your choice
Do you appreciate having the freedom to choose how you’ll order your life and what you’ll do and say? Or would you want someone to dictate your every word and action every minute of every day, as long as you live?
No normal person wants their life taken out of their hands and controlled completely by someone else. Living that way would be terribly frustrating. We naturally crave freedom.
Why do we treasure this freedom of choice so much? Understanding this desire helps explain how suffering started. It also helps us see why God has waited before stepping in to end bad things in our world.
How We Are Made
When God created humans, one of the best gifts He gave them was free will. Scriptures explain that God created humans in His own image, and one of His qualities is freedom of choice. (Genesis 1:26; Deuteronomy 7:6) So when He created us, He gave us that same wonderful trait, which is why we hate being controlled by harsh rules and why people revolt against unfair leaders.
Wanting freedom isn’t an accident. Scriptures tell us, “Where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17) Wanting freedom is built into our nature because God made us that way. He wants us to have it because He is a God of freedom.
God also gave us smart minds, perception, and good judgement to go along with free will. These let us weigh options, make decisions, and know right from wrong. (Hebrews 5:14) We weren’t created to be mindless robots or to act purely on instinct like animals.
Along with free will, our original parents, Adam and Eve, had everything anyone could want. They lived in a beautiful park-like paradise with plenty of food, healthy bodies that wouldn’t grow old or sick, and meaningful work to turn the whole world into a paradise. (Genesis 1:26-30; 2:15)
Looking at everything He started, scriptures note, “God saw everything He had made, and look! it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) Scriptures also say of the Creator, “Perfect is His activity.” (Deuteronomy 32:4) He gave humanity a perfect start!
Freedom With Limits
Was this gift of free will meant to have no limits at all? Well, think about driving a car in heavy traffic without any rules, where anyone could drive in any lane or speed in any direction. Total freedom on the road would cause complete disaster, would it not?!
Human relationships work the exact same way. Unlimited freedom for some ruins freedom for others. Unchecked freedom leads to chaos, which harms everyone. There have to be boundaries. God didn’t mean for people to act recklessly without thinking about others.
Scriptures state, “Behave like free men, and never use your freedom as an excuse for wickedness.” (1 Peter 2:16) God wants our free will balanced for everyone’s good. He gave us relative freedom under fair rules.
Whose Laws?
Whose laws were we made to follow? Scriptures mention, “You are slaves of no one except God.” (1 Peter 2:16) This doesn’t mean harsh slavery; it means we thrive when we follow God’s principles. God’s rules provide the absolute best guide for everyone. As Isaiah 48:17 puts it, “I, Jehovah, am your God, the One teaching you to benefit yourself, the One causing you to tread in the way in which you should walk.” At the same time, His boundaries leave plenty of room for personal preference, making life colourful and interesting.
We’re also bound by God’s physical laws. If you jump off a cliff, gravity takes over. If you stay underwater without gear, you can’t breathe. If you stop eating and drinking, your body shuts down. In the same way, we were made to follow God’s moral and social guidelines alongside His physical laws. Following His path isn’t a burden; it keeps us and everyone around us safe. If humanity had stayed within those boundaries, life would’ve stayed wonderful.
So what went wrong, and why did suffering spread across the world? Why has God allowed it for so long?