Ground Rules for Christian Freedom — Part Four

First Corinthians chapter 10, and I’d like to read from the twenty-third verse:

“‘Everything is permissible’—but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible’—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

“Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.’

“If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if anyone says to you, ‘This has been offered in sacrifice,’ then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience’ sake—the other man’s conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”

Amen.

Now, before we study these verses, let us bow again in a moment of prayer:

Gracious God, as we have worshipped you, we come now to hear from you. Take my words, and speak through them. Take our minds, and help us to think with them. Take our hearts, and so stir them up with love for you and with obedience that our lives may be transformed by the truth we now turn to. For we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Those of you who have been with us for some time will know that this has now become one of the longest-running sermons in history. We’ve been trying to finish this message since the twenty-seventh of June, and there have been all kinds of sermon outlines created from it, and we’re now at number four. It is my pledged commitment to you that there will be no number five. And so, let us get about the business of drawing to a conclusion 1 Corinthians 10. Actually, it takes us into the first verse of chapter 11.

“Everything is permissible,” or “All things are lawful.”[1] That’s the phrase in verse 23, the phrase that’s been causing so much trouble in Corinth—the phrase that, frankly, causes trouble in many a church ever since the days of Corinth, and it’s no different in Cleveland this morning. Because what does “Everything is permissible” mean? What does “All things are lawful” really mean? Does it mean you can do anything you want, anytime you want, with anyone you want? Surely if “everything is permissible,” it must mean something like that.

Well, that’s exactly how some people read it. They said to themselves, “‘Everything is permissible’ means exactly that; therefore, we can just do anything anytime.” And consequently, there were a whole group of people in Corinth who were doing all kinds of questionable things, and they were legitimizing it all by using this little slogan, which had begun to go around: “After all, everything is permissible.”

Now, in reaction to that group, there were another group in Corinth who had decided that since these people were so outlandish, they would set the matter to rights, and they would cut out all this nonsense about people doing anything they wanted anytime. And what they would do is they would bring the pendulum which had so clearly swung out to one side, and they would make sure that it got back to the middle.

But as so often happens, instead of bringing the pendulum to the middle, they actually pushed it way out on the other side. And so they determined that you couldn’t do anything with anyone, anytime, anyplace. And so, on the one hand, you had a group of people for whom the phrase “Everything is permissible” meant license for all kinds of activity, and you had another group in the church for whom the phrase “Everything is permissible” meant the onset of legalism. And so, by the creation of regulations and rules and responsibilities, they would make sure they would become the champions of the truth and prevent the nonsense over here. What actually happened was that there was nonsense on both sides. These people were into questionable things and legitimizing it, and these folks just spent their life making sure that there were enough rules and regulations to prevent anybody from having fun anytime at all.

Now, what was true in Corinth has remained true throughout the years. Faulty thinking is dangerous. And what Paul has been essentially tackling is the faulty thinking which has produced in the lives of these people a number of things. One, we saw, it produced a presumptuousness—the presumptuousness of saying “Nobody’s going to tell me what to do.” That is a danger to be avoided. Secondly, it had produced compromise, the kind of thing whereby people said, “It doesn’t really matter how distinctive we are as Christians. We can be involved in all these different things.” And so Paul had addressed the danger of compromise. And then latterly—and this is where we’ve been spending most of the time—he addressed the danger of legalism: the people within the church who determined that they would close down the opportunities of freedom.

Now, we’ve said on every occasion that we’ve looked at this passage that this is not a matter of marginal importance. It is actually of major significance. Because when a church goes wrong in relationship to these things, it goes badly wrong. When a church becomes legalistic, it becomes very hard; it becomes, usually, cold, brittle, self-satisfied; it has, as we’ve said, quoting myself now, an answer for every question, but no questions are expected. On the other hand, when churches fall into the abyss of license, then they go laughing and joking into moral carelessness and eventually into total irrelevance. So you can see that Paul is very concerned that Corinth would not find itself in either of these two dreadful pits, but rather that they would understand the nature of genuine Christian freedom, that the phrase “Everything is permissible” might be understood by the surrounding context which he’s provided.

Some people live as if Sunday was about glorifying God, and then Monday through Saturday, you do whatever you want. The Bible will not allow us this kind of notion.

Now, from the thirty-first verse, which is where we left it last time, the apostle provides these four verses, into 11:1, which are entirely positive guidelines, the application of which will revolutionize a life and will revolutionize a church. Last time, we focused on just one of these guidelines—that is, the opening statement in verse 31, “[Focus on] the glory of God.” And our task now is to deal with the remainder.

Don’t Cause Others to Stumble

The second one—which, of course, is now the first one in the outline this morning, if you can understand that—is simply this: “Don’t cause others to stumble.” If we’re going to understand what freedom is all about, we need, first of all, to make sure that our focus is on the glory of God. Then, secondly, when we’re thinking freedom, our freedom needs to be constrained by this truth: that our exercise of legitimate lifestyle may be the means of causing a brother or a sister or someone from the watching world to trip up and fall on their face in relationship to God and the gospel. “And so,” says Paul, “in relationship to all of this, make sure that you don’t cause other people to fall on their face.”

Now, it is interesting and also important that Paul moves from the vertical axis of glorifying God to the horizontal of how we deal with our fellow men and women. This, of course, is a principle which runs throughout the Bible, and every time we seek to divorce the two, we’re in difficulty. There are some people who live as if Sunday was about glorifying God, and then Monday through Saturday, you do whatever you want and then come back and clear up the business again the following Sunday. No, no—the Bible will not allow us this kind of notion. Our glorifying of God and focusing on his glory will have immediate, practical implications in the way we deal with our wife, with our husband, with our kids, with our neighbors, with our friends, with our church congregation. “And so,” says Paul, “if your freedom focuses on God’s glory and you’re realistic about that, you will be prepared, secondly, to insure that by your attitude and your behavior, you are determined neither to cause offense nor harm nor injury.” By attitude and by lifestyle, we are going to endeavor to cause neither harm nor injury.

Now, the test is easily administered; it’s a self-administered test. This is not something that we’re to exercise for one another. This is something that you can do at home. Here’s the test: Does my activity, do my attitudes, cause other people to stumble in relationship to the Bible and the good news of Jesus Christ and discovering what it is to be a Christian? Okay, dad: Is there anything that you do with your money, with your time, and with your relationships that will cause your children to fall flat on their spiritual face? Okay, boyfriend: Is there anything that you’ve been doing with your girlfriend when you’ve taken her out on dates that would cause her to fall flat on her face? Okay, Mr. Businessman: Is there anything that you are going back to tomorrow morning that’s in a pile on your desk that you know is going to push you in such a direction that, unless you are realistic and ruthless about obeying the Bible, you are about to cause someone to fall flat on their face spiritually? That’s what he’s saying. Take the test: “Is there anything in my attitude or anything in my lifestyle that is set up to cause others to fall?”

Now, you will notice the willful element in this: “Do not cause anyone to stumble.” Now, there will always be people who take offense on account of others. The issue here is that we are not to give offense. We are not to willfully determine that “Hey, I’m free to do what I want to do. Therefore, if you fall because I do this, I don’t care.” Paul says, “Don’t do that. Don’t actually cause people to stumble.” We know well enough that our lives inadvertently will cause enough confusion without justifying it on the basis of Christian freedom.

Now, the interesting thing is that when you read the commentaries on this section, most of the commentaries—in fact, without exception, the commentaries—all speak of the necessity of imposing upon oneself a voluntary limitation of the exercise of Christian freedom. So the phrase “Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether they are Jews or Greeks, whether they are un-Christian people, or whether they are the church of God”—every commentary that I got my hands on said, “Therefore, there are certain things that we shouldn’t do so that people won’t trip up and fall.”

Now, that’s an obvious application. What I looked for and never found was that nobody in all of the commentaries said anything at all about causing other people to stumble as a result of a legalistic attitude. All the stumbling was on the side of license, and the assumption is that the way we cause people to stumble is because we’re doing things under the disguise of freedom that we shouldn’t be doing. Well, what about causing people to stumble as a result of our rules and our regulations and our rigmaroles, which have got more to do with our heads than they have to do with our Bibles? Do you think it’s possible to cause somebody to stumble because you’re a legalist? Sure is! Sure is! Have you ever seen children brought up in a pharisaical home? First chance they get to split, they’re wilder than anything you’ve ever seen.

Now, we don’t want to lay the charge and the blame and the guilt on the parents. They presumably were doing their best. They thought they were applying Deuteronomy chapter 6, but they missed something. They missed a word. “All these things,” says Deuteronomy 6, “are to be upon your hearts, and you teach them to your children when you walk along the road.”[2] And what happened was, all these things were in the parents’ heads, but the kids never saw them coming from their hearts. And so as soon as they got their little heads outwith the framework of their mom and dad’s heads, they said, “Stuff this! I don’t need this. I’m gone. I never believed this. I never understood these restraints. I never understood the rules and the regulations.” And out of the best of motives, parents cause their children to fall flat on their spiritual faces.

Ask yourself the question this morning (I faced it this week), “What is there in my life, what does the Holy Spirit bring to light in my life—areas of my life, areas of my attitude and my activities—that may cause people to trip? What about my relationships? What about the use of my resources? What about the way I use my time? What about my attendance upon worship?”

Now, before I preached the message before, we hadn’t had our evening Communion. And before the evening Communion, I was going to point out that it was possible to cause people to stumble by determining that we just flat-out wouldn’t obey the command of Jesus Christ when he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”[3] Then I thought to myself, “No, don’t mention that, because then you lay a guilt trip on people, and then you’ll get an extra fifty-five people that’ll come in the evening because you laid a guilt trip on them.” So I said, “Okay, well, I won’t do that.”

Well, hey, relax. It’s going to come posthaste. Here’s the deal: two-thirds of our congregation—our worshipping, committed membership in our church—two-thirds, every time we have Communion in the evening, flat-out does not show up. Now, when we discount Mom looking after Granny, and Sammy, who fell off his bike, and all those things, we’re still looking at a significant deficit. I want to ask you a question: Do you think that your noninvolvement where there is a clear command of Jesus Christ to activity could maybe, perhaps, cause your brother or your sister to stumble? “Do not cause anyone to stumble.”

Be Guided by the Good of Others

Secondly, be guided by the good of others and not by personal advantage. That’s what he’s saying in verse 33. He says, “I try to please everybody in every way.” So we’re to be guided by the good of others and not by our personal advantage. Phillips paraphrases it in this way: “I myself try to adapt … to all men without considering my own advantage but their advantage.” Paul displays an attractive selflessness in all of this section: God’s glory, not his freedom; pleasing others, not pleasing himself; their advantage, not his fulfillment. And contrary to public opinion, the key to loving others does not lie in loving ourselves, but it lies in loving God.

And Paul’s strategy here is not some kind of manipulative political process. And if we’re tempted to read it that way, we need to think carefully. “Even as I try to please everybody in every way.” “Oh, so the apostle Paul is just into politics, is he? If somebody says x and he really feels y, he says x in order to bring them along, and if they have an opinion that he doesn’t really like, he supports it in order to encourage them. Is that what he’s saying?” No, not for a moment. He’s not currying favor with people. He’s not giving into people on important matters. Those of us who remember the earlier chapters of our studies in 1 Corinthians could understand that very, very clearly.

What does it mean when Paul says that “I try to please everybody in every way”? Does this sound like pleasing everybody in every way? Verse 1 of chapter 3: “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere [babies] in Christ.” “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I want to speak to you. Unfortunately, I can’t speak to you as adults; I want just to talk to you as a bunch of babies.” Is that the kind of thing that brings people back? Is that pleasing everyone in every way? Not the way we tend to think of it.

What about 4:3? “I care very little if I[’m] judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do[n’t] even judge myself.” Does that sound as though he’s somehow groveling for their acceptance?

What about 5:1? Nobody who’s trying to “please everybody in every way” is going to start a chapter which begins, “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among [the] pagans: A man has his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief …?”

And in relationship to the cause of the gospel—and we would need to go to Galatians for this—Paul is really clear that when he says, “I seek the advantage of others over my own,” he’s not talking about compromising truth. Galatians 1:9: “As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” Does that sound like you’re trying to fit in with everybody, join in everybody’s bandwagon? Uh-uh. “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God?” he says. “Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”[4]

“Well,” you say, “well, where do we go with this?” Well, the reason I’m belaboring this is to make a point. If you take a text out of context, you can make it a pretext. And that is what so often happens with this phrase. Haven’t you heard people justifying just about everything under the sun under this guise of verse 33? “Well, I try to please everybody in every way. Therefore…” As if Paul somehow was saying that he was prepared to compromise the gospel and a call to biblical righteousness out of a desire to be a man-pleaser. He’s not saying that at all.

Paul makes the context clear—verse 33. The immediate context makes it clear. He is expressing a genuine disregard for his own interests in the light of the needs of the many. So when he says, “Even as I try to please everybody in every way,” and we say, “What does that mean?”—“Well,” he says, “I’m not seeking my own good. I’m not living in my Christian lifestyle so that I will feel blessed and that I will be honored and that my little deal will go well. No, that’s not my issue. I’m not seeking that,” he says. “I’ve got an overarching objective—that is, the good of the many.” So the principle is clear, and his purpose is also clear.

Seek That Many May Be Saved

That brings us then, thirdly, to our point: “Seek that many may be saved.” In the exercise of Christian freedom, what is to be our heart? What is the real issue of this freedom? What does it mean, and how does it relate?

Well, Paul explains it. The passionate longing of his heart comes out all the time. Every time you squeeze him, it comes out. “I[’m] not seeking my own good but the good of many.” What does that mean? Answer: “So that they may be saved.” So the whole issue of Christian freedom, Paul, is about the salvation of those who don’t know Christ? “That’s it in a nutshell,” he says. “When you reduce it to the irreducible, here we have it. The overarching longing of my life, the reason I’m instructing you,” he says, “about Christian freedom, the reason I’m telling you to make sure you don’t fall into legalism or into license, is not ultimately so that your church will be brilliant. It’s not ultimately so that you’ll be able to congratulate yourselves on the fact that the pendulum hasn’t swung one side or the other. But it is ultimately so that men and women may be saved, so that people who are today in darkness may be brought into light, so that people who are in the bondage and enslaved to all kinds of conditions as they roam our cities may find liberation in Jesus Christ. And it will only happen if people who have come to freedom in Christ understand the nature of the freedom to which they’ve come. But if they in turn fall into license or into legalism, then how in the world are people who today are in bondage ever going to find freedom in Jesus Christ?”

Oh, this puts a different light on it, does it not? You see, the depth of Paul’s conviction in relation to this is everywhere. Romans 9:[3], “I have actually,” he says, “reached the point of wishing myself cut off from Christ, wishing myself no longer to be a Christian, if it only meant that they who are not Christians could be won for God.”[5] “I’m prepared not to be a Christian,” he says, “if only men and women would come to Christ.”

That’s what we found in chapter 9 when we dealt with it—his rights as an apostle. Remember the point to which we came? Do you remember that study? I do. Took me by surprise. You turn back to chapter 9 for just a moment, I’ll point it out to you—the issues of personal freedom concerning Paul’s responsibilities and privileges. He did not see in terms of how it blessed him or the internal affairs of the church, but as with everything else, he saw it in terms of the cause of the gospel. Chapter 9 and verse 19: “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone.” Why? “To win as many as possible.”[6] So that people might become Christians.

Verse 20: “To the Jewish people I went and spoke about the Old Testament. I was prepared to wear the same kind of clothes that they wear. To those who were under the law, I went as far as I could with them in relationship to their law.”[7] Why? “So as to win those under the law.”[8]

Verse 21: “To the folks who didn’t have the law, to the Greeks, to the non-Jews, I didn’t go in there and hit them up with the law. I spoke to them about what they knew about.”[9] “Why did you do that, Paul?” “So as to win those not having the law.”[10]

The church is not an icebox in which we’re supposed to preserve our little personal pieties. The church is a hatchery in which we are expected to see eggs popping all the time as a result of people coming to faith in Jesus Christ.

And then he summarizes it: “To the weak [folks] I became weak.” “Why, Paul?” “To win the weak. I[’ve] become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. [And] I do all this,” he says, “for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”[11]

Loved ones, I wonder, do we understand this as a church this morning? As we sit on the brink of going to two services, what is the purpose in your mind? Why are we doing this? Let me tell you why I’m involved in it: it’s because it is another opportunity to win those who as yet are unwon. It is another opportunity to introduce men and women who are in bondage to freedom in Jesus Christ. It is not an opportunity for self-congratulation, to play some kind of numbers game in relationship to the development of our church, to be able to tell one another, “Oh, remarkable, isn’t it, yes? Oh, we only moved in in January, and now we have the two services, and da-da-da-da-da,” and to play that game with pastors all around America. A pox on all of that nonsense! There is only one reason, and it’s the reason that he gives us here.

“I’m not into this,” he says, “for my own good, and you ought not to be either,” he says, “but only so that many may be saved.” The church is not an icebox in which we’re supposed to preserve our little personal pieties. The church is a hatchery in which we are expected to see eggs popping all the time as a result of people coming to faith in Jesus Christ. And when I say “the church,” I don’t mean the church building. I mean the church, the people.

We aren’t called to keep an aquarium so that people can come around and look at all the varieties of the fish. You go in Burger King, they give you an aquarium—take your mind off the food or something; I don’t know what it is. You sit there, and you look at the thing: “Ooh, look at that one! Look at that one! Whew, look at that!” “Ooh, let’s go down to Parkside. Ooh, look at him! Do you believe they’ve got one? I saw a guy with an earring at Parkside.” “You did? Goodness, that’s amazing!” “And there were people there without suits.” “Really?” “Yeah, let’s go down and look at the fish. They’ve got a bunch of fish in Parkside! In fact, they just open their bowl; they just want people to come in and swim around so they can all look at one another.”

No, we are fishers of men, not aquarium keepers. “Oh, fishers of men. I remember that. That’s a leisure-time pursuit, isn’t it? If you don’t want to play golf, you go one stage higher; that’s fishing, so they tell me now.” So you go out and fish. But you only fish if you feel like it; you don’t fish if the weather is bad, and you only fish in ideal circumstances. When Jesus said, “I will make you fishers of men,”[12] he wasn’t talking about three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, drinking Cokes and swanning around on the banks of a river. He was talking about a lifestyle, a lifelong commitment to see men and women come to faith in Jesus Christ.

“Well,” you say, “I don’t understand. You were as strong as this when you spoke about the glory of God. Last time you were here, you got all steamed up like this, you were talking about focusing on God’s glory as if that was the ultimate thing. Now you’re back, and you’re saying that it seems to be that it’s supposed to be winning people to faith in Jesus Christ, that’s the ultimate thing.” That’s right! Why?

Be Imitators of Christ

Well, Jesus explained it really well, and I’m so glad, ’cause otherwise I’d be stuck. John 15:8: “In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”[13] So God is glorified as man is evangelized. That’s the final point: be imitators of Christ. Verse 1 of chapter 11: imitate Jesus Christ in relationship to Christian freedom. “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”

Let me ask you: How do you read this? I had never really thought about this verse very much until this week. I guess if anyone had asked me, up until this week I would have said, “Well, it’s kind of suitable all-embracing summary after a long treatment on the subject of Christian freedom.” Someone might have said, “It’s a nice kind of thing to say at the end of a vast and vital treatment such as this.”

But think with me. I don’t think so. And I couldn’t find anybody that wrote anything down about this either. What is he saying here? “Follow my example.” What is the example that he has just given? What is the example? “I am not seeking my own good”—okay, so we’re following that—“but the good of many, so that they may be saved.” Okay, that’s the example. In other words, selflessness for the sake of the salvation of others. That’s the example he’s given us.

And so he calls us now to follow his example, so that we would be selfless—that our consideration of programs and plans and everything else within the framework of our church, within the structure of our family life, won’t necessarily be the way we want—certainly isn’t all the way I would like it to be—but we remain committed to this overarching purpose: selflessness for the sake of the salvation of others. “And,” he says, “if you follow my example, realize that I follow the example of Christ.”

“Oh, well,” says somebody, “but don’t we follow the example Christ in terms of his gentleness and in terms of his endurance and in terms of all those other things?” Of course we do. But what was the explanation that Jesus gave of his own ministry? If Jesus was summarizing in a phrase for us his whole ministry, what would he have said? Well, we don’t need to be in any doubt about that. We can turn to it and see it for ourselves.

Matthew 9:13. Matthew 9:13. Jesus, tell us what your example is. What’s your ministry about, Jesus? The Pharisees were annoyed, as Pharisees will always be, because Jesus was hanging about with the wrong people. They thought he ought to be in a religious club; he was hanging around in less desirable spots. And the Pharisees asked the question, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” And in “hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It[’s] not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”’” Now, here’s a statement: “‘For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”[14]

Why’d you come, Jesus? “I didn’t come to call righteous people. I came to call sinners.” What’s your example, Paul, in relationship to Christian freedom? “Well, I guess everything finally could be reduced to this,” says Paul, “that I don’t want to prefer myself or my own privileges and prerogatives. I want to be selfless for the sake of the many.” What do you mean “for the sake of the many”? “So that the many may be saved. And incidentally, follow my example, as I follow the example of Jesus.” It all fits together.

Look at Luke 15, just briefly. Just let me turn your face to this. Luke 15, you got the story, first of all, of the lost sheep. Okay? He has ninety-nine sheep, but he goes out and looks for one. It’s interesting, isn’t it? The law of averages says you’re going to lose about 1 percent. Most business guys are prepared to take it as a tax write-off. So he says, “No, I’ve got to go out and find this one that’s lost.” And he finds it, puts it on his shoulders, comes home, calls his friends together; they have a party. And Jesus says, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”[15] Do you believe that?—that heaven is happier when one person comes to faith in Jesus Christ than when ninety-nine people get together and have a Bible study?

The parable of the lost coin, verse 10: “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” There is more rejoicing in heaven as a result of one person coming to faith in Jesus Christ than fifteen hundred people coming in here and all singing for an hour and a half. And the parable of the lost son, verse 24: “‘Let’s have a [party]’”—again, the father’s words—“‘For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ [And] so they began to celebrate.”[16] But they didn’t all celebrate. The elder brother was ticked. Verse 28: “The older brother became angry and refused to go in.” Why? ’Cause things weren’t falling out the way he wanted them. And he figured since he’d been such a holy Joe and hung around all the time, that his father ought to be really pleased that he was hanging around. And he couldn’t get excited about the fact that his brother got saved.

That’s a bad thing to happen to a Christian. That’s a scary thing to happen to a church. When the spirit of the elder brother takes hold, evangelism goes out the door for good. When we can’t rejoice that the people we think least likely to get turned around get turned around, then we can’t rejoice anymore at all.

You see, where it brings us is where we need to come. It brings us to, again, the summary statement, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”[17] It brings us to the cross. Because it’s at the cross that all my presumptuousness and my foolhardy behavior is crucified. It’s at the cross where my willingness to compromise with evil is dealt a death blow. It’s at the cross where my legalism and my desire to jam everything together is laid low in the dust. And it’s at the cross that my self-centered, exclusive preoccupations are seen for what they are.

Because it’s at the cross that I remember two things: that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior, and that he has chosen to give to his people the privilege of discovering and exercising their Christian freedom in such a way not that the minority represented in the church will be blessed—they will—but that the many who are untouched by the church may be reached and brought to faith.

Herein is the nature of Christian freedom. Think it out.

Let’s pause for a moment in prayer:

Father, be our teacher. Your Word cuts into our lives and challenges us, confronts us as a church. We thank you that it corrects, that it convicts, that it rebukes, that it trains in righteousness.[18] Bring us again to the place of freedom, and grant that the sense that we have of gratitude to you may fuel the desire within us that others may know the liberating power of Christ. For it’s in his name we pray. Amen.

[1] 1 Corinthians 10:23 (KJV).

[2] Deuteronomy 6:6–7 (paraphrased).

[3] Luke 22:19 (NIV 1984).

[4] Galatians 1:10 (NIV 1984).

[5] Romans 9:3 (paraphrased).

[6] 1 Corinthians 9:19 (NIV 1984).

[7] 1 Corinthians 9:20 (paraphrased).

[8] 1 Corinthians 9:20 (NIV 1984).

[9] 1 Corinthians 9:21 (paraphrased).

[10] 1 Corinthians 9:21 (NIV 1984).

[11] 1 Corinthians 9:22–23 (NIV 1984).

[12] Matthew 4:19; Mark 1:17 (NIV 1984).

[13] John 15:8 (paraphrased).

[14] Matthew 9:11–13 (NIV 1984).

[15] Luke 15:7 (NIV 1984).

[16] Luke 15:23–24 (NIV 1984).

[17] Luke 19:10 (NIV 1984).

[18] See 2 Timothy 3:16.