The Lovey Letters: Christian Liberties and Loving Each Other Well
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Dear Loveys,
Chickens peck. It’s their God-given and God-designed nature. They peck at their food. They peck at insects. They peck for gravel to help digest what they’ve eaten. Those are all good things.
Pecking is natural for chickens, yet when chickens begin to peck at each other, it reveals something is wrong. The same can be said for us, which is why I want to encourage you to guard against pecking at each other during this strange season of quarantine life, specifically regarding the way fellow peeps exercise their freedoms according to the Scriptures. It’s easy to grow somewhat hard hearted and critical when others see things differently than we do in the areas of Christian liberties. If ever there was an opportunity to love each other well, it's now!
What liberties? It can range from things like wearing masks or gloves or not, washing everything from fresh produce to the soles of our shoes when we return home from the grocery store, how to practice social distancing within extended family, whether it’s okay to go for a drive or not, ordering take out, and on it goes! When we’ve come up with our plan to do our part, believing it to be honoring to the Lord, and then discover others have a different plan, it can be all too easy to grow critical toward each other. Thankfully, God has instruction for us that protects our hearts, our relationships with one another, and the glory of His name in the world.
Paul, in his letters to the churches in Rome and Corinth, addresses a trend in those churches where the believers were growing increasingly critical of each other and in danger of polarizing into factions. In both Romans chapters 14-15 and 1 Corinthians chapters 8-9, Paul teaches the believers how to love one another well, in spite of the different ways they lived out their devotion to the Lord.
We learn from those passages that when it comes to how we regard one another’s differences in areas that aren’t sinful, a gracious spirit needs to prevail. It might start with “If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all,” and then should move to seeking ways to edify and build each other up. May I just say that loving others graciously as they either use or curb their freedoms in Christ is far different than allowing brothers and sisters to sin against the Lord? Nowhere in the Scriptures does Paul ever condone sinning against the Lord. Many times in his epistles, he teaches how we are to lovingly confront sin in one another, so I’m not speaking about areas of sin.
I am talking about how to love each other well for the glory of God about areas of freedom. The believers of Rome and Corinth needed to have an attitude of living well before the Lord, keeping an eye on their own lives, rather than busily pecking at the way other believers were not meeting up to their standards. Paul’s encouragement to these churches can greatly aid our relationships with each other when it comes to exercising our freedoms in the Lord. What are some principles for God-glorifying chicken coop living we can extract for ourselves?
Recognize what is opinion versus what is commanded in the Scriptures. Paul says in Romans 14:1, “Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.” Notice that word “opinions.” Whatever Paul is talking about in Romans 14 lives in the realm of biblical conviction and personal opinion. Romans 14 is not about condoning sin. It is about allowing for freedom in the ways we live out our biblical convictions. A gracious spirit prevailing in our relationships speaks volumes to a world that supposes we live with unbending and unyielding attitudes.
Guard against being scornful of how fellow believers live out their convictions. In Romans 14:3 Paul writes, “The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.” Here we are told not to be scornful, derisive, or disdainful toward one another. Instead, we’re encouraged to remember the common bond of brotherhood in the body of Christ—even when a brother or sister makes different choices in living to the glory of God.
Remember there may be more to the story. Guard against judging the motives of others. In Romans 14:4 Paul admonishes us with these words, “Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” Paul reminded those in the church not to harshly judge fellow believers who may simply be doing what is required by their masters. There may be more to the story, so quickly jumping to conclusions doesn’t reflect the patient spirit the Lord Jesus desires us to have toward one another.
Be gracious toward one another. In Romans 14:7–8 say, “For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” Just in case we haven’t figured it out yet, we’re reminded that fellow believers desire to live for the Lord. Remembering other believers are most likely motivated out of their devotion to the Lord helps us cover over their supposed “sins” with love (1 Peter 4:8).
Let God be their judge. Still addressing Christian liberties, Paul says in Romans 14:10–12, “But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD.” So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.” James urges the same response in James 4:11 and James 5:9, both texts reminding us that God hears our critical words and sees our disparaging thoughts about our fellow believers. How we think and speak about each other is serious business!
It says of the Proverbs 31 woman that “she opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue (Proverbs 31:26).” If we want to give God glory in the chicken coop, we need to guard against pecking at each other, so that no matter what our course of action, it can all be done “to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).”
