“I
have the freedom to do anything, but not everything is helpful.
I have the freedom to do anything, but I won’t
be controlled by anything.”
1 Corinthians 6:12 (CEB)
The apostle Paul brings out an important point with these
words. He speaks about himself but applies the message to all who belong to
God.
We belong to Jesus. When we realize we have this
relationship with Him, we hear that we need to obey Him. When we act in
obedience to Christ, we glorify (or honor) Him.
As children of God, we should think of the best way to
represent Him in our world. There are people around us who have not accepted
Jesus but they know what we are to do about things with which we deal. They
watch us and, when we slip, they are right there to tell us, “If that’s Christianity,
I don’t want it.”
Yes, I could go to the horse race track, I hear it has a lot of
neat things there—celebrities appear there, I understand they have good food in
their restaurant. But I know I have an
addictive personality. That constrains me from going. The local horse track tries to do a lot of
public relations work in order to draw more people in their doors. But I
remember the fact that I have seen lives ruined by their own vices and people
hurt because of another person’s addictive behavior.
I have to exercise
restraint when I hear of people going out there to see a show, or to eat a
meal. Because God has dealt with me about both my own need to stay away and the
fact that others can do this.
There is much to be said about using wisdom and self control, isn't there? Thankful for His grace to see us through.
ReplyDeleteThat's true. People's consciences will differ, and so we have to be careful about judging what others are and aren't doing. This can be very hard when it comes to things the Bible's not specific about.
ReplyDelete