The Point of Christian Liberty

I've written in the past about the doctrine of Christian Liberty. Basically, it goes something like this. That which is not forbidden or commanded in Scripture are matters of Christian liberty. Simplistic, perhaps, but that's the basic idea. Is it a sin to smoke cigarettes? I can't find a passage that addresses it, so I won't say. Is it wrong to have a glass of wine with dinner? I can't find a Scripture that tells me I can't, so I won't say. Christian liberty.

We, in fact, enjoy a great deal of liberty. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Cor 3:17). We read such broad, sweeping statements like, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything" (1 Cor 6:12) and "If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law" (Gal 5:18). Lots of liberty.

Funny thing, though. There are multiple passages in the New Testament on Christian Liberty. There are whole sections like Romans 14 ("I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean" (Rom 14:14).) and 1 Corinthians 10 ("All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify" (1 Cor 10:23).) along with a host of others. And many can support the doctrine of Christian Liberty from passages like these. The funny thing is that these passages, although they set out the concept, are not aimed at "That which is not forbidden or commanded in Scripture are matters of Christian liberty."

Without fail, the point of the doctrine of Christian Liberty is not "What am I free to do?" but "Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor" (1 Cor 10:24). Again and again we are told to do nothing in our liberty that doesn't build up our fellow Christians. In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul argues that there is nothing at all wrong with eating meat sacrificed to idols. "Food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat" (1 Cor 8:8). But that's not where Paul ends up. Instead he commands, "Take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak" (1 Cor 8:9). His conclusion, in fact, is "Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble" (1 Cor 8:13).

That is the repeated theme of the doctrine of Christian Liberty. It is the concept of looking out for your fellow Christians. It is the freedom to be able to do something and forego that privilege in order not to cause a brother to stumble. It is the liberty to do what you ought rather than what you want. The message, then, is "You're free to do what you want when there is no command from God, but you should most often want to do what's best for others, because that is a command from God." And until you try it out, you'll never know how really liberating that truly is.