Liberty part 1- 1 Cor. 8

When I was young my family owned a home with a large pool in the backyard. My bedroom overlooked the the pool, which was unfortunate the night that several of my older cousins came over for a swimming party. The hour came for my bedtime, and I was sent to sleep while my cousins continued to swim. I remember laying in bed and hearing them laughing and frolicking in the water, and eventually I was at my window sadly watching them play. Particularly grievous was that one of my cousins close in age to myself was allowed to continue to swim, while I had been sent to bed. She was free, and I was not. She was allowed, I was excluded. Eventually my grandma saw me at the window and demanded my parents allow me to return to the party--but that's beside the point.

In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul is addressing a group of Christian's who are failing to recognize how their freedom is harming fellow believers. Some believers know that with their liberty in Christ they are free to engage in certain activities, while other believers do not understand this. Some believers know they are allowed, but other believers feel excluded by a sensitive conscience. That posed a problem for the church then even as it does today. Here are a couple initial thoughts on Christian liberty.

1) What Christian liberty is, and what it is not. Christian liberty is the freedom of the believer in Christ. (Gal. 5:1) Freedom from enslavement to sin, freedom from the ceremonial observances of the law, freedom to exercise the dictates of a pure and right conscience in matters not condemned in Scripture. (1 Cor. 10) Christian liberty is NOT a licence to indulge the flesh: "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men--as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bond-servants of God." (1 Peter 2:15-16)

2) The danger of knowledge. Back in 1 Corinthians 8, Paul makes this statement: "Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies." (8:1b) We all can think of someone who is a know-it-all. What are the consistent traits of a know-it-all? Pride, arrogance, selfishness, narcissism, the list goes on. In general, not a loving or gracious person, but rather someone who has to be right all the time, and is self-focused and inconsiderate. In the case of the Corinthians, many believers had enough doctrinal "knowledge" about their liberty in Christ that they were unconcerned about exercising that freedom, even when it came at the cost of harming believers who did not have the same doctrinal knowledge, and were confused and disoriented by these expressions of liberty which they perceived as sin. So Paul confronts this "knowledge" that has superseded love among the church.

3) Pursuing liberty in love. We often think of liberty as the ability in Christ to enjoy that which is not forbidden in Scripture, but while that is partially true, Paul challenges that thinking as being incomplete. It is unloving to flaunt your liberty when a less mature Christian may be tempted to sin against their conscience when they observe your behavior. ( 8:9-11) Instead we should joyfully give up contentious expressions of our liberty to protect more immature believers.

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Application: Have you thought through the ways that you choose to use your liberty in Christ? By that I mean firstly have you discerned wisely between what things are safe for you to enjoy, and things that, while not forbidden, could lead you down a path toward sin? And secondly, have you considered how your expressions of liberty could harm the conscience of other believers? Are you flaunting your liberty?

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Reading: 1 Corinthians 8