One interesting aspect of the Christian life is how some components are absolutely critical and worth disagreement and breaking fellowship. Things like
- Salvation by faith in Christ
- The divinity of Jesus
- Acknowledgement and confession of sin
- Confessing Jesus as Lord
are really critical if you want to call yourself a Christian, but that’s by no means an exhaustive list. If you throw those components out, it’s kind of like saying you want to bake chocolate chip cookies but not use chocolate, eggs, flour, butter, sugar or an oven. You can call those cookies, but I think us orthodox-chocolate-chip-cookie eaters are going to think you’re pretty off-base.
Other things are a lot less critical, but are (sometimes) worth discussing. Can you be a faithful Christian and…
- Watch Breaking Bad?
- Wear V-neck t-shirts?
- Use Android products?
- Read only eBooks?
- Use credit cards instead of Dave Ramsey’s envelope system?
I’ve obviously chosen rather fluffy topics instead of something like drinking alcohol, wearing head coverings, or whatever the flame-war-du-jour is on often-non-essential Christian arguments, which I undoubtedly still engage in when it isn’t always wise. Feel free to substitute these questions with anything that is generally unmentioned in the Bible or something that isn’t completely clear in scripture but faithful Christians are found on both sides of the topic.
In a theology class I recently took on Romans, the professor suggested three applications from Romans 14:1–23 in what I like to call, “How Not To Be A Pharisee.”
1. Don’t judge. (Romans 14:4)
Only God can judge me is the tattoo, song lyric, and out-of-context-partial-scripture quotation I can’t help but laugh at and occasionally use myself, normally when I’m eating cookies for breakfast.
We don’t get to rule on someone’s salvation, especially based on peripheral matters. We don’t have access to the Lamb’s Book of Life. [footnote] Although, if God didn’t have cattle on a thousand hills, I’m sure releasing this book would make the NYT Bestsellers list—even if He didn’t give away the audiobook or Kindle format for free with a preorder. [/footnote] On non-essential matters especially, we can’t say, “You’re not a Christian if you do ___ or don’t ___,” especially when those blanks are filled with anything outside of core, foundational truths of Christianity.[footnote]The water of “What are considered core foundational truths?” some claim is pretty murky, and some Christians want to include / exclude what others exclude / include.[/footnote]
We don’t get to say doing / not doing this thing that is morally ambiguous at best does or amoral altogether or doesn’t make you a Christian. I think having conversations about these topics with people who
1. consider themselves Christians and
- we have relationships with (i.e. probably not an open letter on the Internet)
is totally worth doing, as we use scripture and wisdom to talk about them. We want to call each other to holiness and to live as lights in the world, but we don’t want to make sweeping judgments about things that are unclear and that we don’t have the right to make.
To sum all of this up, if you’re tempted to say, “No one who listens to Justin Bieber is a Christian,”–don’t.[footnote]A hearty discussion about music suggestions which are more pleasing to the ear, while not calling anyone’s salvation into question, is totally valid here.[/footnote]
2. Don’t be a stumbling block. (Romans 14:13)
Basically, love your neighbor. If you know someone who has a drinking problem, inviting them over for a drink isn’t a an awful, unloving idea. Don’t tempt someone to sin, even if that invitation alone itself isn’t necessarily a sin.
Feeling okay about doing, watching, wearing, or saying something and that not being a sin for me doesn’t mean it’s always good, helpful or wise for someone else.
It might be totally okay for you to do something, but if you doing that causes another Christian to sin, you’re not loving your neighbor, and your causing your brother or sister to stumble.
We often feel like getting up on our high horse and telling people about our rights, but if we’re Christians, we’ve already surrendered our rights, and any right we get back from God is merely a privilege now.
Living the Christian life is a challenge, and we don’t need to start shooting arrows at our own team.
3. Act in Faith (Romans 14:23)
If you think something might be a sin, you shouldn’t do it. Even if it isn’t a sin, and you do it, God counts it as sin because you have acted against your faith, because “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23)
Some people can do things that others can’t and still be faithful to God. So listen to each other, hear the other side, more than anything seek the counsel of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit through prayer, but know that you may need to live a life with fewer “freedoms” than others so that you continue to act in faith.
Wrapping Up
Not doing something that is amoral doesn’t make you a better Christian. Doing something that some Christians wouldn’t doesn’t automatically make you sinful. This is where the pharisees got things all mixed up and decided to live by man-made rules instead of faith.
Read the Bible, seek the Lord, and then remember Paul’s wise counsel from Romans 14.