We are exhorted in the New Testament as sons of God to imitate our Brother, to have the same attitude we see in Jesus. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. —GALATIANS 5:13
Another word for liberty is a privilege. We are not to use our liberty or privileges as children of the living God to serve Lest We Offend Them
113
ourselves. Liberty is to be used to serve others. There is freedom in serving but bondage in slavery. A slave is one who has to serve, while a servant is one who lives to serve.
Let’s look at some of the differences between a slave’s attitude and a servant’s:
• A slave has to—a servant gets to.
• A slave does the minimum requirement—a servant reaches the maximum potential.
• A slave goes one mile—a servant goes the extra mile.
• A slave feels robbed—a servant gives.
• A slave is bound—a servant is free.
• A slave fights for his rights—a servant lays down his rights.
I have seen many Christians serve with a resentful attitude. They give grudgingly and complain as they pay their taxes. They still live as slaves to a law from which they have been set free. They remain slaves in their hearts. It is most alarming that this law is constructed from the New Testament Scriptures.
They do not have the “spirit” in which Jesus gave His commands. They have not realized they were liberated to serve. So they continue to fight for their own benefit rather than for the benefit of others.
Paul gives a vivid example of confronting this attitude in his letters to the Romans and the Corinthians. Liberty for these believers was challenged by food. Paul began by exhorting them to “receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to dispute over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables” (Rom. 14:1–2).
Jesus had clarified that it was not what goes into the mouth that defiles but what comes out of the mouth. When He made this statement, He made all foods clean to the believer (Mark 7:18–19). Paul said that there were some believers who were weak in their faith and still could not eat meat for fear of eating food that had been sacrificed to idols. Though Jesus had spoken to
The Bait of Satan
114
the issue, these people still could not eat meat with a clear conscience. Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world....yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. —1 CORINTHIANS 8:4, 6–7
In those churches, Christians with stronger faith were eating meats of questionable origin in front of weaker saints. This was causing a problem even though Jesus had purified these foods. The weaker ones could not shake the image of the meat on the altar of an idol.
The stronger saints knew that an idol was nothing and felt no prick of conscience as they ate. But it appears that they were more concerned with holding on to their rights as New Testament believers than they were with offending their brethren. Without realizing it they had placed a stumbling block in the path of their weaker brothers. This attitude is not present in the heart of a servant. Look how Paul addressed them:
Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way....for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. —ROMANS 14:13, 17
He was saying, “Let’s remember what the kingdom is really about—righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” All of these benefits were being upset in the new believers. The stronger believers were not using their liberty to serve but as a platform for their “rights.” They had knowledge of their New Testament freedom. But knowledge without love destroys. Lest We Offend Them
115
They did not have the heart of Jesus in this matter. Jesus proved His rights regarding the temple tax to Peter and the rest of the disciples to exemplify the importance of laying down our lives to serve. He never wanted freedom to be a license to demand our rights and cause another to be offended and stumble.
Paul gave this warning to those who had knowledge of their rights in Christ without His heart to serve. And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. —1 CORINTHIANS 8:11–12
We can use our liberty to sin. How? By wounding those of weaker conscience, causing one of Christ’s little ones to be offended and stumble.
Comments
Post a Comment