Every day, I must place myself under constraint at some point. I get in a car and must, by law, submit to the constraint of a seat belt.
When travelling, I must submit to the speed constraint imposed or risk losing the privilege of independent travel. These constraints – limitations, restrictions – often seem to chafe at my freedom, but I choose to place my freedom under the authority of the constraint, since actually these constraints are for my benefit. I don’t mind the constraint of a seat belt because I know it is protecting me in the event of an accident. I don’t mind the speed limits because I’ve seen the effects of car collisions at speed. I cheerfully accept the lesser constraint in order to avoid a greater one! (hospitalisation, immobilisation, even death…)
Many view submission as a chafing constraint imposed on us by a killjoy God. In reality, however, submission is a liberating constraint allowing us the freedom to enjoy life as God intended it to be. As we submit to those in authority over us, we are not limited or chained, but given the freedom to be fully ourselves, creatures made in the image of God.
The hymnist says, ‘O! to grace how great a debtor/ Daily I’m constrained to be.’ (‘Come, Thou Fount Of Every Blessing’) Paul said, ‘Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another.’ (Rom 13:8) The ‘constraints’ of love and thankfulness are not seen as onerous duties, but transforming delights. The constraints upon us are not straitjackets to limit us, but protection and blessing intended to free us to live life as God intended. When Paul spoke of being contrained or compelled to preach the gospel and having to discharge this God-given responsibility (1 Cor 9:16), he did not see this as a limitation but as a measure of God’s grace to him, a sinner. We are free people, challenged to use our freedom constructively to bless others and thus fulfil the whole law, understanding that freedom is not the absence of constraint, but a channelling into the right use of that freedom.