Let me first clear something up (hear comes the caps). IF YOU BELIEVE THAT STAYING HOME AS A MAN OR WOMAN IS SOMEHOW BETTER THAN GOING TO WORK EITHER YOU DON’T HAVE KIDS OR YOUR KIDS ARE SECOND TO BABY JESUS AS IT RELATES TO BEHAVIOR.

Child rearing, cleaning up after children, trying to feed children, dealing with sick children and child discipline are the toughest things you will ever do in your life. And only an arrogant son of a gun would somehow think that what they are doing is harder than raising children and also that guy is most likely not involve in the day to day activities of homemaking. So if you believe that somehow stay at home dads are getting off easy by “just having to stay with the kids” . You are deaf, blind and dumb. I am involved with changing diapers, disciplining, feeding, cleaning up after, potty training, going to football and baseball practices and helping with the eduction of my children and let me tell you this.

 If I could work from 8-9 everyday and let my wife stay home with the kids I would in a heartbeat. Women who stay home should get 80-90% of their husbands disposable income bi-weekly! She is working 100 times harder than he is (regardless of his profession) and any man who does it, well……. you my friend are a special individual. But on to my post.

What Does the Bible Say?

If you read the New Testament, there is no and I do mean no way anyone could come to the conclusion that a man staying home is sin. If someone uses 1 Timothy 5:8 as a foundation for taking such a position, then you should immediately be suspicious of whatever they say going forward and you maybe want to reassess anything they have said in the past that you agree with. It is bogus and has nothing to do with a man working outside of the home or working inside of the home.

Each family has to evaluate their goals, talents and their economic environment and make a decision that is good for the family. Listen if my wife was a doctor and we decided to have a family and just say I was a teacher, but we had the personal conviction that putting our child in daycare would be detrimental to either our spiritual goals or even our social goals for that child(ren) then there is nothing in the bible preventing me from staying home and allowing my wife the freedom to use her God given talent to make the world a better place.

Let me explain something the type of work in the bible, well was labor intensive, labor intensive jobs are traditionally men centered just because of the physicality of such jobs. Heavy lifting, exposure to heat and cold conditions,  risk of being attacked…. these types of things, while not exclusive to males, may be better suited to someone who has the physical makeup to handle such conditions.  Again this is not exclusive to males because I know some women who could handle these conditions without a problem (and probably more women could also but social conditioning has psychologically effected people putting them in gender roles).

Today, however, our economy and work environment isn’t geared towards a specific gender. Either sex could be an accountant, either sex could be a doctor, lawyer, dentist, teacher, business owner, insurance agent, computer engineer, plant manager, real estate agent, psychologist, scientist, professor, graphic designer, mechanic, customer service rep, pilot, bus driver, physical therapist, beautician, computer programmer and politician. Because of technological advances and the use of machinery and almost everything we do a woman can even easily do things that they were probably incapable of even 50 years ago. It is just plain wrong to assume anything else.

What Those Who Are Against Stay At Home Dads Really Think About Women

What I hear (though many would outright deny this) is that women are only good for laying down, getting pregnant and standing up and taking care of these babies! Outside of your domestic skills you are practically worthless. They make women who decide to work while their husbands stay home, helpless victims who don’t know any better, because if they did they wouldn’t make such a decision. As a matter of fact it makes no sense for a husband who can generate 50K of income annually to work while his wife who could generate 100K stays home and tends to the welfare of the home. I am in finance and to me that is incurring a 50K loss every year and not sound business principles.

Women are not inferior creatures who need to rescued by strong brute men! They are created in the image of God just like their male counterparts and can contribute more than their ovaries to the world. It is actually shameful for Christians who mock the Muslim world for their views on women yet are only a half-inch in front of them, barely able to see them over their shoulder! If you look carefully the current Feminist activist have a huge platform to stand on because of this mentality. A woman who decides to work and their family decision is the for the dad to stay home for the overall benefit of the family is not a victim. She may be applying her God given wisdom constructively.

What It Says Of The Men Who Stay

What it says to men is that they don’t have the ability to nurture, care for, protect nor raise their children. Their primary purpose is to donate sperm and instill discipline. I have even heard someone say that if a man needs to work two jobs to obey God then they should do it. That is about the second dumbest thing I have ever heard (the first is that we actually have a president who was not a U.S born citizen).

If you need to work two jobs to even get close to what your wife can make at one job then my friend you are actually disobeying scripture. Husbands have the same responsibility as their wives in the development of their children. Women don’t have an ounce more (unless you take Titus 2 and make it the center of the Christian family) of responsiblity in the development of their children than husbands.  What may be more ironic is that the husband may actually be wired to be the better care provider than his wife ( a wiring that comes from God).

Please don’t let some dogmatic uninformed individual (I don’t care how many followers they have) tell you that men can’t stay home. Either gender can stay home and each family has to make that decision themselves. You have to ask , what is good for my family, what is good for me as an individual, how are we wired and what is good for us economically speaking (maybe the husband can take online courses to help the family economically or his own career personally). Listen the bible is silent on this issue and so we have to be also. Too many people overstep their boundaries and when they do they should be put in their place (lovingly of course).

Charity supersedes Liberty. Listen to the words of F.F Bruce

It is to God that each believer must ultimately render his account, and it is to God that he is responsible for his conduct here and now. Christian Liberty is a precious thing, not to be limited by Christian charity. Christ, his people’s supreme exemplar, always considered the interests of others before His own; therefore his people, which subject to none in respect of liberty, should be subject to all in respect of their charity.

I think one of the toughest things to balance is love/liberty. The only thing more difficult is grace/holiness. This is especially difficult for us Americans as liberty is one of the fundamental fibers of our culture, this is depicted by the Statue of Liberty (modified above) and the Liberty Bell,  shoot our founding documents is the “Declaration of Independence”.  Independence, personal opinion, individuality and liberty defines America.

However, once we come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, our rights are now forfeited for slavery to Christ. We no longer operate independently. As Bruce says Jesus is our “supreme exampler”.

That leads to the passage in mind in Romans 14:1-15:7 Paul sets the rules and boundaries for Christian liberty.  This is one part of the passage that really jumps out.

15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.

In my previous post I discussed that culture and comfort should never be barriers to genuinely loving our brothers and sisters. But that leads to an obvious problem. What if a certain conviction (stemming from culture or comfort) is so intertwined with someones faith that you can’t untangle the two?

We have encountered people in our lives that have strong convictions about certain things. Rather that is child rearing, dietary choices, certain forms of entertainment the usage of alcoholic beverages and even tobacco use. To many people these things are sin and those who practice it is sinning. So the question is what do we do when we encounter it? Paul says:

15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. 20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God.

Now this seems way too extreme right? The person should just get over their convictions right? In these situations we usually turn to Romans 14:4. We usually try to defer to “who are you to pass judgement”. The problem is, if we follow Paul’s argument to the end, to his final conclusion we see that those who are strong are to defer to the “weak” (relative term here). You see the most mature defers to love and love becomes the overarching boundary when it comes to personal convictions and interacting with other believers.

You see Jesus says “a new command I give you, that you love one another” for many this is way too flexible. We are “law” driven people. Especially Christians. We want to know what is right and what is wrong, you know where is the line. We want it in black and white because it is easier to defer to law. The pharisees were great at this and even push this type of ethic on Christ. “Your disciples do not wash their hands before they eat”, or “he is healing on the Sabbath” or “this woman was caught in adultery”. I will explore this type of ethic more in a future post. However, law is easy, love is extremely difficult. The rich young ruler says “I have followed these from my youth up”.

Jesus; however, brings an ethic of love and this love is to be our compass when interacting with other believers. No matter what, if we destroy our brother or sister (I believe he means strain the relationship) over our liberty, we are no longer walking in love and we ignoring passages such as Philippians 2:1-4 and even the passage abover from Romans 14.

Paul says “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them” in 1 Corinthians 9:19. My freedom was forfeited when I came under the Lordship of Christ. I am now a servant of all and because of that liberty takes a back seat. I “supreme example” is the Lord Jesus who lived and died to serve us, is a “servant greater than his Master”?

Grace is the word that separates Christianity from every other religion. There has been stories of the resurrection (See the story of Osiris) there has been stories about the gods coming down; however, no religion has a God stepping down in human flesh and bearing His own wrath on the behalf of others to reconcile human and God forever.

Christianity is the only purely grace centered religion that I know of. There may be others out there, but as far as I know. No religion offers security today based on the faith of another’s work. My friends this is why I am a Christian. I have studied quite a few religions, even practiced Islam for some time. But they all left a gaping hole, an unclosable chasm, an irreconcilable balance, one that my own effort, if they were good enough, if I measured up, would have to attempt to fix and when the lights went out, I knew beyond a shadow of doubt that I was not good enough to measure up. I had sinned day after day and I felt alone, broken, ashamed but most of all, inadequate to earn my own righteousness.

This caused me to reevaluate the God of my youth. I was raised in church from birth to about 12, the point when I became a hoodlum of sorts and my grandmother let me go my own way. So I knew about church. During summers the little white church on the corner would do VBS and I would listen to the stories. I would hear the preacher talk about Jesus Christ even at age 16 I made, what I thought to be, a dedication to serve Jesus, only to be introduced to salvation by works. I had to speak in tongues and live holy or I would find myself wanting. The constant frustration led me away from Jesus to some type of agnostic to Islam to 5 percenter back to Christianity to evaluation all religions back to agnostic and eventually back to Christianity again.

The only difference the last time was that I was introdcued to grace and because of that I now could properly identify with this Jesus that I had become numb to through the years. Jesus became a living reality because of Grace. Once I knew that He paid it all, that He was my eternal substitute, that He was my sin bearer, that He intercedes for me, that He became my perpetual High Priest, that He shed His blood on the cross so that I never have to worry about measuring up again, I breathed a sigh of relief and have never looked back. Yes I have struggled with what it looks like to live as a Christian and many of the doctrines that are taught today, but never have I took my eyes off of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, God in flesh, the second person in the Trinity, the Lion of Judah, my everything.

Now with that rather long introduction. I want to say something. Today, because of the abuse and the commonality of “Christianity” there is a new push towards works based salvation. It is cloaked in different language but it is evident none the less. What surprises me the most is that it is spewed from the mouths of those who seem to fight so hard for grace.

Today grace is not enough, it is grace plus something. I had been in a discussion where it is grace plus persecution. This is coming from the mouth of those who would call themselves “reformed”. See the reason Christians aren’t persecuted is because they are not Godly and ultimately not Christian. See persecution would flood America if Christians were Godly enough, that is why all the Godly Christians in China and Iraq and India are under persecution because they are “radical”.  So today we have found a new way to introduce works based salvation.

It is ironic because the very people fight so hard to tell people about grace and that you can’t be saved by works, and that if you attempt to add anything to Jesus you are redefining the Gospel, only to be introduced to the same works not too much later. This is preposterous. See here is the truth. THE GOSPEL IS EITHER ALL OF GRACE OR NONE OF GRACE. Let me say it this way, I have to earn grace it is no longer grace, at least not from the biblical definition. We are not under a works motivated covenant. We are under the New Covenant which I would define as a Trilateral covenant between the Godhead and we partake of this covenant by faith. There is absolutely NOTHING we can do to earn God’s favor, to do so would be to undermine the great measures God took to reconcile us to Himself.

Whenever someone attempts to measure your salvation or holiness or standing before God by your works, be very wary of such a person. They are using the carrot and stick approach. You will never measure up. Often times they never measure up. Anxiety is ever before them and now they have found away to cloak their anxiety in theological jargon and dress you in it also. Salvation is by grace. Grace is accompanied by a love for others and Gdo which is a supernatual work but also it is an evolving work. We look at our works to pray for strength to love Jesus more, not to gauge our salvation to do the latter has to be offensive to a God who clothed Himself in humanity to take on your sin. Paul says “if I could attain it by works, Jesus died needlessly”.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians he spends 95% of the letter exalting the glorious grace that Jesus has bestowed on His beloved and because we are upset with Joel Olsteen or some other teacher we scratch Paul’s warning of anathema so we can have “true Christians”. Listen you will never measure up, unless you clothe yourself in the finish work of Jesus. You can’t. The mark of salvation is too high, it is unattainable. We must embrace grace with our whole being or find ourselves outside of the Christian religion.

If the preaching of Grace will not cause one to both tremble at the Holiness of God and cling to Him for eternal life nothing else will. If grace doesn’t motivate him to submit himself to his master and others then nothing will. This type of carrot and stick gospel, regardless of what the carrot may be, only gives a man contempt for others and a false sense of security in his own works. He will begin to measure other Christians and become like the Pharisee who beat his chest and said “I am glad I am not like these sinners”. And often time this type of haughtiness goes unchecked, and as I have experienced on facebook , the blogsophere and even face to face interactions it is actually applauded.

I know this post is long but this is such an important issue. As I was reading Galatians Paul says “they came to spy out our liberty in Christ and make us slaves”. This is what this type of teaching does. It makes you slave of someone other than Christ. Flee slavery, Christ grants us a liberty beyond measure. Freedom from sin, freedom for works, freedom from death and freedom from others. This freedom now enslaves us to love, walk in it. Put on Christ and flee legalism you will never get the carrot you will only get tired and wore down or become disillusioned with your own pursuit.

To the Greeks becoming a servant or a slave was repulsive. Freedom was their most prized right, and one of their goals of life was to be independent of others and to live as one chose. To be a servant involved surrender of such freedom.  Slavery meant subjection to another’s will. To a Hellenist, who was convinced that a man was morally obligated to develop his own potential, to give himself to the service of others was more than alien. It was contemptible.  {1}

That quote led me to think about how true this is in America. You see freedom is very important and very personal in America. The great atrocity of African slavery has and will always be scar in our history to remind of us the depravity of humanity and even the sin that Christians may find themselves overtaken in.

However slavery is very prominent today in America and across the globe. The slavery today has actually looks like freedom,  yet nothing is further from the truth. Every single person who has breath in their lungs is a slave. Though they walk around as free as every. You see one group know that they are slaves (or should know, more on that later) while the other group believes they are free and happen to be in the worst type of slavery humanity has ever endured!

Here is what Jesus says:

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

You see there were a group of religious men who swore they  were free! Yet Jesus calls them “slaves”. Sin is slavery. A slavery that will eventually lead to an eternal death where those who are slaves to sin will be utterly destroyed by the wrath of God (John 3:31-36).  However today as throughout history, people believe they are free. Free to live as they please, go where they want, talk how they want. They believe that it is “freedom” that is allowing them to have such liberties, however they are under a tough task master! A slave driver who consumes them yet sells them a lie that they are free to live as they please.

What is also important about this text is that these men were not void of religion. They were up to their eyeballs in religion. They said the right things, went the right places (church/synagogue), they fasted, prayed, paid their tithes, they knew the religious lingo, yet they are called slaves to sin. They felt their birthright had given them a special place before the face of God, as if God was somehow obligated to accept them based of their relationship to other spiritual men and women. We do that today. There are many who believe they have a special place before God because they grew up in the “church”. Yet they are slaves to sin.  But there is also a second type of slave.

As Paul is writing to the Romans, he gives them a slave theology. It is found in Romans 6:

 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

In this section of scripture Paul contrasts two types of slaves. One is the slave to sin! The other is a slave to “righteousness”. Both are slaves but only one leads to eternal life (Romans 6:22-23). Here is another problem. In this section Paul is defending his position on grace vs law. Many people had a problem with Paul’s preaching of grace and so they attempted to throw a curve ball. It probably sounds like this today: “hey Paul if I no longer have to earn God’s favor by doing the right thing, nor can I earn His favor by doing the right thing why not do the wrong thing even more so that I can earn more of God’s favor”. This could have been a trap question or an honest inquiry as those familiar with the Old Covenant have introduced to the Salvation by Grace through Faith.

Paul combats that notion by saying “we have been set free to become slaves of righteousness”. Only when we becomes slaves of Christ can we now do the right things that are pleasing to God, apart from that, our works are futile and maybe even false worship as some have put it. However, righteousness is an expectation of true faith. We have died to our old selves and have been raised with Christ as Paul says earlier in Romans 6. Grace those not give us a green light to live in sin, it gives a green light to walk in righteousness.

However there are many teachers today who will say otherwise. There is a doctrine called “carnal Christians”. Which says one can profess faith in Christ, sign the card, get baptized and yet still be a Christian with no evidence of life change, and since God does not take His salvation back they are secure. There is no such three headed monster in scripture. This is a false gospel and only ensures and seals people’s damnation not their salvation. I am not saying we are not secure nor am I saying that Christians do not sin, both are far from the truth; however, to give someone security in someone/something other than a living relationship with Christ is reckless at best and even condemning at worst!

However today as I surf the web and interact with Christians they believe that they have the right to make their own decisions yet say they are of Christ and when you tell them that their decisions are diametrically opposed or in other words that what they are saying is not Christian you are labeled judgmental. Many of churches today opened their doors encouraging the non-regenerated (those who are not saved) to come back next week while giving them an encouraging message for the New Year. Many did not proclaim Christ, righteousness, enslavement to Jesus, or sanctification through Christ. We have to teach the slavery motif in scripture. To the lost we need to tell them the slavery they find themselves in and the consequences of that slavery, to those who profess Christ, we have to proclaim grace does not equate to freedom to make our own moral choices. Grace (freedom) enslaves us to a new master who instructs us how to live. Slaves don’t have options and everyone is a slave!

{1} Lawrence Richards, A Theology of Personal Ministry; Zondervan, pg 73

Often times I find myself defending the Gospel against “Christians”.  I know this might sound paradoxical, so I will explain in a few key points. But like I said, often times I find myself defending the Gospel against “Christians”. The problem is that many Christians have so married a specific culture with the Gospel that any attempts to separate the two can be as tragic as separating conjoined twins.  I usually end up walking through the basics of redemptive history, the atonement, justification, glorification, adoption and the Cross. 

Even what I have seen from history and the few things I have read on missions is that one of the greatest barriers to missions is the fact that the missionary often attempts to impart his/her culture along with the Gospel thus calling one culture inferior and tainting the Gospel in the process.

What Is Culture

the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another; the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group

Above is how Webster’s define culture. And this is what I want to tackle today. There is no such thing as “Christian Culture” so to say. Unless that culture is a person. Christ likeness is the only culture that Christians are to defend, any other culture maligns the Gospel. For example, lets take the young urban culture. The young urban culture can be defined by its musical preferences, its hobbies, what it invests in, dress code and language (usually euphemisms and/or slang).  Technically I could be considered part of this culture.

Now lets take a more broader approach. Kenya, has a certain culture. Foods, dress, music, familial relationships, sports, hobbies and politics. These cultural distinctives may not reconcile with ours, what they believe to be modest we may not, what they believe to be acceptable ways to relate may not be for us, the way they define political boundaries may not work with our form of democracy and so and so forth. Most of these things are neither good nor bad; however, because of our views we may believe that something they are doing is inherently “wrong”. That moves us to the Gospel.

The Gospel Alone

The Gospel is objective, unchanging, unmovable, unshakable, and eternal. The Gospel is the “power of God unto salvation”. The Gospel is what Christ accomplished on the Cross, the Gospel is what was determined in eternity past and set forth through redemptive history, beginning with the fall and ending with the second coming of Christ when all things will be restored to God. The Gospel my friend is what Jesus, His Apostles and many others have died for. Paul says in 1 Corinthians:

23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings

Most of us affirm this, but then we begin to defend what type of education people should have, which way they should wear their hair, we decide what type of music is acceptable, what type of dance, we add what you can eat or drink, we add what type of political alignment one should have, how many children, what type of marriage, what type of hobbies………. The funny thing about this is that Jesus nor Paul was concerned with any of this stuff. Jesus never attempts to change the culture of the Gentiles and only holds the Jews to the standard of their law (that is until He fulfills it). Paul in his journeys doesn’t try to influence the Gentiles with Jewish culture or vice verse. He simply proclaims the message with no cultural baggage attached (not saying that he was perfect in this because he is still human).  What am I not saying?

When the Lines are Crossed

Sometimes the lines get crossed. Or in other words, sometimes culture is sinful. For example a culture who allows the mistreatment of women and children has to be challenged with the Gospel. A culture that is neck deep in immorality (scriptural immorality) has to be challenged with the Gospel, culture that allows the mistreatment of the marginalized is to be challenged with the Gospel. Let me make sure I am clear here. THE CHALLENGE IS THE GOSPEL. We don’t try to change the culture then insert the Gospel, we change the culture that is antithetical to the Gospel with the Gospel which changes the heart and gives people the mind of Christ. Often times we are comfortable with mere culture changes better known as empty morality. Most people believe that America was more Christian 100 years ago than today, we only need to look at the Gospel and look at culture to realize that this is very far from the truth, the sins have just been exchanged. Too often Christians in this nation have wanted to change the culture (abolition of Alcohol, pornography, gay marriage, homosexuality in its entirety…) while leaving the Gospel on a shelf. Christianity through history has wanted to change hearts by removing heads and we have seen how successful that was right?

But often times we want the culture to change so that it looks like what we are comfortable with. I am not talking sinful things, just things we are not comfortable with. So for example when I was growing up jeans in church was unacceptable. If you were not wearing slacks and a button down shirt you were “dishonoring God’s house” (as God is relegate to a building). Or you couldn’t chew gum in church (others breath should be a sin). I remember you couldn’t wear pants if you were a woman. Today there is certain type of music that the church rejects as “Christian Music”. Christian Rock or Christian Rap is unacceptable, but Euro-centric melodies is the only music Jesus would listen to right? I know a bible teacher (very popular) who says that Homeschooling is the Christians standard and that Christians are to never use birth control (though many who agree with this still use more natural methods) and to do so is to trump the sovereignty of God (that’s an oxymoron). I have heard from Christians that African dancing or Indian use of words or a Muslim using Allah over “God” is unacceptable. Or better yet in Muslim countries many believe the women should uncover but I am sure that Paul would say “stay covered up for the Gospel”.

In All

Culture is fluid and it moves around the Gospel as it pleases, we are to discern the culture see where it impedes upon the Gospel and begin to teach the new disciples of Christ that this culture is to repented of if necessary. We are also to humble ourselves to determine if some particular culture even impacts the Gospel or is it just something we personally don’t agree with and set those differences to the side in order to proclaim the Gospel with conviction. This is very difficult for many people. Entire denominations our built on culture and not the Gospel and how shameful is that? Christ didn’t die to redeem “culture” He died to redeem humans. Paul says “I became all things to all men that I may win some” in  1 Corinthians 9. Whenever we begin to make judgment calls we have misplaced the Gospel and are no longer endorsed by the Spirit. Religion hinders the Gospel like nothing else. As a matter of fact religion may be the biggest hindrance to the Good News. Often I hear, man I got to stop smoking cigarettes then I will become a Christian, or man I have to get some “church clothes” or “I have to stop drinking” or “I have to _____”. The only thing we need to do is proclaim Christ crucified and teach the scriptures.  The Spirit through the Scriptures will point out sin and begin to shed those things from them, all other things are not to be worried about.

Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do. ~~~ Saint Thomas Aquinas

The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. ~~~ Samuel Adams

The Declaration of Independence, the Liberty Bell, the Boston Tea Party, The American Revolution, the Emancipation Proclamation and the great Civil War. Each was birthed out of “inalienable rights”, and “liberty for all”. These are the defining moments in our nation’s history. These are the pillars so to say of the American way. These men and women were willing to risk their lives, livelihood and possessions for this freedom, this life, this liberty and we applaud them as courageous, heroes, even “founding fathers”. I don’t disagree with this  (though I may disagree with the way they went about it) because for this nation they were all of the above plus more. However, someone greater entered human history. He is the Son of God and all of God. He stepped down from eternity to take on the form of a servant and guess what He did it for? Our Spiritual liberty! He died on the cross of our liberty, yet we are giving it over and are very passive about sustaining such liberty.

Snuffing Out Other’s Liberty Is Sinning Against Your Brother/Sister

I am going to say this another way. Whenever we tell a believer to obey something, that believer has only two real options. The first option is to submit to whatever it is the other believer called them to obey. The second and more biblical option is to search the scriptures much like the Bereans to “see if these things are so”. If that lines up with the scripture then we are to submit to the Holy Spirit indwelling that believer, if it is not biblical we can say, I am not obligated to submit to that; however, I understand your conviction on the matter. The third option which is an unbiblical option also is to outright ignore your brother or sister and continue in whatever pattern you are currently in.

Therefore, if the believer calling the other believer continues to call you into submission to something that is not clear in the scripture, he/she has begun to sin against you and that is something we can’t allow. I will say this and I know some of you may not like this. However, often times there are many believers who are over-burdened with convictions that they have no business being convicted about. They are stuck in traditionalism, religion, family values and so forth and it is a shame for us to allow this to go on. We don’t want to be forceful about it; however, we can lovingly tell them, you don’t have to wear that dress if you don’t want to, you don’t have to abstain from alcohol if you don’t want to, you don’t have pursue this or that type of education if you dont’ want to. You don’t have to follow this Old Covenant law if you don’t want to. Why? Because Christ has freed you from such an obligation and others have put a yoke of bondage on you against the will of God. Now we shouldn’t run around and look for people to free; however, through relationship they may be persuaded by your love and freedom to hear you out. I tell you what,  it was an older COGIC guy in my Army unit who sat me down and talked to me about Sabbath Days, and other things which only confirmed what I was reading in the scripture, and it got me out of a very legalistic and burdened down congregation.

Christian Liberty Is Found in Christ In the New Covenant

Paul says;

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery…..13 For you were called to freedom, brothers

Freedom is sometimes scary. I remember reading about some slaves who didn’t want to be free, that is because we like boundaries. Boundaries are safe and a law that says “love one another” is even scarier. However, this is the law/freedom Christ purchased on the cross. It is a freedom that obligates us, but it is a freedom that we posses. I came up with a slogan and it goes like this “if the bible says obey, then you must obey, if the bible says you don’t have to obey, then you don’t have to obey; however, if YOUR conscience calls you to obey it, then you must obey it!” . The operative words being “the bible and your conscience” . Too often we are submitting to things that Christ does not obligate us to obey and often time we call others to the same type of obligation. However our calling is to “freedom” not a “yoke of slavery”. Paul talks about this some more in Colossians 2:

20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh

Often times I hear Christians condemning others on the “handle nots, touch nots and tastes nots” in which we died to with Christ.

Liberty and Love

My last point which is just as important is that of Love. Here is where the New Covenant finds its foundation. Now that we understand that we are free, now I want us to understand that we are only free that we may love. Paul says in Romans 14:20-21 and in 1 Corinthians 8:9-13:

20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.

9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

Why is love important? Well God displays His love by sacrificing His Son and the Son shows His love by becoming that sacrifice (John 3:16 and 1 John 4:7-12). If love has caused the Father and the Son to sacrifice, it then calls us to sacrifice also. That may mean that we abstain from our freedom, until our brothers and sisters get it. This is a delicate dish to balance on our heads and takes much prayer for two reasons. 1. We don’t want the weaker brother to remain weak and to use his weakness to control the group. 2. We don’t want those who are stronger to injure their brother by flaunting this liberty (this is why wives are commanded and slaves are commanded to be submissive because of this new found freedom in Christ).  So love is always the deciding factor. Love will prevent us from being boastful in our freedom and love will also prevent us from attempting to burden our brother and sisters with our conviction.

Often though we are so concerned with being right (1 Corinthians 8:1-13) that we forget that we have been enslaved to Christ and thus obligated to love.  And so we go around “biting and devouring one another” as Paul says in Galatians 5:13-14.

In closing, we have to fight for the freedom of others, much like the Forefathers of this country did. Christ has purchased the Church and has set her free. To continue to yoke other believers up with bondage is to sin against them; however to flaunt such a liberty is to violate the New Covenant foundation of love. People are more important than being right and we often forget that we are ostracizing other believers because of both legalism and liberationsim. We walk the line in love. This applies to education practices, sexual practices within the confines of marriage, what you listen to, what you watch (though porn would be a problem), child bearing, financial decisions (again with the command to let no debt go outstanding), discipline, family work decisions and diet (what you eat and drink). Lets keep Christ at the center of it and I believe He will never allow us to go too far on either side, and even if we do, He will guide us back to Himself.

Freedom From Sin and Law

The Slavery motif is predominate in the New Testament, both Jesus and Paul uses the term slave consistently.  Paul uses the term 10 times in Romans alone and 9 of those are found in Romans 6 which is explaining our former enslavement to sin and unrighteousness to our current enslavement to Christ and righteousness.  Jesus says in John 8 “anyone who sins is a slave to sin”. Most people believe they are free and many say that “religious enslaves” however, sin enslaves and Christ sets free.

Not only that Paul says we are free from the law. Not that we are “without law” we are now under “the law of Christ” (that law being love) 1 Corinthians 9:21.  And we are free the curse of death that came with the law (Romans 7:1-6 and Galatians 3:13). So the freedom/slavery motif dominates the epistles as Paul is drawing a parellel between physical slavery and spiritual slavery.

Liberation Causes Problems

If you have ever read any history about a nation that has been liberated, you know the story to be bitter/sweet. I remember reading about the nations in Africa who became free from British colonization and how they would use that new freedom to do whatever they now please. Many times prisoners get out and “sow their royal oats” when they are set free. I remember friends who were released and the first thing they wanted to do was to get back into the same environment and do the same things that got them locked up in the first place. But to be more direct it seems that the liberty that Paul proclaims under the New Covenant seemed to have come with some apparent dangers. One of those dangers were licentiousness. Because I am free many began to ask “shall I continue in sin that grace may abound” (Romans 6:1). I have currently began to understand the dilemma the Jews and Paul must have been going through. In one sense this liberation from the law seems to produce and even encourage licentious living so the Jews who had the law had a right to be concerned, but Paul on the other hand had to unveil the mystery (Ephesians 2-3) that grace does fully liberate us and removes, the guilt, condemnation, curse and sting of the Law which may very well in a technical sense produce the licentiousness that so concerned the Jews. However………

The Law of Love and its Obligation

Paul says something profound. He preaches liberty in an obligatory tone to love. Here is what he says in Galatians 5:

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another

So now the question should be, why exactly did Christ “set us free”? He set us free from condemnation, curse, death and guilt with the intention of obligating us to serve one another in love. He did not set us free to enjoy freedom, He didn’t set us free to live our own lives, He set us free that we may now walk in obedience in love. Paul spends the first 4 chapters fighting for the Galatians freedom only to enslave them to servanthood through love. So now instead of serving sin we serve others in the power of the Holy Spirit. That love looks like Philippians 2:1-5, it looks like Colossians 3:12-17, it looks like Ephesians 4:11-5:13 and it looks like John 13:1-20). This my friends is what freedom accomplishes and what freedom obligates and this is what true Christian liberty looks like. It looks like us imitating Christ in love, not us boasting in our freedom and liberty but us utilizing freedom in liberty to make us a “servant of all” (Mark 9:35).

This isn’t easy and just like others it much easier and comfortable to use our freedom in Christ to “bite and devour”, it is much easier for me to use my freedom to serve my own sinful desires. To worry about myself and my passions, but Paul says “think of others more highly than yourself” and “don’t look out for your own interests but also for the interests of others”. Our mind has been “renewed”  (Romans 12:1-2) for us to adopt “the mind of Christ” (Philippians 2:5). If we use our freedom for ourselves, we don’t understand freedom and Jesus’ disposition “to humble Himself, taking on the form of a servant” which we are likewise called to imitate.