Aren’t you glad the church is no longer divided over eating meat sacrificed to idols and the observance of the ancient Hebrew festivals? Whew! I am glad we are over that. As God brought people from different cultures together into the first century church, divisions emerged. While some wanted everyone to observe the dietary and ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, others resisted. For Paul and the Jerusalem Council, the laws of Leviticus related to diet, holy days and morality. Paul saw the first two categories as disputable matters. Reserving intimacy for a man and woman in marriage was not a disputable matter for Paul, nor has it been for the church for the past two thousand years. God defined marriage at the creation of the world. Jesus reaffirmed this definition when he spoke about marriage, quoting Genesis 2:24, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.” The church does not have the authority to redefine it. On the other hand a secular government draws its own boundaries. Christians do not have control over others in our country.
But what about disputable matters today? Can we learn from the principles Paul taught in his letters to Corinth and Rome? This passage closely parallels Paul’s words in Romans 14. There he taught that the members of the church are not to judge others over disputable matters. There is still room to disagree over non-essentials in the body of Christ. We must not slip into legalism about cultural matters. What are disputable matters today? Christians may disagree about the use of alcohol. Paul’s words in v. 8 seem to say that our food and drink neither commend us to God nor condemn us before God.
Does this mean that we can just do what we want to do whenever we want to? Are we free to do, to quote a television newscaster, “Whatever makes you happy!” Paul says my exercise of my rights is limited by my commitment not to cause others to stumble. For example, I do not believe it would be a sin for me to mow my yard on a Sunday. But many of my family members and church members through the years would disagree. I believe in Christ that all days are sacred. I need rest in my life. But Jesus and his disciples made it clear that we were not made for the sabbath but the sabbath for us. Still, if I knew it hurt somebody for me to mow my grass on Sunday, I would refrain from doing it for their sake.
What is the real danger of exercising our freedom and our rights? It is not that we hurt the other person’s feelings but that our behavior invites them to do something harmful for them. Alcohol use is an example. Though I do not drink, I may feel I have the right to. But what if my exercise of my freedom encouraged a recovering alcoholic to drink again? It could destroy them. In Corinth some believers were saying, “Well that is their problem, not mine.” But Paul says, in the body of Christ, we have to care about others. Paul was no vegetarian. But if eating meat caused another to violate their own conscience then he would abstain from meat forever.
What does this have to do with us? Think about the things which divide us these days. I have Christian friends who in good conscience believe in vaccinations and masks. Other Christian friends in good conscience do not. Without adjudicating the issue itself, are there ways I can act which show love and kindness to fellow Christians? I see friends wearing masks who do not believe in their efficacy. But they wear them as a courtesy to fellow believers who disagree. Others feel they might be harmed by wearing a mask. Shouldn’t they have the freedom to abstain from wearing them? There is no law in the Bible about wearing masks. If a person feels strongly for or against a vaccine, they must do research and follow their own conscience in the matter. We live by the law of love. I do not have a word from the Lord about mask efficacy. I do have a word from the Lord about arguing. Stop it. We never have the right to control others, but we are responsible to care for others. Seek the Lord and ask him how we may do that better. A divided world needs a united church. Philip Melanchton reportedly wrote, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”
