some things that we have no control over even if we are free. We
may choose to break the rules, to beat the red light, to commit heinous acts, but only to
that extent. We do not have the freedom to choose our sexuality; we are either born
with male or female genitalia. We do not have the freedom to choose whether to exist or
to not exist; we are simply born out of His will.

In the same manner, our freedom has its own curb. As God bestowed upon us
the honor of being close to his image, he also gave us the means of thinking as well as
free will that makes us a higher being than all the other animals. Seeing that we have
our own free will, we also have the ability to choose. In this world full of temptations,
God gave us two possible courses of action; to choose the greater good or to succumb
to the temptations of evil. Thus, freedom characterizes human acts and the more we do
good, the freer we become.

In this modern world, we think we are free, but we don’t realize how we imprison
ourselves by casting aside what is good and getting at ease with what is comfortable. In
order to bring back true freedom, we may simply go back to the ways of the Lord and do
what is good and right. We can exercise virtue by following His words. We can fight for
what is right and resist the evil temptations. We fight for justice and not get blinded by
what runs the world today- money. We may simply communicate with Him on a daily
basis; talk and listen, ask for forgiveness and guidance. The more we do good, the freer
we become.

Human freedom is a social concept that recognizes the dignity of individuals. We

are free the moment we are born, but just as we are given rights for protection, it also
comes with responsibilities. Our freedom is God-given and is not absolute and we are
only free to a certain extent. Given the free will, we may either choose between obeying
God or succumbing to evil. However, we are only truly free through goodness. The more
we do good, the freer we become. Thus, we can only make the choices ourselves and
either do good and choose God or choose evil and drift farther away from Him, but if
one settles for the latter, will he ever be truly free?

Reference:

Vasquez, I., McMahon, F., Murphy, R., & Schneider, G. S. (2021). The Human
Freedom Index 2021. Cato Institute. Retrieved March 9, 2022, from
https://www.cato.org/human-freedom-index/2021#:~:text=Human%20freedo
m%20is%20a%20social,it%20is%20worth%20measuring%20carefully.