For freedom Christ set us free. My guess is that most Christians, unlike St. Paul, would not think of following Jesus as being about freedom. We imagine freedom as being able to do whatever you want and the Christian life has built in constraints. Following the commandments and precepts would seem to limit being free to pursue our own way. Paul wants us to understand that actually doing whatever we want does not demonstrate freedom but compulson. Our own desires, our own proclivities push us to act in a certain way which inhibits our ability to respond freely to a given situation. A personality theory called the enneagram says that applies even to good compulsions. For example, when one is compelled to be helpful they are not free to step back and give the other the space for to handle their own stuff. We are only free when we can say “whatever” to God without any conditions.
