From Revivalism to Christian Liberty
How to Drink Beer Like a Good Christian
I grew up in a revivalistic tradition where the purpose of worship was to draw people to make decisions for Christ. If you asked a question about cultural engagement, you were seen as someone too earthly-minded. It was all about internalizing our faith; about personal decisions for Jesus. I thought that was the norm.
So, it came as a tremendous shock when one day I realized that there were Christians who thought differently about a host of things and to take it a step further, I realized that these other Christians were actually faithful Christians who were sincere and loved the Lord Jesus Christ. These saints loved the same Bible I loved, but they did things differently. They took some liberties I was not comfortable taking at the time.
The Corinthian Question: Meat Offered to Idols
The question of Christian liberty is one the Apostle Paul tackles head-on in I Corinthians 8. In that chapter, Paul addresses concerns the saints have about food offered to idols. Remember that in Corinth, the local pagan temples were where you went to socialize, meet important people, and eat meat. There were no Christian or neutral restaurants in Corinth; no Chick-Fil-A, only pagan temples with pagan priests who prepared the meat for your meal.
What would you do? Would you go to an explicitly pagan temple to eat meat offered to Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon, Artemis? Would you become a vegetarian for the sake of the kingdom? Or would you eat meat and say, “These gods don’t really exist! Only the true God exists, so I can eat my prime rib rare, which is the way Jesus intended.”
That’s what the older Christians were saying at the Church, and Paul says, “Yes, you can eat that meat because the One True God created all animals and made them delicious to consume.”
Liberty with a Caveat
But Paul adds a caveat to the conversation. He says that there are new believers in the Corinthian Church, whom Paul says are weak in their faith; still taking baby steps in their Christian walk. In fact, they have just come out of pagan worship and are confused and perhaps they may stumble if they see more mature Christians eating at the temple.
They may say, “We were there worshipping the false gods, eating their meat; we ran away from that world, and now ya’ll are going to eat at that same temple?!” Some of them were confused by that reaction. Paul talks about it in verse 10:
10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? 11 And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?
When Knowledge Puffs Up
For Paul, the issue is not whether you have the liberty to do so. He says, “Yes, as a Christian you can go to the temple and eat there because God created all things and all things exist for Him.”
But when there is a weaker brother who is confused and does not understand why someone would eat food offered to a false god when that false god was his god not long ago, Paul adds some qualifications. It’s as if he is asking the question: “Is it better to have your way just to make a point? Is it better to show off your Christian liberty just because you think you can?”
This is the kind of knowledge that puffs up. To put it in simple terms, “Is that piece of steak at the temple more important than the soul of your fellow Christian brother or sister? Should we exercise our Christian liberty just because we can, or should love trump liberty?”
Of course, for the Apostle Paul, knowledge needs to be accompanied by love and there will be times when we will have to say no to things because we love our brother more than those things. Our liberties should never be more important than a fellow image-bearer for whom Christ died.
Sinning Against the Brethren
Paul concludes with the application of knowledge in the community in verses 12-13:
12 But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
Are you prepared to go this far? If you are not, you are sinning against Christ. Think about Paul’s language of “conscience.” When we talk about our conscience, all sorts of ideas emerge. Paul says we can wound their conscience when it is weak. In other words, we can damage their ability to grow in the faith when we act without regard to our neighbor. Why? Because he is still learning and growing.
Learning to Love the Weak
Some years ago we had a new believer visit our church and he came to me afterward and said, “Pastor, I don’t think I even understood your sermon title. What does ‘sanctification’ mean?” “What does justification mean”? The things we take for granted are sometimes new ideas and concepts for new Christians.
So, Paul, for the sake of the Church, says, “You know what, if you know a young Christian who just came out of paganism, don’t say to him, “Hey, join me at the temple party.”
Paul is so deeply concerned about his brother or sister's well-being that he would stop eating meat to keep his brother from falling. He would defer to those who are weak; to those who are new to the faith.
How Shall We Then Live?
For Paul, there are more important things than eating meat, like the well-being of a brother or sister. The bottom line here is that you need to put others’ needs ahead of your own desires. What would you be willing to give up for a brother? Were you living in that first-century environment, would you become a vegetarian for him; would you allow love to trump your liberty?
Not Every Offense Is a Stumbling Block
Paul is not saying: “Hey, anytime a brother is offended by something you should do everything within your power not to offend him.” This would be a misapplication because the Pharisees were offended by all sorts of things and Jesus went out of his way to offend them even more so.
This passage sometimes has been understood to say that it is always wrong to cause offense. So, if you have a friend who is a teetotaler, someone who believes alcohol is of the devil, then they see this text as proof that we should never drink because it might cause an offense to someone who doesn’t.
But you can’t be—you are not allowed to be—offended by something the Bible explicitly affirms. The Bible says that drunkenness is a sin, not drinking. I think you need to be respectful of those who don’t drink but to drink in front of someone who doesn’t drink is not wrong if that person has no interest in drinking.
Let’s not confuse a tender conscience with false scruples. You are not held hostage to the false scruples of weak Christians.
Let’s say you meet a Christian who doesn’t believe you ought to watch any rated R movies as an adult because of language or violence. Should we only watch in secret for fear of offending him, or of him eventually hearing about it and being offended? No. Not at all. You can have your convictions for you and your family, but not the right to hold others hostage to them.
The Bible does not specifically condemn these things. You can apply that to food and a host of other topics. This is not what Paul has in mind. The context is not one we can relate to since the meat we eat has no associations with idols and there are thousands of options for eating and drinking and socializing that have nothing to do with pagan worship. Our Lord declared all foods clean.
The Modern Version of Meat Offered to Idols
The principle, however, is very applicable to us. The problem lies when you are around someone who has just abandoned a profound addiction; that’s the modern version of meat offered to idols. Someone who has taken a gift of God and abused it.
Let’s take alcoholism, for example. You need to respect someone’s weakness. You shouldn’t say to him, “Hey, it’s not a big deal. You’re a Christian. You have the Spirit within you. What’s a little drink going to do? Let’s try this new homebrewed beer I made.”
Don’t flaunt your liberty. The principle is: If you are aware of someone’s weakness, don’t flaunt your liberty. Don’t invite him nor tempt him. Or, assume you are made aware that your friend works all the time and is constantly away from his family. Don’t tempt him to go out with the boys at night when you know he needs to be with his family. Or, someone who just came out of a cult; don’t tempt her to go back and visit just out of curiosity.
Liberty for the Sake of the Body
Or, you can go around flaunting your liberty without any regard to the needs or temptations of others. It’s one thing to say, “I am grateful for this liberty.” It’s another thing to say, “Hey, look, I can do whatever I want because I am a baptized Christian.”
I really hope you can see the difference I am making because I think this is very important in our community, especially if God continues to increase our numbers. If we are doing our work, we are going to draw all sorts of new believers who come with weaknesses.
The freedoms we have in Christ are great. I love the Reformed perspective on the Bible because it allows us to use our discernment rather than simply dictating what’s right and what’s wrong. We can participate in cultural settings. We can go to parades, movies, read books written by pagan philosophers, drink the best wine, eat the best meat, but Paul shows us that we are not to be overly confident in a way that would mislead other members of the body.
Love is more important than our liberties. There is a bad use of knowledge which concerns itself mainly with my needs. There is a use of knowledge in the community that reminds us that we are using our liberties for the sake of the body, and there is a right application of knowledge that shows our weaker brothers, new converts, that we care much more about the unity of the Church and the well-being of the saints than our liberties as Christians.
Notations
Excellent stuff from Roman Roads on Singing, Feasting, and Dancing: The Glory of the Good Life.
