April 8, Your witness matters
I'm reading through 1 Corinthians during my devotional right now. Here is a portion of what I read,
1 Corinthians 8:9-13
Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. [10] For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? [11] So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. [12] When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. [13] Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
What Paul is saying here is that we shouldn't do anything to make an unbeliever or weak brother to fall away from Christ. Let me share a personal experience concerning this topic. My pastor of 14 years, Kevin Childs (Kevin led me to Christ and baptized me) went fishing in a farm pond on a beautiful spring Sunday afternoon. We just wanted to get away and relax while talking about some upcoming church stuff. A lady in the church saw us with the boat in the back of my truck. That evening, before the service, Kevin was attacked by women sharing how wrong that was.
Kevin nor I saw anything wrong relaxing in a boat on a Sunday afternoon. But, these ladies did so Kevin never fished again on a Sunday. He didn't want to cause anyone to stumble. Now as for me, I kept fishing but left Kevin at home.
With us living in the Bible Belt there are so many topics that cause division. Am I going to tippy toe around people? NO! But I'm going to willfully try and cause people to think badly of me because of my relationship with Christ.
Let me finish with a very fresh memory concerning this topic. Michelle just asked me to listen to a message on the answering machine. A woman saw one of our men tillering up the flower bed in front of the church Sunday evening. She immediately called to let us know how bad of a witness this was. Heres the deal, there was nothing going on at the church for Chuck. He had the afternoon free and was willing to help his church look good for Easter. Did Chuck do anything wrong? Absolutely not. He was helping his church prepare for one of its biggest weekends. Does that mean he should never help on a Sunday again? Again, absolutely not. My point here is that people will gripe about the stupidest things. Pick the battles your willing to die over. For me, the battle line has to do with hurting my witness for Jesus Christ. I believe Chuck helped his witness. The woman who called was probably headed to Golden Coral to eat a lot. But making someone work at a restaurant is ok. I think you get my point.
1 Corinthians 8:9-13
Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. [10] For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? [11] So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. [12] When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. [13] Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
What Paul is saying here is that we shouldn't do anything to make an unbeliever or weak brother to fall away from Christ. Let me share a personal experience concerning this topic. My pastor of 14 years, Kevin Childs (Kevin led me to Christ and baptized me) went fishing in a farm pond on a beautiful spring Sunday afternoon. We just wanted to get away and relax while talking about some upcoming church stuff. A lady in the church saw us with the boat in the back of my truck. That evening, before the service, Kevin was attacked by women sharing how wrong that was.
Kevin nor I saw anything wrong relaxing in a boat on a Sunday afternoon. But, these ladies did so Kevin never fished again on a Sunday. He didn't want to cause anyone to stumble. Now as for me, I kept fishing but left Kevin at home.
With us living in the Bible Belt there are so many topics that cause division. Am I going to tippy toe around people? NO! But I'm going to willfully try and cause people to think badly of me because of my relationship with Christ.
Let me finish with a very fresh memory concerning this topic. Michelle just asked me to listen to a message on the answering machine. A woman saw one of our men tillering up the flower bed in front of the church Sunday evening. She immediately called to let us know how bad of a witness this was. Heres the deal, there was nothing going on at the church for Chuck. He had the afternoon free and was willing to help his church look good for Easter. Did Chuck do anything wrong? Absolutely not. He was helping his church prepare for one of its biggest weekends. Does that mean he should never help on a Sunday again? Again, absolutely not. My point here is that people will gripe about the stupidest things. Pick the battles your willing to die over. For me, the battle line has to do with hurting my witness for Jesus Christ. I believe Chuck helped his witness. The woman who called was probably headed to Golden Coral to eat a lot. But making someone work at a restaurant is ok. I think you get my point.
Comments