A Virginia megachurch pastor outlined the four questions every Christian should ask themselves when it comes to the “gray” areas of Christian liberty, from the topic of alcohol consumption to the movies that are appropriate to watch.
“True freedom in the Lord means that we are now free to live as we should and not as we please,” Austin Hamrick, pastor of Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, said during a sermon titled “Four Questions Every Christian Should Ask Themselves” last month. “True liberty is not a license to sin. It’s very important for us to understand this: God’s grace sets us free from sin. It doesn’t set us free to sin. And there’s a big difference.”
Hamrick warned that sometimes Christians think that because they are “saved by God’s grace,” they can “just do whatever I want and God doesn’t care.”
“Paul anticipates this. He’s like, ‘Hold on. Now listen, you are free. But it means that you’re free from sin. It doesn’t mean that you’re free to sin,’” he explained.
The pastor emphasized the importance of standing firm in the freedom granted by Christ while avoiding the pitfalls of using this liberty as an opportunity for self-indulgence. He highlighted four critical questions that Christians should ask themselves when faced with decisions in gray areas where the Bible doesn’t provide explicit guidance.
He cited 1 Corinthians 6:12, which states, “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial.” As an example, Hamrick shared his personal decision to refrain from watching a film that, despite its compelling story, contained language he felt would negatively impact his spirit.
“If the Bible doesn’t directly address it, the first question that I’m going to say you need to ask yourself is, ‘Is it less than beneficial? I have the liberty to do certain things, OK, but is it less than beneficial? Is it potentially detrimental for me, rather than being good for me? Even though this might not necessarily be declared in the Bible as a sin? Is this just practically good for me?’” he said.
The second question Christians should ask themselves, according to the pastor, is, “Could it master me?”
“You need to ask yourself, ‘Could doing this, participating in this, watching this, could it potentially master me? Could I become a slave to this? Is this addictive?’ And if so, then listen to your God-given conscience and be cautious to participate,” he stressed. “There are a lot of things that might not necessarily be sinful, but it has the potential to enslave you. And so, I’d say don’t do it if it has the potential to master you.”
“I’ve talked to a lot of people who said, ‘You know, I didn’t think doing this was going to be wrong because I couldn’t find chapter and verse, but I knew that it could potentially control my life, but I did it anyways,'” he added.
Third, Hamrick encouraged Christians to ask themselves, “Could it cause others to stumble?” Christian freedom, he emphasized, is not an opportunity for self-indulgence but a call to serve others in love and to be a positive influence within the community.
“Our faith is not exclusively all about us. It’s not all just always about me. How I live my life, what I do with my life and following Jesus. I need to take others around me into consideration,” he said.
“Sometimes we think, ‘My relationship with the Lord is just all about me and Jesus, and so I don’t care what other people think of me. It’s just me and the Lord, I can do whatever I want.’ Paul says that in your relationship with you and Jesus, it matters how you display that relationship when you’re around other people. So, in the exercise of your freedom, could it potentially damage someone else?”
Finally, the pastor challenged Christians to ask, “Does it lack edification?”
“No one should seek their own good but the good of others,” he said. “Does doing this, even though this might be a personal liberty for me, does doing this lack edification? Does what I’m doing right now build someone else up or tear them down? Is it lifting them up and encouraging them in their relationship with the Lord? Or, am I setting a bad example? Will this build other people up or will it have the opposite effect?”
“Our aim should always be to build others up,” he added. “The Christian faith is not about seeking our own good, but it’s about building others in the Body up. It’s about encouraging others. So, I’m just going to be sensitive. I’m going to be cautious even though I might have liberty or I might feel free to do a certain thing.”
Hamrick reminded believers that they can responsibly navigate their freedoms without falling into the traps of legalism or licentiousness. He warned against returning to the yoke of bondage from which Christ has set believers free, pointing out the difference between being free from sin and being free to sin.
“When you’re faced with some of these topics that maybe the Bible doesn’t necessarily address directly, be wise with your liberty, be wise with your freedoms. Take any topic of liberty, pass it through this litmus test,” he concluded. “You have been called to liberty. It’s the greatest thing in the world. You are free in the Lord … do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh.”
Nicole Alcindor is a reporter for The Christian Post.
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