HOW TO MISAPPLY CHRISTIAN FREEDOM
Yesterday I preached through 1 Corinthians 8 with our church. I had been looking forward to this passage for a while, mostly because I was happy to be past chapter 7 where I said the word “sex” far more than I ever imagined saying it from the pulpit and it was just nice to have a new subject…I was a bit surprised though at how many people came forward after the sermon, in both services, with follow-up questions concerning applications of this text. People coming to chat with me about the sermon after is not out of the ordinary at all (although oddly enough the week prior no one wanted to discuss applications of 1 Corinthians 7), but what was a bit unusual was the number of people that came forward and the very specific questions they were asking about right and wrong ways to apply this passage on Christian freedom, mostly centered on verses 7-13. Because it was so uncommon and because I felt like I was not able to thoroughly answer all of the questions people were asking I felt led to respond with this post to hopefully address the issues in a little more detail as well as to keep the conversation going if necessary.
I have chosen to frame this post around different ways to mis-apply this passage because that is what the majority of the questions were concerned with yesterday. However, if there is interest at all perhaps I will write a follow-up post with ways to rightly apply it as well. There are undoubtedly more ways to misapply this passage than I have written here and I’m sure that given enough time and wicked motives someone could twist these verses in countless ways to fit any number of self-serving interpretations, but what I have provided in these 3 is a combination of the questions I heard yesterday and what I have observed through the years in ministry.
Three Ways to Mis-apply 1 Corinthians 8:7-13
“I am the strong brother/sister…so I hide what I do in front of anyone I declare weak”
I dealt with this misapplication in the sermon a bit but I thought I would expand on it here just a little more because this is something that I have seen so consistently. It goes something like this: A person begins to partake in a grey-area-freedom that they believe they have in Christ…often times this is things like drinking alcohol, smoking cigars/cigarettes, gambling in one form or another, watching particular movies, even listening to certain kinds of music etc. While this person knows (“has knowledge” 1 Cor. 8:1) that what they are doing is absolutely within their Christian freedom to partake in they are also not fully convinced in their minds (Rom. 14:5) and still have their doubts about what they’re doing (Rom. 14:23) and therefore their conscience is still weak (1 Cor. 8:7). This is extremely serious because Paul makes it very clear that what they are doing is not proceeding from faith and they are actually sinning (Rom. 14:23), sinning against Christ (1 Cor. 8:12).
So, because they are unsure about their new “freedom” they decide they will only do it around certain people, people who are ok with them partaking in their freedom and who even encourage it. The problem with this is that those people have no idea about the wrestling of the conscience in this person or even the hints of doubt and guilt that are coming every time. The person realizes that they are only willing to enjoy this freedom around certain people but with others they find themselves hiding it and tucking it away creating a secret life, a secondary identity that only certain people are welcomed to see. Eventually though this also feels wrong (and it definitely should!) so they need some sort of Bible, Christian-y way of justifying this behavior and so they declare they are hiding this secret life in the name of sparing their weaker brothers and sisters.
Now, there is a fine line here because there is certainly wisdom in this i.e. don’t offer the brother who is a former alcoholic a beer, don’t watch a movie with nudity in it with a brother or sister who struggles with pornography, don’t describe your amazing poker game to the recovering gambling addict etc. These are all appropriate applications of 1 Corinthians 8:7 & 9, their conscience is still weak don’t be a stumbling block to them. However, Paul is not advocating for creating multiple lives and secret identities, nor is he providing the person who loves multiple vices a justification for hiding them from anyone that they declare weak.
This scenario often leads to inconsistent living as well as ineffectiveness when it comes to discipleship. I have personally experienced the inconsistency from this excuse when people have covered up their “freedoms” or hidden away portions of their life from me (most likely because of my title as pastor, but also because I’m super uptight), but this is where the excuse falls flat. I am a lot of things, but I am not the weaker brother. No freedom that a person has in Christ that they partake in will become a stumbling block to me, whether I personally agree with or partake in that particular freedom or not. And while I am not the weaker brother I am also not Jesus. Jesus’s standards and His ideas of holiness far exceed mine (by a HUGE margin!) and so if a fellow sinner like me makes someone feel like they should tuck away that freedom I think it would be wise for them to remember that Jesus is well aware of them enjoying those freedoms. And remember that they are claiming that He purchased those freedoms for them through the spilling of His blood. And this means He definitely cares more than I do! So, if you are fully convinced that the freedom you are enjoying is good and glorifying to God then enjoy it guilt- free! But be honest and be humble if you are not able to enjoy it without guilt then stop! Don’t hide it, don’t create a whole other identity, and certainly don’t blame doing so on anyone that you conveniently declare weak.
“You are the weak brother/sister…let me force you to be (my version of) strong”
This scenario goes something like this: A person comes to faith in Christ and, as in most cases, they come with a lot of baggage and hang ups. A very “helpful” and passionate Christian who has “knowledge” (1 Cor. 8:1) comes along and begins to walk with this brand-new believer. They begin to teach them how to follow Jesus, but instead of beginning with the ends and outs of the Gospel or practical ways of growing daily in Christ or even ways for them to daily fight sin, this “strong” believer begins with all the things that they are free to do in Christ. This new, weak brother or sister might struggle with a Christian listening to secular music or drinking alcohol or using questionable language (all of which is true of so many new believers!), so the “strong” believer having the knowledge that these are things that the Christian’s conscience does not need to struggle with they proceed to teach the person that strong Christians can do all of those things and much more. They inadvertently put unnecessary pressure on this new brother or sister to actually go against their conscience and may even lead them into sin.
This is unfortunate (and frankly ridiculous) for two reasons, both of which Paul touches on in 1 Corinthians 8. Frist, partaking in any grey-area freedoms is not a mark of maturity or strength in any Christian. You are not a more spiritual Christian because you enjoy a cigar or glass of bourbon, nor are you more mature in Christ because you like Texas-hold-em or because you only watch the artsiest or raunchiest movies. Paul makes this clear in verse 8, “Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.” The second reason is that person might not ever partake in that freedom without guilt for as long as they live and that is absolutely ok, fine, and good! A person who cannot enjoy a glass of wine without feeling like they are doing something wrong should not have a glass of wine! This does not mean that they will never be the strong brother or sister at all, in fact as time goes on they will probably discover reasons they feel this guilt and develop strong biblical reasons for abstaining. They should not be told by any “strong” believer that they are weak if they don’t participate in what goes against their conscience. Paul spells this out in verses 10 & 11 when he says that if the weaker brother or sister is encouraged to go against their conscience which is still weak because of the stronger brother or sister’s actions the strong are running the risk of destroying “the brother for whom Christ died.” And this should be a severe enough warning for us not to force our version of strong or mature on any brother or sister who is still weak.
“I am the weak brother/sister…you should change for me”
This last situation was, by far, the one that I received the most questions about yesterday. And since the majority of the people asking the question were using a very specific incident as their example I will use it to illustrate this point and why it is a misapplication of this passage. It goes like this: A Christian man is struggling with lust and impure thoughts (and most likely other things in the realm of sexual immorality) and he notices that the Christian women around him are wearing clothes (obviously) and through his noticing he sins. From this, the Christian man concludes that it is because of the clothes the Christian women are wearing that he was led to sin. So, his response is to approach the women (or have someone do it for him) and declare to them that he is a weak brother and because they are partaking of their freedom in Christ (i.e. wearing clothes) they are causing him to stumble and potentially to sin. Essentially, he is assuming that these women are those who possess knowledge (1 Cor. 8:1) and that the women are strong, mature believers and he is declaring that he is a brother with a weak conscience that does not possess knowledge (1 Cor. 8:6-7).
There are so many things wrong with this application it is hard to know where to begin. First of all, nothing about 1 Corinthians 8:7-13 lends itself to the belief that being the weak brother is something the weak declare for themselves. The weak are the weak because they do not understand that they are the weak. They are no longer the weak when they possess the knowledge (vs 7) that is contained in verse 6. The very fact that this person declares that they are the weak brother demonstrates that they are not. They are simply a Christian struggling with sin. Next, if the clothes a woman is wearing is causing a man to stumble into sin the man’s issues are beyond what will be solved by a pair of sweat pants or longer dresses. They should probably stay indoors as much as possible and truly avoid all television, computer screens, and all social media apps that exist and they should be seeking intense counseling from a Christian, male counselor and they should be doing so often and regularly. I apologize for the sarcasm here because sin is serious, but it is because it is so serious that blaming it on the clothes someone else is wearing seems utterly absurd! Which brings me to the last point I will make here, in the words of Alistair Begg “Every sin is an inside job.” Our sin is our sin, nobody else’s. Other people are going to live their lives in particular ways and we do not ever get to blame our stumbling or our sin on them. We are responsible for fighting our sin and nobody owes us anything in our battle with our own sin. Nobody! In this particular scenario, for every strong sister in Christ that is willing to lay down her rights and dress in a way that accommodates this weak, immature brother there will be a brand new, weak sister in Christ who will not know to do so and it would be absolutely inappropriate for anyone to force her to accommodate him (see point number 2 above). 1 Corinthians 8 does not teach the weak to plead with the strong to accommodate their sin.
(Now just a quick word about modesty…It is entirely appropriate for a Christian woman who is discipling a woman who is new to faith to lovingly invite the new woman to consider how her clothes are honoring to Christ. And that is an important conversation that would absolutely benefit a young believer’s walk with Christ. But it is entirely inappropriate for a man who is new to the faith to tell a woman who is new to the faith that her clothes are causing him to stumble. Just don’t. And sisters, especially those who are mature and strong in their faith you know that you have plenty in Scripture that does challenge you to consider what you wear and why you wear it, whether it is explicit (1 Tim. 2:9) or just by way of principle (1 Cor. 10:31), so you definitely don’t need to wait for some guy who is wrestling with lust to come and tell you how to dress!)
Closing thoughts:
Every teaching on Christian freedom has the potential to offend someone and most discussions on 1 Corinthians 8 are followed up with a “but what about if…” question. That’s fine. I think these discussions are healthy and make for beneficial edification. But I’d like to close with the reminder that partaking in Christian freedom, whatever that means in your life, is not the goal of following Christ. Whatever is on the other end of the question, “Is it ok for me to do this?” is not our primary aim as God’s people. That is why love and holiness should saturate every single conversation about Christian liberty. Our aim is to be known for our love and marked by the holiness of Christ! Our aim is to grow to be more like Christ not prove how free we are! Our primary purpose as followers of Jesus is to bring glory and honor to God though these short little lives that we live here and now! And that is why Paul concludes his discussion on Christian freedom with this point and it is where I will conclude mine as well: