Selected Texts
Love, the Right and Proper Boundary for Christian Liberty
January 23, 2022

Selected texts from Romans 14, Colossians 2, 1 Corinthians 8 & 10 and others.

We are not under the law, but we have responsibilities to love.

Romans 14: 1-4
1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

Sinful responses

• Despise (look down on)
• Judgment on disputable matters
• Quarreling over opinions.
• Not keeping your personal beliefs personal.
  • Romans 14:22, “So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves.” (NIV)
  • Divisions in the Church.
  • Grey areas = sin for some but not for others.

Common Mistakes in the Body

• FALSE = All of my beliefs should be everyone’s beliefs.
  • Individuals do not define what is evil or holy or where there is liberty—God does.
  • TRUE = All of what God has said should be my beliefs.
  • Where He has been silent there is liberty.
  • We are not speaking of moral-relativism.
• FALSE = Legalism add-ons = e.g., Junk food regarding the idea that “Our body is a temple.”
  • Human teaching not found in the Bible. (“Cleanliness is next to godliness.”)
  • Colossians 2:16-17, “16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”
  • TRUE = What God has not explicitly forbidden is allowable in Christian liberty with a corresponding clear conscience.
• FALSE = Licence add-ons = e.g., premarital sex, i.e., fornication, is a matter of conscience.
  • TRUE = God has expressly forbidden things for our good. These are not disputable for the Church.
  • One cannot claim a clear conscience to remove evil, sin and guilt.
  • Raise the bar … Lower the bar … Or just right.
• Everything we believe, theologically speaking, may not be rooting in what God has said, but instead, may have found its birth in what we have been taught or in our exclusive, personal opinions.
  • What holiness is for everyone, is accurately defined only by the word of God.
  • All personal beliefs may ≠ God’s truth
  • Personal beliefs do set an additional bar for holiness for an individual.

Rules

• FALSE ➡️ more rules = more holiness
• TRUE ➡️ more than God’s explicit rules = weaker faith / weaker Christian (Romans 14:1)
  • Romans 14:1-2, “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.” (emphasis mine)
    • Implicational truth: as one grows in the faith, one recognizes and understands more (godly) liberty.
    • It seems the opposite should be true: more rules more maturity.
    • God’s kingdom principle:
    • Colossians 2:20-23, “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” (emphasis mine)
• 1 Corinthians 10:23, “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.
  • There are many neutral things.
    • 1 Corinthians 8:8-13, 8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
  • There are many time wasters.

The Mind and Conscience

• Theology starts in the mind
  • Romans 14:5-9
    5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. [point 1] 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. [point 2] The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
    • To be “fully convinced” = deep thought
  • Romans 14:14, I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.
    • Sin is serious—think!
    • Thinking is a lost art and science.
      • We hold a vast knowledge in our hands.
      • We don’t own that knowledge.
      • We must put in the hard work to increase our knowledge.
      • Word studies.
• The conscience is tied directly to the mind’s theology.
  • 1 Corinthians 8:7, However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
    • The Corinth Church struggled with food because they did not possess specific life knowledge.
    • They had brought their old understanding to their Christian life.
• Know this: we potentially have a fully awakened, healthy, accurate conscience because of the resurrection of Jesus.
  • 1 Peter 3:21, "Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." (emphasis mine)
  • Goal: we want our minds and consciences to FULLY align with the Scriptures!

What stands in our way of our minds and consciences to FULLY align with the Scriptures?

• Poor theology
  • Colossians 2:20-23, 20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
    • Worldly regulations
    • Great damage may happen from a secular worldview buy-in.
  • 1 Timothy 4:1-5, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer."
    • Great damage from false teaching:
• Our consciences are not 100% reliable
  • We may outright lie to ourselves.
  • We cannot evaluate our conscience with 100% accurately over our lifetimes.
    • 1 Corinthians 4:4, “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.” (NIV)
• Our consciences vary in conviction.
  • We just think differently about neutral things.
    • Different values.
  • 1 Corinthians 10:29b, "For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience?"
  • Unstudied theology.
• Our consciences vary according to faith.
  • Romans 14:23b, For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
  • 100% clear conscience filled with faith on the matter must be the case.
  • Romans 14:23a, But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith.
    • “But” there must be no doubt.
    • If you feel a 90% clear conscience to do a Christian liberty, you should not do it.
• Each Christian needs to work at keeping their conscience functioning and healthy.
  • Why?
    • “Moral Compass”
    • The Holy Spirit interacts with us through our minds and consciences.
  • We do this through …
    • … immediate confession.
    • … recognition of “acceptable sins,” “church sins,” = gossip, unforgiveness, etc.
    • … aligning and realigning our consciences with Scripture.
  • Love and faith are the two Christian virtues that are necessary for any good work.

Top Priority: Not Causing Another Brother to Stumble

• Romans 14:15, 20-21 "For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
  • Notice our lack of love has the power to destroy lives.
  • Notice we may destroy the word of God.
  • Love is what we are commanded to do.
  • What is sin? Missing the mark = missing the mark of love.
  • Working definition of sin: Sin is withholding love from anyone, at anytime, for any reason.
  • 1 Corinthians 8:8-13, 8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

God’s Judgement

• God judges His property.
• Romans 14:10-13, 10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” 12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. 13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
  • We are not our brother’s judge in neutral, disputable matters.
  • Remember: do not go beyond what is written.

Blessing Available

• Romans 14:22-23, let’s look
• Romans 14:22a, The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God.
  • You should have a private life BUT …
  • 1 Peter 2:16, "Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God."
  • Our “private” lives should only be populated with legitimate Christian liberties.
  • Romans 14:22b, Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.
  • The quicker we grow in our Christian liberty, the quicker we will experience more joy; we will be blessed more.
  • When we grow in our faith, we will experience more Christian freedom and liberty.
    • Who doesn’t love liberty?
    • Romans 14:16-19, 16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding."
• Our goal:
  • Line up our liberty with God’s.
  • Can God do anything He wants?
    • God can’t lie.
    • Hebrews 6:18, So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
    • Is God free?
  • God’s Liberty: “The freedom to act according to one’s own character at anytime.” (Allman)
  • We are suppose to act tangibly according to God’s character through His will and power.
  • Our liberty needs to reflect and find its fullness and its limits in God’s Liberty
  • Maturity has us living by what God has said—no less … and no more.
  • 1 Corinthians 4:6, "I [Paul] have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written."

Final Charge:

• 1 Corinthians 10:31-33, 31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, 33 just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

Bibliography

Allman, James. Dallas Theological Seminary, Old Testament Class Lecture Quote, (Lecture unknown).

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