The problems of Christians fellowship
Years ago, a good friend joined the Christian group on his university campus. He discovered the Bible in a new depth, grew as a Christian and made great friends. Soon, he was part of the leadership. All the members, and especially leaders, were encouraged to do “walk up evangelism” on the campus, spending a few hours a week in pairs approaching people and asking if they could talk about Jesus. My friend was uncomfortable with this style of evangelism, and decided he would not join in. He didn’t mind that other people did it, he wasn’t against it in principal, he did not make a fuss about it in the group; it was just not his style. He wanted to make friendships with people before he tried out to talk to them about Jesus.
It turned out that “walk up evangelism” was almost “compulsory”. He faced lots of pressure to join in. How could be be really committed if he didn’t? The unspoken message was, “God expects you to join in”.
Many of the trickiest issues of Christian disagreement are matters of action. We can live variety in what we think, especially if we keep it to ourselves. But actions become obvious. What clothes should Christians wear? Are tattoos OK? How should we bring up our children? What school should they go to (or should Christians homeschool? Can Christians drink alcohol, smoke or hunt? I’m sure you can add to the list of contentious questions with the potential to split churches and ruin friendships.
The doctrine of Christian freedom
The key to thinking about these issues is the doctrine of Christian freedom which says three things: Christians are bound by God’s law, they are free when God’s law doesn’t bind them and they should use their freedom to serve others.
1) We are bound by God’s law
Christians are not free to sin, we are have to follow God’s law. We have been redeemed to serve God, not to serve our old sinful nature and sinful ways. Paul makes this point forcefully in Romans 6, reminding us that we have died to sin in Christ and in him we have been raised to live for righteousness. Therefore, it is denial of our salvation to indulge sin. Of course we struggle with sin living in a conflict between the sinful nature and the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). But that struggle is not permission to sin. We are to find out what pleases the Lord and pursue that, not because we must win his favour but because in mercy he is remaking us in his image.
How do we know what pleases the Lord? The short hand answer is “the moral law”. God reveals to us in his Word how he wants us to live and the kind of people he wants us to be. The law is not the motivation for our lives; we live for God because he has redeemed us and given us his Spirit; the law is not the full description of Christian living, it must be followed in love. The law can only be a blessing to Christians because of the gospel. The law is, however, the outline or framework for pleasing the Lord. The ten commandments are the summary of the moral law, and show us the kind of life to which God calls us.
The moral law addresses our life in depth, it is not merely a call for a superficial conformity. Jesus shows that in Matthew 5 when he applies the Old Testament law, mainly the ten commandments, to the hearts and lives of his disciples. “Do not commit adultery” calls us to faithfulness in action and thought; “do not murder” means we must love even our enemies. The freedom which comes from the law is not moral laxity, it doesn’t mean that almost anything goes. Every moment in life is addressed by God’s law as it reveals to us what Christ-likeness looks like.
2) Where we are not bound, we are free
While the law addresses every moment of life, there are many areas of life on which the moral law gives no specific directions. In those areas we have freedom. The most obvious examples are quite trivial, we are not told what side of bed to sleep in, or even whether we should sleep in a bed! More importantly, the Bible has no instructions about how long our prayers should be, apart from warning us not to think we are heard because of the length (Matt. 6:7). There is nothing in the moral law which requires me to send my children to a Christian school or to a state school, to vote for a one political party or to decorate my home in a particular way.
The Reformers adopted an old term for things which are not limited by God’s word, they called them adiaphora, which means indifferent things. They used it particularly about matters of worship on which they differed but did not want to be divided. 1
Many issues may be adiaphora for Christians. Christian freedom is an implication of the doctrine of the sufficiency and authority of Scripture. God rules his people by his Word, and he has given us all we need to know in the Bible. We shape Christian lives by applying the Bible, not by making up new rules which we add around the Bible. Where the Bible does not set limits, we are free.
One reason that it is important to stress this freedom is how we easily confuse our customs and conventions (which may be quite useful) with God’s law and assume that a genuine Christian will conform with our patterns. That’s what happened with “walk up evangelism” in the group my friend joined. In some churches a style of parenting might be promoted in a way that makes it seem compulsory, or people can speak as if all Christian families must home school. In some circles smoking or drinking or dancing is viewed as un-Christian; in others it may be a style of dress or certain ways of praying which are mandated with strong social mores. Often these conventions are not taught explicitly, but are strongly enforced.
There may be good reasons for conventions. Smoking, for instance, brings obvious and significant health risks. Despite their possible value, all the examples above are possible applications of the Bible’s teaching and are not directly commanded. We can recognise the folly of smoking, but we need to be very cautious before we call it a ‘sin’. We have to recognise that on some issues other Christians may come to a different conclusion. I think we should use fair-trade products when we can, but I don’t think I can tell other Christians they are sinning if they do not do that.
The doctrine of Christian freedom protects our conscience. In Romans 14 Paul tells Christians to accept one another “without quarrelling over disputable matters” (Rom 14:1). Believers may have different views about what they can eat or which days they keep, but we are not to judge each other for that, the Lord is the judge (Rom 14:2-13). On these kind of questions, each person should come to their own conviction and follow that in thankful obedience to the Lord (Rom 14:5-6). The Westminster Confession summarises this by saying that “God alone is Lord of the conscience” and we are free “from the doctrines and commandments of men” (WCF 20.2). This does not deny a place for human authorities in their proper role but means that no one can bind the Christian to believe anything or to adopt a form of obedience which does not flow from God’s word.
3) Use freedom in love
Christian freedom, like the law, must be applied in love. Freedom is not to be used flagrantly to hurt others, but to serve them. This may mean choosing not to exercise our freedom. If you genuinely realise that a disputed matter is adiaphora, then you are free to not make a big fuss over it. That’s how Paul deals with meat sacrificed to idols in 1 Corinthains 8-10. Some in the church felt free to eat the meat and some didn’t. Paul agrees with the ‘strong’ that Christians are free to eat (1 Cor 8:1–6), and he counsels them to use their freedom to serve their brothers and sisters (1 Cor 8:7–13). He says “Be careful … that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.… if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall” (vv9,13).
So, if you are with friends who think it is wrong to drink alcohol, then you are free to not drink and you are free not to make a fuss about the question. On the other hand, as Christians, they should recognise that you are free to have a drink and they should not require your conscience to conform to their convictions.
Christian freedom, then, applies to two areas, which can overlap: where the Bible does not teach any particular behaviour and where Christians can take different views about the implications of Scripture. Sorting out what is clearly taught and what is an area of freedom is not always easy. We should try to defend freedom for each other, and encourage each other to serve God by following his law, rather than focus on conformity to our patterns.
From https://www.understandchristianity.com/beyond-the-basics/christian-freedom/
Resources
A. Cameron, Joined-up Life: A Christian Account of How Ethics Works (Leicester: IVP, 2011), ch 31.
R.N. Longenecker “What does it matter?” priorities and the adiaphora in Paul’s dealing with opponents in his mission” 147-160 in The Gospel to the Nations P. Bolt and M.D Thompson, eds., Apollos, 2000.
P. Helm, “Freedom” 393-5 in New Dictionary of Ethics and Pastoral Theology D.H. Atkinson & D.H. Field, eds. IVP, 199.
Cynthia L. Rigby, “Evangelical Freedom and the Reformers.” Touchstone 37, no. 1 (February 2019): 16–23.
D. A. Carson, “On Disputable Matters.” Themelios 40. 3 (December 2015): 383–88.
Footnotes