A Scandalous Freedom
05/26/09 04:18 PM
I love a good discussion. Add a good friend and a couple of cups of coffee, and I could probably talk all night. A good friend dropped by the office last week. We didn’t talk all night, but we did have a good discussion on the topic of our liberty in Christ. One of the rabbit trails we ended up going down dealt with the issue of alcohol – i.e., if it doesn’t violate their conscience or cause a weaker believer to stumble, is okay for a Christian to enjoy an occasional glass of wine with a good meal?
I recommended two books: God Gave Wine by Ken Gentry, and A Scandalous Freedom by Steve Brown. I’m actually reading the second one at present. I’m only about a third of the way through it, but it has been really good so far. In the very first chapter he devotes a couple of paragraphs to the question, “Will freedom hurt our witness?”
I recommended two books: God Gave Wine by Ken Gentry, and A Scandalous Freedom by Steve Brown. I’m actually reading the second one at present. I’m only about a third of the way through it, but it has been really good so far. In the very first chapter he devotes a couple of paragraphs to the question, “Will freedom hurt our witness?”
- In yet another way, we give freedom with one hand and take it away with the other. We like to tell believers that they are free – but if they utilize their freedom, they will hurt their witness.
A favorite verse usually goes with such counsel: “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat again, lest I make my brother stumble.” (I Corinthians 8:13)
Without checking what the verse really means, the robbers of freedom make it into a horrible and condemning weapon. A misuse of that verse has caused more bondage than you can possibly imagine. We have taken away from Christians everything they could possibly enjoy because, in their enjoyment, they might hurt their witness.
The context of that verse deals with sacrifices to idols in a pagan society. Following the sacrifice, men took the meat to the downtown market and sold it. (What? Did you think the idols ate it?) Christians sometimes bought that meat, and the issue became whether or not a Christian could buy the meat and cook it on the backyard barbecue. Paul said that a Christian could freely do so. But because some uptight Christians (please note that he did not speak of unbelievers) might take offense, it would probably be better to have a salad rather than to give a brother or sister heartburn – even though the Christian remained free and the idols remained nothing. Even in light of this possibility, Paul refused to make a rule about total abstinence. He merely urged us to act wisely and considerately around fellow Christians.
I smoke a pipe. I also sometimes speak at very conservative gatherings of Christians. Do you think that, if I were the plenary speaker for the graduation banquet at Bob Jones University, I would yank out my pipe? No. But because I just told you that I smoke a pipe, some places will never invite me to come there and speak. And even if they did invite me, it would still be inappropriate for me to light up. Why? Not because we should never offend our brothers and sisters in Christ (we teach in our Born Free seminar that you ought to live your life with such freedom and joy that uptight Christians will doubt your salvation). It would be inappropriate because God says I should never act in such an unloving way that I might encourage members of my family to fall into sin through my example.
Suppose some fresh-faced underclassman saw me smoke my pipe, and although he still thought it wrong, he decided to give it a whirl anyway. In that case I have encouraged him to violate his conscience – to sin – through my expression of freedom. Paul does not teach us to refrain from the mere possibility of offending uptight brethren; he offended Christians right and left. And Jesus did so more than Paul.
(There is also the practical side about how smoking my pipe might affect the reception of my speech, to say nothing about my health.)
Let me ask you something: Do you know a single pagan who stayed away from Christ because a Christian did not act as holy and as sanctified as he or she ought to have acted? I know they will say we’re hypocrites – but usually that is just a smoke screen. The truth is, what repeatedly kills our witness is pretense, not freedom.
It would be so refreshing to say to our unbelieving friends, “I really mess up sometimes, but let me tell you something really good: God is still quite fond of me. Wouldn’t it be great if you belonged to a God like that?” If we were that honest, the world would beat a path to our door. (A Scandalous Freedom, pgs. 10-12)
Do you think Steve makes a worthwhile point about our liberty in Christ? Does it raise additional questions or concerns? On the back of the book he asserts that “too many Christians don’t trust freedom–for themselves or others. They prefer the security of manmade regulations to the adventure of freedom.” Has that been true in your experience? What do you think?