Freedom: The Right To Do What We Ought To Do

1 Corinthians 8-10

Recently our congregation went through the books of 1 & 2 Corinthians to learn some general truths about “Living Joyfully in Biblical Community”. 1 Corinthians chapters 8-10 were the passages of discussion on June 11^th. I have included a part of that lesson here for discussion because I believe our understanding of “freedom” is very important to understanding how to live for Jesus in these times.

The problem which Paul is going to address in chapters 8-10 is not really food sacrificed to idols, although that seems to be the topic at hand. The theological issue of food sacrificed to idols is limited to two verses in 1 Corinthians 8 which makes me think that the actual issue is not the real issue. In 1 Corinthians 8: 4-6 Paul basically says

Idols are nothing.
They aren’t real.
There is no God but one God.
Jesus is the only Lord.

Then in verses 7-13 the real issue arises: Listen to Paul’s words;

"But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. ⁸ But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak...”

Did you catch that last verse? It seems that what Paul is really concerned with is how one person’s freedom in Christ, the freedom to eat meat or not eat meat, might hinder another person’s walk with Christ. Many times joylessness in the church has less to do with the issues that arise and a lot to do with the manner in which those issues are handled between people at different places in their walk with Christ. Listen as he continues;

1 Corinthians 8:9-13:

"Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? ¹¹ So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. ¹² When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³ Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”

Notice what our Lord is concerned with regarding food sacrificed to idols; it’s not the food sacrificed to idols. It’s the faith of other brothers and sisters in Christ.

I would venture to say that 90% of people who leave churches today to go to other churches leave not because they disagree with other members on issues of faith, but because they have been hurt by the manner in which those issues of faith were handled.

In Christ we have been given the freedom to do many things, but those freedoms must never weaken the faith of others in the church. True freedom in Christ is not the freedom to do whatever I want to do; it’s the freedom to do what I ought to do for the faith of others.

True Freedom

In approximately 2 weeks, if the Lord answers our prayers as we have been requesting, our brother Ken will be released from jail to finish out a final 90 days in a rehabilitation clinic. When Ken’s final day in jail is up he will stand on the exterior wall of the jail and the guards will say to him, “Ok Ken, you are free”.

And at that point every former prisoner must ask himself or herself one question: “Free to do what?”

To those who have not learned their lesson they will say, “Yippee!! I am free to do whatever I want to do!”

Those who say this forget that the reason they were in jail in the first place was because they took the liberty to do just whatever they wanted to do. The freedom to do whatever we want to do will never, never, never, hardly ever, no never bring us freedom.

When Ken is released from jail I believe he will leave knowing that he is free to do not whatever he wants to do…but free to do exactly what he ought to do. That is the essence of freedom, true freedom. And if the church is going to be a joyful beacon of light to our communities we must preach and exemplify true freedom among us and not some false definition of it.

Contemporary Application:

This is important today because in our society the words freedom and liberty are passed around with different meanings. Many people today believe freedom gives me the right to do just whatever I want to do.

A man and a woman have premarital sex together. Not wanting to have a baby they decide to have an abortion. They believe they are free to do so because the laws of our land give them the freedom to do so. What they do not realize, however, is that if they choose to define freedom in this situation as their right to do whatever they want to do (the type of freedom which got them in their predicament in the first place) they will free neither themselves nor their child. The freedom to do whatever they want to do will result in the death of an innocent child and the further enslavement of the mother and father in sin. That's not freedom, folks; that's death. And we can't give it a softer name.

The Devil has convinced us through the media that in order to be free we must have the right to do just whatever we want to do. The truth is, however, that if I take the freedom to do just whatever I want to do in my life, I will quickly find myself a slave. If a country takes the freedom to do just whatever they want to do they will quickly find themselves in shackles as well.

We can give sin a softer name if we like; but the fact is sin by any other name, be it “freedom”, “tolerance”, “human rights” or “alternative lifestyle” is still sin and will always lead to death, not freedom.

True freedom, according to the Bible, is not the right to do what we want to do…it’s the right to do exactly what we ought to do for the benefit of others.

The question for us as believers is: "Who has the right to tell us what we ought to do? The government or God?" (see Acts 4:19-20).