The following article was prepared by the elders of the Charlottetown Bible Chapel for the good of the saints in their local fellowship. We include it here (only slightly abridged) for the good of God’s people everywhere. This was submitted by one of the elders,brother Rod Belyea.
What does God’s Word say about regulating our lives in the areas of personal liberties and rights under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of Scripture?
In every generation, Christians who come together in church fellowship have had to decide how to regulate their conduct. To a large extent, the quality of acceptable conduct has been determined by the place of authority given to the Bible as a governmental document. Whenever the authority of Scripture is eroded, the basis for regulating conduct is also eroded. The end-product of this is a wretched mockery of a Christian church, virtually indistinguishable from the world.
There are other genuine Christian fellowships which give the Scriptures the high place it deserves as being the sufficient and authoritative guide in all matters pertaining to faith, conduct, and church life. These have chosen to regulate conduct by what may be called the “covenant method.” By this method, people, as a condition of church fellowship, are required to sign their names as witness that they covenant to do and not to do certain things. In this way, scope of acceptable activities are set. This method is widely used.
Our assembly has always chosen (as do most assemblies like ours) to regulate our conduct by being personally accountable to the Lord Jesus, whose mind is revealed in the Scriptures. There are certain areas where God regulates our conduct by total prohibition. For example, the New Testament Church is required by divine command to put away from its company railers, drunkards, extortioners, idolators, and covetous people. There can be no negotiation on such matters.
There are other areas where God does not speak in terms of total prohibition. These are the so-called gray areas of personal rights and liberties. How does God regulate our conduct in these?
Before dealing with this subject, we must begin with a clear statement that a major foundation stone on which our fellowship rests is that of separation. The Christian who fails to build this truth into his life is doomed to be shipwrecked sooner or later, and destined to have conflict in this assembly in the meantime. No one is truly in fellowship in this assembly who is not in heart separated from this world. When God saves us, He separates us from the corrupt world system: “The whole world lieth in wickedness” (1 Jn. 5:19). This is a description of what the world is morally. It is unregenerate to its very core and implacably opposed to God in all its activities. With this we were once in full fellowship. God, when He saved us, separated us from it.
The assembly in Corinth was in a disastrous state. It had cast off restraint in the area of morality, so that it was harboring a notably wicked person. It had cast off restraint as to the Lord’s Supper so that it had become a drunken feast. It had cast off restraint in respect to the role of women, so that the injunctions about head coverings and silence had been discarded. These things and more required correction. But before he did that, Paul set down a basic principle that would give weight to everything he said. That principle forms the second major foundation stone on which our fellowship rests.
“God has called us to the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). God has called us to the fellowship formed by or for Jesus Christ, and of which He is Lord. This fellowship is meant to replace our former fellowship (the world), and is of course with the Church generally, and the local church in particular. Thus our assembly is a fellowship formed by the Lord Jesus Christ, of which He is Lord, and is designed to replace the world system that God separated us from when He saved us.
There is a point worth making here because it is not always well understood. This assembly consists of persons who have no quarrel with the idea that Jesus Christ, who saved them, is intended to be Lord of their lives. We make ourselves voluntarily accountable to the Lord and His Word for the decisions that determine our behavior. We have no denomination and no earthly headquarters to set policy for us. We have no book of rules to refer to. Nor do we sign covenants. All we have is God’s Word, and we are accountable to it. We expect those who have taken the place of “being in fellowship” and those intending to “come into fellowship” to bring their lives into submission to God’s Word. We trust people to do this. We trust people to live their lives in such a way as to set the best possible example to those inside and outside the assembly, not do anything to damage another person by way of bad example, and not do anything that will hinder the Gospel. We trust that they will not do anything that will increase the risk of ruining their lives and their usefulness to God. When elders point out areas of life that need to be judged and brought into line with God’s Word, they expect that people will obey because of Hebrews 13:17. When people refuse to bring their lives into submission to God’s Word, it creates unhappy strains in the fellowship because, startling as it may seem in capital letters, GOD’S ASSEMBLY IS NOT DESIGNED TO ACCOMMODATE PERSONS WHO DO NOT WANT TO BE IN SUBMISSION TO HIS WORD.
We will now outline what God’s Word says about how we regulate our lives in the area of our personal liberties under the Lordship of Christ and the authority of Scripture. This will be done by noting how the Apostle Paul regulates his own life in terms of his own rights and liberties. The apostle regulates his responses to things by three principles, to which Christ’s Lordship requires his and our assent. They are commonly called “The Three Lest I’s.”
The first principle has to do with my attitude to my brother and his welfare. It is summarized in these words: “Lest I make my brother to offend” (1 Cor. 8:13) I will not. This principle requires that we regulate our lives in such a way as not to injure a weaker Christian. In this case, the problem was food offered to idols. Should Paul be dining out in an idol’s temple eating an idol’s food? Would it damage him? He says not, but what about the brother with a conscience about eating this kind of food? Paul says this man’s conscience is weak. If he tries to follow Paul in this, he will violate his conscience. People who violate their consciences set themselves up for destruction. Paul says that when his example makes a brother bold to do what his conscience says he ought not to do, he causes that person to fall into sin, wounds his weak conscience, and sins against Christ. Paul therefore limits himself in his liberty to eat certain foods in the interest of his brother’s welfare. Can we do less? Movie-going is like eating in an idol’s temple. It may not harm you, but what about the younger person who may follow you there? Attraction to this form of entertainment is especially strong to younger people. No wise parent in this assembly wants their children going to movies. In order for them to follow you there, they will have to disobey a parental injunction and violate their conscience, thus taking another step on the road that ends in destruction. This is an assembly which honors parents who want to bring up their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Please help us honor them by setting the kind of example they need from you.
The second principle has to do with my attitude to the Gospel and its impact on the community in which I live. It is summarized as follows: “Lest we should hinder the Gospel” (1 Cor. 9:12) . . . I will not. We regulate our lives that we might not adversely affect the Gospel. In this case, it was a matter of money. Paul was working with the Corinthian assembly. They had an obligation to support him and he had a right to expect it, but because there was going to be a controversy about it, and a consequent negative impact on the Gospel (as all bad testimonies have), he would forego his right.
Paul says, “Let your manner of life be as becometh the Gospel” (Phil. 1:27). This means, let your manner of life weigh as much as, or be equal in value to, or befit the sacred character of the Gospel. If our manner of life is not equal in value to the Gospel, then in the eyes of the unsaved, the Gospel becomes equal in value to our manner of life. Hence people have lately calculated the value of the Gospel as equal to the manner of life of certain TV evangelists. The Lord was very pointed in His disapproval of those who, by their actions and influence, emptied the Word of God of its effect (Mk. 7:1-23). Let us be those whose manner of life befits the sacred character of it.
The third principle has to do with what I allow in my own life: “Lest . . . I myself should be a castaway” (1 Cor. 9:27) . . . I will not. This principle requires that we regulate our lives so that we not destroy that for which Christ died, and so miss the incorruptible crown made possible because of that death. Paul knows that the crown will not be gained by accident but by definite intent, so he eliminates those things that put his crown at risk. He does this by a deliberate act of his will. God has specifically instructed us to keep the flesh in the place of death and our spirits clean.
Many activities do not help us do this. The Bible says that we are to glorify God in our body and in our spirit, which are God’s (1 Cor. 6:20). What sort of athlete would smoke and drink knowing that he risks ruining his body and losing the trophy? What sort of Christian would engage in things that would gratify the flesh at the expense of polluting his spirit, and risk being disqualified at the Judgment Seat of Christ? The answer is exceedingly solemn and searching. Paul describes them as follows, “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ” (Phil. 3:18-19). Let us not use our liberties to put at risk our lives for which Christ died. They are not ours to use as we please, but His.
Earlier in this paper, we said that the happiness and harmony of this assembly depends on the persons who form it being willing to be personally accountable to the Lord for their lives, and that they will be willing to bring their lives under the authority of the Scripture as evidence of it. We would add that the spiritual vitality of our assembly depends on this too.
“Obey them that have rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give an account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you” (Heb. 13:17). The Apostle Paul’s advice is good: “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).