Beware of "the bondage of the will"

What we often fail to take into account in our explaining of why people hold on to what they know to be wrong beliefs or bad habits is what used to be called "the bondage of the will". [Remember that Luther wrote a book with this title!]

We are all familiar with the inability of people to give up smoking or hard drugs or alcohol, even when they really want to do so. They seem permanently wedded to the drug and are its slaves even at the same time as they can tell you how bad it is for them and that they ought to give it up.

Likewise we are familiar with the apparent inability of people to give up bad habits that they know are wrong and their desperate desire to change - e.g., gambling, compulsive sex, excessive eating, gossiping, bat temper, over-use of credit cards and so on.

In some cases it is possible that the cause of the bondage to drugs & compulsions can be traced to chemical reactions in the blood and the brain and thus special medical help along with spiritual medicine are needed.

However, there are many cases - most cases - where the reason that we do not act according to our informed consciences, best reasoning and rational mind is what we have called "the bondage of the will". St Paul has something profound to say about this in Romans 7. St Augustine has described the condition in detail in his writings and in his autobiography. We can experience the inner voice saying, " I ought to be this or that" or "I ought to do this or that", and we can be persuaded that what should be achieved or done by us is wholly right, and still we can fail to go ahead. The commitment of the mind does not get into the will and into action. Indeed, we can feel paralyzed and unable to do what we know absolutely is right. There is a blockage in the will. Thus we do not have the peace that passes understanding in our souls.

When we are in such circumstances it is obvious that we need to give ourselves with fresh commitment to prayer asking for help from above and claiming the promises that those who call upon the Lord for help will be heard. It may be necessary also to talk to a godly friend to ask for help & prayer from him.

This bondage of the will is also often found in respectable people (Christian leaders for example) -- a kind of stubbornness & refusal to accept that we are wrong, or that we must go in a different direction, or that we have to adopt a different creed. When it is to our (worldly) advantage to stay with this or that way, this or that form, our wills can and do become exceedingly defensive to protect the ego and the advantage to self, and this is so even when we are convinced in our minds that we should actually change our way or form or behavior to obey the Lord.

And this moral and spiritual bondage where people are socially joined - in a ethnic neighborhood, or in a local church, or in a denomination -- can take on a corporate dimension so that there it is as if a group of people are glued together in a bondage of the will, not prepared to change even when they know in their minds and hearts that they ought to do so for the lasting good of their group and in love of their neighbor. In fact this protection of the status quo and the refusal to be led by enlightened conscience is a major expression of sinfulness in churches and Christian societies for it produces both sins of commission and sins of omission.

Further, this bondage can affect the best of us (that is, the most religious of us) as our Lord's descriptions of and words to the Pharisees & Scribes well illustrate. In their case there was a corporate bondage within their party/movement and there was an individual bondage in each soul and it was all totally abhorrent to the Lord Jesus.

Let us relate this to where we are in the ECUSA now.

What I fear will prevent any God-directed renewal and reformation within conservative Episcopalianism at this period of crisis in the Episcopal Church in the Fall of 2003 is "the bondage of the will", both in its personal and in its corporate aspects. Too many of us seemingly want to hold on to what we have believed to be fine in the last decade or more, even though now we hear the informed reason telling us that it was below par and not genuinely of the Anglican Way, and even though we feel the alert conscience saying loudly and clearly within, "I ought to change and embrace the right way, this is my clear duty."

We shall never escape some bondage of the will as long as we live in mortal bodies, but let us seek by the mercies of God to break as free as is possible from that bondage now, individually & corporately, so that we do experience that gift of the Holy Spirit which is freedom from the rule of original and actual sin.

The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)