"If God is real, then why would he give us a choice to follow him or not?" This is a question that has been presenting itself to me recently. This is, in fact, the question of free will. If God is all powerful and created everything on the Earth, why wouldn't he just use his powers to command us to follow him?

The question must be addressed in two different ways. First, we must define what this free will is and then we must ask why.

So what is free will? The answer may seem quite simple - it is the ability to choose between different things. But this then raises another question: what exactly are these things to choose between? It is obvious, to have free will, there must be more than one choice. Now, while some may consider these other choices to be different religious beliefs such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam or Judaism, this is not exactly the case. But what is the other choice then?

I say that it is evil.

Evil can be hard to define. I find that the best way to do this is by using an example from Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine was a very pivotal figure in the early Christian church in the fourth and fifth centuries. He defended the idea that evil itself has no source, but is instead simply the absence of good. This is similar to light and dark. There is nothing that produces darkness, it is simply the absence of light. But then to define evil we must also define what is good. According to Saint Augustine, something is good if it fulfills its purpose.

To put this into perspective, I will use a metaphor. Let's say you have a nice wooden bucket. This bucket is airtight, and as such, it can hold water without leaking any. This bucket can be considered good because its purpose, holding water, is fulfilled. Then someone comes along and drills a hole in your nice bucket so that it slowly leaks. This hole is then the evil because it prevents the bucket from holding water; it prevents the bucket from fulfilling its purpose.

You're probably asking yourself what this has to do with our original question. Now that we have defined that evil and good give us the two choices, we need to define what free will is in a religious sense. Therefore, this free will is the choice between fulfilling our purpose, praising God and advancing his kingdom, or not.

But then why exactly did God give us free will?

The fact of the matter is that God is a loving God and 1 John even states that "God is love." Let me put it like this - if one person loves another, that person is not going to try to force this other person to love them if they are rational. God is like this; he does not force us to follow him as that is unloving. Instead, God gives us the choice, fulfill our purpose in him, or turn to evil.