For example, you may have the freedom to travel, but you can operate your vehicle only within lawful limits. These limits, or laws, were established as a protection not only for others but also for you. Therefore, true freedom does not mean immunity from all restraint, discipline, and sacrifice; neither does it mean the absence of laws that are right and beneficial. Interestingly, Black’s Law Dictionary defines freedom this way:

“The state of being free . . . without other check, hindrance, or prohibition than such as may be imposed by just and necessary laws and the duties of social life.”

To enjoy freedom, we must live our lives within two boundaries​—natural laws and moral laws.

About 300 years ago, the English philosopher John Locke summed up what you may have discovered about freedom and human law. He wrote: “Where there is no law there is no freedom. For liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others, which cannot be where there is no law; and is not, as we are told, ‘a liberty for every man to do what he lists [wishes].’ For who could be free, when every other man’s humour might domineer over him?”