It’s Not Greek
But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:25 NASB
Liberty– Translators could just have easily written this as “the law of freedom.” The Greek word is eleuthería, a word meaning freedom in Western thought. In the world of classical Greek, eleuthería draws its source from politics. “By definition, freedom means self-disposing in independence of others. This sense is partly fashioned by the contrast to slavery. . . Freedom, for Plato and Aristotle, is essential to a state. The best constitution guarantees the greatest freedom (Thucydides). This freedom is freedom within the law, which establishes and secures it.”[1] But it wasn’t long before Greek philosophy amplified the idea of freedom. Under the influence of Stoicism, freedom in Hellenism was “now much more than political freedom. It is that of the individual under the law of nature. This is regarded as a reversion to the original meaning. The formal sense is the same, but freedom now takes the form of independent self-determination.”[2]
Since the Greeks recognized Man’s total domination by the fear of death, they reasoned that true freedom required the removal of the primal fear, and that was to be accomplished by “liberation from the passions that represent the world in us. . . We find freedom as we neutralize passions and surrender to the ineluctable power of circumstances.”[3] In the end, Greek freedom is the handmaiden of fate, fully accepted.
Presto-chango. We arrive at our contemporary concept, not far removed from the definition supplied by the Greeks of the third century BCE. Powerful ideas that appeal to the deepest sense of self-will remain among Man’s greatest allies, for better or worse. So when you read this verse from the Jewish Messianic believer, James, you are more than likely to read it with the same third century Greek notion in your culture. You imagine that James is endorsing the perfect law as absolute freedom within the very limited parameters of social continuance. You couldn’t be more mistaken!
James isn’t Greek. His concepts arise from a Torah Rabbinic background. Since Jeremiah reveals the essential defectiveness of Man’s self-will, freedom can never be found through inner denial. Lent doesn’t work. What is required is submission to the will of God. Only by relinquishing control can we find freedom. In precisely the opposite of the Greek model, freedom is a form of slavery—voluntary obedience to Another. The perfect law of liberty (freedom) for James is the deliberate choice to become a servant of the Master and give up any rights that direct us toward self-assertion. No Greek could possibly endorse such a move, and no Hebrew could live without it.
Topical Index: freedom, liberty, eleuthería, James 1:25
[1]Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament(224). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.’ Galatians 5.1
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11.29-30
“We find freedom as we neutralize passions and surrender to the ineluctable power of circumstances.” I have not seen a better summation of what the occult, as well as most false religion, teaches. Once we let fear, lust, hate, etc. through the door as motivators not from God, they take over the place. When that happens, all we can do is hand over the keys: “neutralize” and “surrender”. I think we are slaves to the spiritual drivers – whether for good or for ill – we must employ to empower our choices. I have noticed that modern psychology has signed on to this approach, too. Secular psychology, like those other false religions of the world, stays one step behind the crud between the ears. You can go to even a Christian psychologist to learn how to make ‘peace’ – to cohabit – with spiritual mindsets and emotions (such as fear) not of God. Modern spirituality, too, teaches that you have to live with what you are stuck with, so it also hands you a whole bunch of band-aids and psych-outs and altered-state practices because it is a given that (short of deliverance) we have found no way to clean our spiritual houses!
The laws of God are designed to keep us aligned with the laws of nature, too: in fact, obedience to both is what all of us are called to. Obedience works the same for “Greek or Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free” (Col. 3:11) because disobedience to all the laws of God result in the same consequences for all, too. Isn’t it nonsense to think that love works differently for some, or that others are not ‘under’ all the laws that keep us aligned with reality? What is law, anyway? Isn’t it just a description of how reality works?
Obedience to law opens the door of the heart to the love which works only by that law. Love should be the only motivator in our spiritual tanks, but obedience to all the laws of God is the only way to get love to ‘work’ in our lives. If we do not have love, I think we have to cohabit with spiritual forces not of God to be able to move at all or make choices. In other words, I think choice is a mutual exercise between us and our spiritual driver(s). We make no choice alone, for choice must be powered by some sort of spiritual alignment with another spiritual force. That’s how ‘free’ will works.
I think choice, like life (and everything else in creation), only happens in conjunction with more than ourselves. Freedom of choice does not mean that only ‘I’ am choosing, for I cannot make a choice without the power to enforce that choice, but that power is created by agreement with another. Therefore, “free” cannot mean that I managed to get everything else out but me in my private castle: instead, free HAS TO mean that I have managed to kick everything else out that was shoving me around and KEEPING ME FROM HAVING A REAL CHOICE IN THAT PLACE (which the Bible teaches that all unholy spiritual forces do). The Holy Spirit is the only spiritual force that protects my ability to choose (which is what freedom is); therefore love – which that Spirit is – must be the only spiritual motivation in my life. Everything else – all those other spiritual motivators not of God – all that fear, lust, envy, chronic shame, self interests, etc., are just ways of saying that I have lost my freedom to choose in that place. When I have fear, I have lost my freedom to make a different choice in that place. When I choose to yoke up with love, I am delivered of that fear and returned to the full power of choice that actually works with all the rest of reality again.
Laurita, what you share must be in response to the same Spirit that provokes me to think deeply, reflect on the words of scripture, and align my choices and actions with the reality that is revealed in them. Thank you, sister, for encouragement on the way.
“What is law, anyway? Isn’t it just a description of how reality works?”
I say YES to this. At times, it may not appear to be so, because the ‘proof’ we are conditioned to see, is not what we see. I sometimes look at circumstances and realize there must be many factors of which I am unaware, to produce such an outcome as is seen by men.
I consider the Torah to be the revelation of how to ‘live our best life’ while we are alive. I hope no one sees that as some magic formula, because I don’t believe in those either. But I do think it is the enlightened way to fulfill the purpose of one’s life. There’s freedom in that.
The law doesn’t save anyone.
But God’s supreme love blesses those who
obey it, as He leads them to be able to “see”
His spiritual wisdom: you’re here to submit to Him
and His love and authority. True, the journey can be
arduous. It’s suppose to be, as “we share in his sufferings
in order that we may also share in his glory.” Rm 8:17
He allows us to reach the summit when we “see” His Son
as our true forerunner. His submitted will to the Father was,
and is, the most revolutionary fact in human history.
He has already done what no man can do. “It is finished.”
And as Yeshua surrendered , the Father gave to all who
believe in His Son, a reality of freedom known only to Himself!
Hi Torah fans..It’s been too long. So glad I checked in on this. Yes Messiah Yeshua came full of grace and truth. Grace that we might be free to obey the truth revealed in Torah. He came that we might be free to recive His spirit and obey it, that same spirit that leads us into all truth…Truth by Grace = F R E E D O M from the traps of this present world systemn. Freedom to walk in the Kingdom of YeHoVaH. ..