Christianity & Stoicism
Freedom: What Is In Our Control, and Trusting God
The most famous Stoic teaching is also its gift: some things are in our control and others are not, and freedom is found by caring supremely about the one and letting go of the other. For Epictetus, no tyrant can touch the one thing that is truly ours, our own will and judgment, and there lies real liberty. Christians love this clear-eyed freedom and share much of it, and root freedom finally not in the strength of our own will but in trusting a God who holds what we cannot, and in the truth of Christ that sets us free from within. Freedom by mastering what is in our power, or freedom by trusting the God who holds the rest, is where Stoic and Christian faith honestly meet and part.
What Stoicism teaches
Epictetus, born a slave, taught that true freedom is inward: it lies in rightly dividing what is ours from what is not, and caring only for what is ours.
Our judgments, desires, and choices are our own and cannot be taken from us; the body, property, reputation, and outcomes are not. To locate our hopes only in what is in our power, and to accept the rest, is, for the Stoic, to be free no matter our circumstances.
What Christians believe
Christians prize this inner freedom too, and ground it not finally in the strength of our own will but in trusting the God who holds what we cannot, and in the liberating truth of Christ.
Where they meet
Both prize an inner freedom that no circumstance can take away; both refuse to let fear of loss enslave the soul; and both know the peace of releasing what is not ours to control.
Where they differ
Stoic freedom rests on the strength of our own will, guarding the one thing that is ours and accepting all the rest. Christian freedom entrusts what we cannot control to a personal God who cares for us (1 Peter 5:7), and is finally a gift: the truth of Christ setting us free from within, from sin and fear, in a way our own will cannot achieve (John 8:32,36). Freedom by mastering what is in our power, or freedom by trusting the God who holds the rest and frees the heart, is the honest difference.
Stoic sources: Epictetus, the Enchiridion (trans. Elizabeth Carter, public domain), and Marcus Aurelius, the Meditations (trans. George Long, public domain); translations vary, compare others. Bible: King James Version. Every reference on this page was checked against its source.
The word itself
Ta eph' hemin (ta eph' hemin) → the things up to us → what is in our control
The Stoic distinction between ta eph' hemin (what is up to us: our judgments, desires, and choices) and what is not (body, property, reputation, outcomes). Freedom is caring only for what is ours. Christians share this inner freedom, and root it in trusting the God who holds what we cannot, and in the truth of Christ that frees the heart (1 Peter 5:7; John 8:36).
Frequently asked questions
- What did Epictetus mean by what is in our control?
- Epictetus taught that some things are up to us, our own opinions, desires, and choices, and others are not, our body, property, reputation, and outcomes (Enchiridion 1). Freedom is found by caring supremely about what is ours and letting go of the rest; then no circumstance and no tyrant can enslave the soul.
- How is Christian freedom different?
- Christians prize this inner freedom too, but root it not finally in the strength of our own will but in trusting a personal God who cares for us and holds what we cannot (1 Peter 5:7), and in the truth of Christ that frees the heart from within (John 8:36). Freedom by mastering what is in our power, or freedom by trusting the God who holds the rest, is the difference.
Come and see
Stoicism seeks the good life through reason and the acceptance of a rational order it calls the Logos. The Gospel of John tells of the Logos who is a Person, made flesh, who can be known and loved. The most direct way to know Jesus is to read his words for yourself. There is no pressure here.
Read the Gospel of JohnWhy Jesus?Ask for prayer