by Tom Greenslade

Created on: June 07, 2008

"Liberty Limited"
"It is wrong for you to cut your hair so short. You have a boy's hair cut!" "It is wrong for you to have a TV. You are corrupting your home!" How do you handle that? You know your hair is beautiful and feminine, and that there is nothing wrong with having a TV if you control it. We have heard how sinful the satellite and the internet are. What about going to a movie, or smoking, drinking wine with moderation, or playing cards? What about working on Sunday, or women wearing slacks? The person who used to say these things to my wife was a very close and loved friend. Sometimes it did hurt. That is understood. What they say to you can hurt. The issue was not that our friend was wrong and hurtful sometimes. The issue was actually how we handled it. In order to handle it in a way that honored our Lord Jesus, and in a way that was helpful to our friend, we looked to the Bible to see what attitude to have in return. 1 Peter 2:21-23, Luke 23:34, and Romans chapter 14 have been our guides in how to use our Christian Liberty in a world where there are born again believers who don't understand their liberty that Christ has given them and have a different view than we do.

"To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly."(1)

As Jesus suffered in payment for our sins He was modeling for us how to respond to those who hurt us.

Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."(2)

Romans 15:1 wraps up well what comes before it in Romans 14. "We who are strong ought to bear with the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves."

The Greek word translated "infirmities" is "asthenema," meaning an error arising from weakness of mind.(3) Here is a believer who thinks it is sinful to eat meat, and who thinks it is sinful not to keep one day especially holy above the other days of the week. Paul's point is that he has a weakness of mind in his understanding of Scripture. We often refer to this person as the legalist. Legalists are generally difficult and unpleasant to fellowship with because they can be critical and condemning, but God does not want you to scorn and condemn them in return.

Sometimes our heroes give us an example of how not to handle

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