"I Can Do Anything I want to Do with My Life"

I recall many times during a "discussion" with a loving family member saying something like "I can do anything I want to do with my life." Usually the context directed the content of my statement, which was usually one of someone suggesting that my conduct was not reflective of who I was. Still, this statement can be evaluated on its own merits. As a Christian am I a moral free agent?

At first glance a human being can be seen to be a moral free agent. After all we are given free will on all of those things having to do with our interactions with other human beings. We can choose how to live our lives. Our choices ought to reflect our beliefs and not detract from our relationships with our family members and friends, but still these choices are ours to make. Ultimately from a philosophical point of view we are individuals.

Even with that being said, most of us enter into community life with others. The minute we enter into family life or married life there are covenants, written or unwritten, that help to regulate our lives. Most of us need those covenants in order to maintain discipline in our lives and help us to live by the faith and values that we would like to live. How often do we get into a sticky ethical decision and are helped by asking "what would ______________ think of me when I do this?" Community life helps us to behave in ways to which we are committed.

Now taking it from a Christian point of view, there are so many more commitments and considerations into making an individual choice in our lives. By virtue of our baptism we are united to Christ and other Christians. When we consider making an ethical choice it brings both our relationship to God and to the Christian community into our decision making. We should ask "how would my choice reflect my walking with Jesus daily?" Or we may ask what would my Christian community think about the choice I am about to make?

In Colossians 3 Paul writes "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body... Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly...And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus..." Certainly Paul is admonishing us to let our relationships to Christ and others determine our behavior. Although we are still free agents on those things that lie below us as followers of Christ we will want to make the choice to let Christ rule in our hearts. Even though we may want to act freely in what we do and say in our lives, as Christians "in word or deed" we will want to glorify God.

There is much in our lives that seems to be individually chosen by each and every one of us. But ultimately isn't it a blessing that believers in Christ have an accountability to God and others?