Richard L. Evans wrote:
The question of freedom is always before us; what it is—and how much we were meant to have—and how much freedom one can have within the limits of the law. To begin with, we can only conclude that the Lord God meant us to be free, and that the principle of compulsion is not part of the divine plan and purpose—for freedom is a fundamental ingredient of growth.
From scripture we recall one of the most quoted of all recorded comments concerning freedom: “. . . know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”98 This is a commandment as well as a promise—a commandment first to know the truth, to search for it, to seek it. And the next step to knowing it would surely be to accept it; and with the sincere search and acceptance of truth, freedom would surely be found. But aside from scripture, we turn to a question asked of Seneca, and his answer also: The question: “Thou inquirest what liberty is?” And his answer: “To be a slave to nothing. . . .”99
It isn’t always others who enslave us. Sometimes we let circumstances enslave us; sometimes we let routine enslave us; sometimes with weak wills we enslave ourselves. Sometimes we partake of detrimental things that we think will sooth our nerves or our minds or our imagination, things we think will help us escape from reality. But no one is free if they are running away from reality. And no one is free if they are running away from truth.
It isn’t only chains or guards or prison walls that can keep us from freedom. A person isn’t free if they have habits that they can’t control. A person isn’t free if they can’t control their thoughts and desires. They aren’t free if bound by superstition, or by fear, for fear itself is a kind of compulsion.
Real freedom leads to voluntary discipline, to self-control, and to intelligent choice—to choose to take good counsel, to choose to keep the commandments, to choose to live within the limits of the law, no because we have been compelled, but because we have used our freedom to make intelligent choice—because we have used our freedom to discipline ourselves, and so are not enslaved. “Thou inquirest what liberty is? To be slave to nothing. . . . ” ~Richard L. Evans, Thoughts for One Hundred Days (Salt Lake City: Publishers Press, 1966). 155-56
