Why free will?

[MatthewBerkeley]

Here’s a question that came to me this morning - I thought I’d throw it out here to get a few thoughts on it.

Why did God give us free will? The only way to true happiness is by abandoning our will to God’s will, and our free will is what leads to misery and suffering, so our free will can never give us the same joy as following God’s will.

Here’s my initial thoughts: I like the saying ‘If you love somebody, let them go. If they come back to you, they’re yours, if they don’t they never were.’
Maybe this can be loosely applied to God’s relationship with humans. He loves us, but has chosen only a few (Mt22:14). And love is so much more valued when it comes as a free expression of will rather than because you are forced or you are programmed to do it. So God’s free expression of love, in dying on the cross for us can be reciprocated with a freely chosen abandonment to God’s love.

What do you think? Any other ideas?

 

[Joe_5859]

Here’s a question that came to me this morning - I thought I’d throw it out here to get a few thoughts on it.

Why did God give us free will? The only way to true happiness is by abandoning our will to God’s will, and our free will is what leads to misery and suffering, so our free will can never give us the same joy as following God’s will.

Here’s my initial thoughts: I like the saying ‘If you love somebody, let them go. If they come back to you, they’re yours, if they don’t they never were.’
Maybe this can be loosely applied to God’s relationship with humans. He loves us, but has chosen only a few (Mt22:14). And love is so much more valued when it comes as a free expression of will rather than because you are forced or you are programmed to do it. So God’s free expression of love, in dying on the cross for us can be reciprocated with a freely chosen abandonment to God’s love.

What do you think? Any other ideas?

I’d say your “initial thoughts” are not off the mark.

I would say that we need to be careful not to set up a false dichotomy between “God’s will” and “free will” as though they are mutually exclusive. We can and should freely choose to follow God’s will. If we didn’t have that freedom, it wouldn’t really be authentic love.

 

[Douglas_Kraeger]

Here’s a question that came to me this morning - I thought I’d throw it out here to get a few thoughts on it.

Why did God give us free will? The only way to true happiness is by abandoning our will to God’s will, and our free will is what leads to misery and suffering, so our free will can never give us the same joy as following God’s will.

Here’s my initial thoughts: I like the saying ‘If you love somebody, let them go. If they come back to you, they’re yours, if they don’t they never were.’
Maybe this can be loosely applied to God’s relationship with humans. He loves us, but has chosen only a few (Mt22:14). And love is so much more valued when it comes as a free expression of will rather than because you are forced or you are programmed to do it. So God’s free expression of love, in dying on the cross for us can be reciprocated with a freely chosen abandonment to God’s love.

What do you think? Any other ideas?

Why does God give us free will? If He did not give us free will, we could not choose to accept Him and we could not choose anything. We would not be able to avoid pain and suffering, we would be robots. That would make God an evil thing for giving us pain and suffering that we could not avoid. Sort of like a child who puts an animal in a box and just to torture it for the “fun” of it. And we all know in our hearts that such unavoidable torture for the “fun” of it is sad, evil and absolutely should not be done and thereby this knowledge of an absolute should not is a proof (if we stop and ask what other way is it possible for an absolute moral should or should not exist) that there must be an infinitely powerful, all-knowing, all-Loving creator who has made an absolute objective moral law and reveals it to us more and more.

Does this help.

 

[MatthewBerkeley]

I’d say your “initial thoughts” are not off the mark.

I would say that we need to be careful not to set up a false dichotomy between “God’s will” and “free will” as though they are mutually exclusive. We can and should freely choose to follow God’s will. If we didn’t have that freedom, it wouldn’t really be authentic love.

Thanks for that. I’d never really considered that idea of the false dichotomy - it clears things up somewhat.

Why does God give us free will? If He did not give us free will, we could not choose to accept Him and we could not choose anything. We would not be able to avoid pain and suffering, we would be robots. That would make God an evil thing for giving us pain and suffering that we could not avoid. Sort of like a child who puts an animal in a box and just to torture it for the “fun” of it. And we all know in our hearts that such unavoidable torture for the “fun” of it is sad, evil and absolutely should not be done and thereby this knowledge of an absolute should not is a proof (if we stop and ask what other way is it possible for an absolute moral should or should not exist) that there must be an infinitely powerful, all-knowing, all-Loving creator who has made an absolute objective moral law and reveals it to us more and more.

I wouldn’t say that not having free will would lead to pain and suffering. On the contrary, countless saints have endeavoured to abandon their will to do only the Lord’s, because they recognise that if they act of their own free will without God, it will lead to pain and suffering for the soul. To not have free will would only be a cause of pain if it was forcibly taken from you, as in the case of an animal locked in a box. But if instead of our own fallible will, we replaced it with God’s, that would lead to eternal joy, though of course to achieve that, I think the body must be disciplined through suffering to be subject to the spirit.
Thanks for your (name removed by moderator)ut.

God bless