There is great freedom in Christ. We are free from the baggage of sin and free from the requirements of the Old Law. It is a wonderful thing to be under a faith system in which we do not fear that with the first transgression of the law that we now stand condemned. Paul even wrote in Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. As Christians we do not have many physical requirements placed upon us by the New Testament. There are many items that are left open and without legislation so we are often free to make whatever choice we desire within the parameters of biblical principles.
For example, the New Testament does not tell us what to wear when we worship, it does not tell us what to eat/drink or how to do our hair. The New Testament does not tell us wear a church should assemble, how to design a church building or even what it should be used for. The Bible does not tell us how long a sermon should be or how to structure the worship assembly. There is great freedom in how we choose to serve Christ; it could be through public teaching, giving, outreach and many other ways. We are free!
With this freedom, however, comes great responsibility (insert Spiderman reference :). Paul writes in 1 Corinthians that we are to use caution with our Christian liberty (even if what we do is not a sinful act). We need to make sure what we do, does not become a stumbling block for a weaker Christian. We are made free in Christ, but not free to offend unnecessarily. In 1 Corinthians 8 the topic of discussion is meat that was originally used in idol worship. The stronger Christians understood that it was just meat and nothing special, but the weaker Christians had a big problem with it, because to them as ex idol worshippers, it meant something more (1 Corinthians 8:8-13).
We have freedom in Christ to do many things, but sometimes we have to put aside our freedom for a short time, to allow for growth and to make sure that we do not cause a weaker brother to participate in something that violates their misguided conscience. We should educate and strengthen those who are weak so that things which are not sinful no longer offend them, but at the same time be patient and not unnecessarily offend them.
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