Imagined Freedom of Choice

“And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.”

2 Timothy 2:26

Not as Free as You Think

It is good to secure the freedom to choose freedom. But that choice, if never excercised can lead to more bondage. Such is the snare of the devil, who will give you as much slack as you need to remain his prisoner.

Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm Syndrome is a proposed psychological phenomenon described as when hostages express empathy with and have positive feelings toward their captors. Sometimes hostages come to empathize to the point of defending and identifying with the captors. The term was first used by foreign media after 1973 when four hostages were taken and kept for 6 days during a failed bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden. The hostages defended their captors after being released and would not agree to testify in court against them.

Though the term ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ is often used to blanket any complicated mental state after a traumatizing experience, the fact of altered thinking remains. The damage may be called many things, but the sad reality is that often we believe the devil we know is preferable to the devil we do not know. Thus a person who could be truly free, is not.

Cabanatuan, Philippines

Early in January, 1945, near the end of World War II, American prisoners of war (POWs) at the Japanese camp at Cabanatuan in the Philippines were surprised to hear that their captors were abandoning the site. Due to the Allies’ advances, Japanese troops were needed elsewhere, and they would have to leave the prisoners unsupervised.

It was like a second lease on life. Men who entered the war at 150lbs had shrunk in captivity to less than 90lbs. Because of the freedom to get extra food when the Japanese left, they were able regain almost 30lbs (though it was mostly water and rice). They could now use more comfortable facilities instead of a disease-ridden latrine. They were also not subject to the grueling work schedule that was put on them. Conditions improved so much that it almost made them forget that they were POWs.

Before the Japanese left they sat down with a couple of the American officers. The commandant leaned across his desk and got straight to the point. “We leave in two days,” he said. “No guards will remain here. However, you must stay in camp. If anybody tries to escape, we kill everyone severely!” (Hampton Sides, Ghost Soldiers, 2001)

Strangely enough, the empty threat worked. Despite being treated and forced to live as animals, some of the POWs did not want to leave Cabanatuan. They had come to view its barbed wire fences as a home. When the U.S. Army Rangers later arrived to liberate them, some of the POWs had to be convinced, almost forced, to leave.

This is just how the Devil will keep you from leaving the chains of this world. He will give you enough freedom to distract you. The Devil is not your ally. This world is not your home. Jesus Christ is your Saviour, and He has come to set at liberty them that are bruised.

Only as Free as You Trust

Charles Wesley penned one of the most thrilling scenes in all hymnody in “And Can It Be.”

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast-bound in sin and nature's night.
Thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light!
My chains fell off, my heart was free!
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee!

Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

How foolish would a believer be who never “rose, went forth, and followed” but instead, “sat, gave up, and looked through the bars”? I have made weekly visits to jails since 2012, and I have not met a prisoner yet who wouldn’t walk out an open cell door!

(Yet men and women who naturally squirm at being jailed in their prime teenage years will make the exit a revolving door. Call it reciprocity, call it institutionalization, call it whatever you want. Some of them just feel more at home behind bars. They will live and die in one prison or another of their own making.)

So why do you continue to wallow in sin and self-pity? If Christ has made you free, then you are free indeed! What is holding you back? An obligation to your peers? Some past dues you owe to the old culture? Spiritually, you were crucified with Christ, the sin debt is paid. Rise to walk in newness of life.

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

Galatians 5:1

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