Calvary Road Baptist Church

“THE AIM OF LIBERTY”

First Corinthians 10.31-11.1 

As I prepared this message for you, I honestly was not consciously thinking of tomorrow being the Fourth of July, our Declaration of Independence, or the pronouncement by Patrick Henry during a speech he made to the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

God, in His wonderful providence, determined that with me only realizing the timeliness of my message dealing with Christian liberty when I reviewed my sermon, as is my habit on Saturday afternoon. Indeed, the liberty fought for that resulted in our nation's founding was a derivative of the Christian liberty known and experienced by many of our founders.

I am a Bible preacher, not a historian, so I direct your attention to the Word of God, the New Testament, and the first Corinthian letter. Think about the myriad of things in a person’s life the Apostle Paul has touched on in the first ten chapters of this first Corinthian letter as you make your way to First Corinthians 10.31.

Have you thought about going through a divorce? Paul dealt with divorce, with believers who were married to believers and with believers who were married to lost people, with believers who wanted to divorce and with believers whose mates wished to divorce.

Are you thinking about getting married? Paul talked to those kinds of people, too. He dealt with widows and former fornicators, new Christians contemplating getting married, and virgins contemplating getting married. He also addressed the fathers of the brides, knowing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit that young ladies are just about the poorest judges in the world of who they ought to marry and when they ought to marry.

Suppose Paul hadn’t intervened and told fathers that it was their job to grant or deny marriage permission. In that case, dear old dad might erroneously think he was a great guy by allowing his daughter to marry, without a word of opposition, someone who would never be suitable for his daughter.

All of these things were covered in chapter 7 of First Corinthians alone. There are many more specific instances in which Paul teaches his readers about the correct use of liberty in chapters 8, 9, and 10. And in studying those specific applications of liberty, we can learn several valuable principles related to the right use of Christian liberty, a matter many Christians never bother to think about or plan to exercise.

No matter how many specific instances Paul might have covered in the Bible, there would always be a situation that comes to light, either in your life or in mine, that was not dealt with specifically in the Bible. And when that happened, where would we be? What should we do? How would we know, of a certainty, what the proper exercise of liberty should be?

We wouldn’t know. And because we would not know the will of God in a certain situation, would not know how to use this privilege God has given to us properly, we would either misuse our liberty in Christ and be licentious, or we would not use our Christian liberty at all and be legalists.

Because liberty is so essential a factor in the Christian’s life and bears so heavily on disciple-making and child-rearing, the Apostle Paul leaves us, as he departs from the subject of Christian liberty to move on to another issue, with a summation of liberty in the text before us. Let’s read Paul’s summary statements on Christian liberty in First Corinthians 10.31-11.1: 

31    Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

32    Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:

33    Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

1   Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. 

Let me pause to offer you a working grasp of Christian liberty. So that we might exercise the liberty Paul refers to in Galatians 5.1, where he writes, 

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,” 

let me suggest that Christian liberty, as Paul presents it is not the license to do wrong but the freedom to do right. That is how moms and dads address the topic. That is how disciplers address the matter.

Three summary statements about liberty in the Christian life: 

First, A SUMMARY STATEMENT OF THE PURPOSE OF LIBERTY 

31    Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

32    Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God. 

Notice how these two verses very neatly divide into positive and negative aspects.

Verse 31 shows the positive aspect of the goal, the objective, the purpose of Christian liberty: 

“... do all to the glory of God.” 

This verse may come as a surprise to some Christians, but it shouldn’t surprise any believer who has read much of the Bible. For throughout the Scriptures, we see this principle repeated one way or another over and over and over again. Turn to Revelation 4.11: 

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” 

This scene, taking place in the future, after the Rapture, shows representatives of believers in heaven gathered around the throne of God and singing. Do you see what they are singing about? They are singing about the purpose to which and for which everything that has been created was created. To summarize, Why are we here? Why do we exist? What is our function in God’s plan? To glorify Him. That liberty is granted to us and should be used to this end should not surprise us. Amen? Now turn to Ephesians 3.21: 

“Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” 

This verse is somewhat more specific than Revelation 4.11, so far as the goal of our liberty in Christ is concerned. Written to the Christian congregation in the city of Ephesus, Paul indicates here that not only should God be glorified, He should be glorified in the assembly throughout all ages. That is when you use your liberty to glorify God, don’t forget to use your liberty in the assembly to glorify God in the assembly and do so forever. Amen? I wonder how many people would be visited, how many people would be saved, and what the offerings during each gathered service would be if our goal every time we came to this meeting place was to see God glorified? And people who claim to be Christians who are not members of this body or do not serve God in and through their congregation? Pretty clueless.

How might this glorifying of God be accomplished in the body and elsewhere in our lives? First Peter 4.10-11 begins to tell us: 

10    As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

11    If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 

Peter here instructs his readers to use what God gave them as best they are able to serve God as best they can. Has God given to you? Then give in return. Can you speak truth? Then speak as a representative of God. Can you serve? Then serve according to your ability.

What great opportunity liberty affords those of us loosed from bondage to sin. We could never do this under the Law of Moses. All the Israelites could do under the Law, for the most part, was watch the Levites and priests perform their ministries. The average Israelite had nothing we would recognize as ministry. But every believer in Jesus Christ has the privilege, has the liberty if you will, to glorify God through his life, through his service, and to do so through his Church. You want positive? That’s positive.

Let’s move on to verse 32, where we are shown the negative aspect of liberty: 

“Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.” 

Liberty’s goal is to glorify God without unnecessarily offending your fellow man, for you cannot glorify God while needlessly offending others. You might be thinking, “But don’t you anger people and offend people as a Christian?” To answer that question, we need to properly understand what it is to “offend” in the Biblical sense. The “none offence” we are to give comes from a word that is used only three times in the New Testament, and has absolutely nothing to do with whether you make someone mad or not. Ἀprόskopos, instead, means without causing others to stumble, “free from hurt or harm,” and “not causing injury.”[1]

Understood in that way, it is quite possible to make someone angry at you for doing right and making a proper stand for the cause of Christ without actually offending them and interfering in their reception of the Gospel. Understand, also, that you can be nice and sweet and always compromise and never make anyone angry at you, but end up presenting a great stumblingblock to their salvation. So, the correct use of liberty seeks to glorify God positively, without negatively offending anyone, according to the Biblical concept of offending someone. 

Second, A SUMMARY STATEMENT OF THE PRIVILEGE OF LIBERTY 

33    Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. 

We have two privileges, my brothers and sisters:

First, it is our privilege as believers in the context of a Christian congregation to give: 

“Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many.” 

What does the Christian, the member of a Church of Jesus Christ, have the liberty to give? We have the liberty to give of ourselves to others. We do this so that we might please others and seek their benefit whenever possible. And this is more than giving stuff. It is giving your time, attention, and convenience to reaching the lost and ministering to the saved.

Are you old enough to remember how Christian liberty used to spill over, for example, into child-rearing? Training children to display this attitude used to be an integral part of child-rearing.

This comes together in what is often referred to as a servant spirit. Our Lord Jesus had this spirit. It is our privilege to have it also. It is our liberty. And it spills over into our parenting and the broader culture. It’s a good thing for parents to prepare children to exhibit this spirit for the exercise of liberty. I know of one seminary professor who required each of his teen aged children to work as a waiter in a restaurant to learn how to wait upon, how to serve, others. Yes, we do have the privilege to give of ourselves. Do you give of yourself? How do you? Where do you? When do you? Is it a lifestyle or a once and a while thing?

In fulfilling our privilege to give we realize our privilege to get: 

“... that they may be saved.” 

We all know that the ultimate benefit to any soul is salvation. So it is not a deceitful giving of one’s self that the Christian practices, but an open and honest giving of oneself. We give to show love. We give to remove barriers. We give to make friends. Why? That we might present Christ. In Second Corinthians 5.14-21, Paul said it so well: 

14    For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

15    And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

16    Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

17    Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

18    And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

19    To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

20    Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

21    For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 

It is our privilege to give, not for personal gain, but so others might come to know Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. And that’s the best kind of getting there is. Amen? 

Finally, A SUMMARY STATEMENT OF THE PLAN OF LIBERTY 

1  Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. 

Notice what Paul did. First, he showed the benefits of liberty by telling us of liberty’s purpose and of liberty’s privilege, glorifying God and winning folks to Christ. Next, he told us how to get it done. In case you’re wondering about the chapter division, we know that 11.1 fits with First Corinthians chapter 10. How do we know? Two reasons:

#1     Chapter divisions do not always divide up topics that the author deals with, but are to be used only to reference and locate passages, not help to interpret a text, and,

#2     First Corinthians 11.2 begins an entirely new subject for Paul. For that reason, 11.1 does apply to Paul’s summation of liberty.

Notice the description. The description is of discipleship. In the Old Testament, people’s lives were patterned to fit neatly into a catalog of Mosaic Law rules and regulations. And since little liberty was required for that lifestyle little liberty was given. But the same is not so with us. Law is not very compatible with liberty. But we have been given great liberty in Christ. So, what is God’s plan for learning how to live the life of liberty? What is God’s plan for us? Discipleship. Simply described, discipleship is imitating another person, modeling another’s personality, becoming like him in certain respects. We see this in the Great Commission to make disciples for Christ. Sinners follow the Christian in trusting Christ, follow the Christian in being baptized to identify for Christ, and follow the Christian in learning how to live the Christian life, Matthew 28.18-20.

It is following one who follows one. That was God’s plan for Paul. That was God’s plan for the Corinthians. That is God’s plan for me. And that is God’s plan for you. The person you are following, and you are following someone ... who is he following? If he isn’t following Christ, you are following the wrong person. A believer who is not involved in discipleship is really missing out.

Which brings me to the accompanying duty. Paul only asked his readers to follow him as he followed Christ. To ask someone to follow you, or to imply that someone should follow you, or even to allow someone to follow you, is unethical unless you are following Christ. But unscrupulous leaders are unconcerned about leadership ethics, so they will continue to lead folks who have no business following them. James 3.1: 

“My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.” 

That creates a problem, a real big problem. The solution to the problem? You must know who your discipler, who your leader is following. And you must know when he is and isn’t following Christ. That is your responsibility. That is your duty. It is a duty that can only be properly discharged as a Church member, the only setting in which the authority to make disciples is granted by the Savior. The situation Paul describes is one of following the leader. But not blindly. Your duty is to keep your eyes open and make sure that the “as I also am of Christ” is true of the person discipling you. And your best bet is when such a fellow is a God-called man with a long track record and a good history, or has been trained by such a man. 

It was once written that Christians are responsible for a higher level of spirituality than all other members of the household of faith, past or future. The Bible scholar who wrote that was stating that the grace of God was more evident in the life of the child of God during the Church Age than was the case in the Old Testament, or than will be the case during the Tribulation and the Millennium. How so? Three reasons, basically.

First, we have the indwelling Spirit of God, a possession that few believers had before our Lord first came. And without the power of the Holy Spirit that is needed for living life on a supernatural plane, such living is impossible.

Second, we have an enemy to face called Satan. Although believers in the Millennium will have the fullness of the Spirit of God, Scripture tells us, they will not face the adversary that we must contend with, who will be bound in the pit the entire time.

Finally, we have great liberty, which saints of neither the past or the future are responsible for. We have been released from bondage to sin to freely serve the Savior! That, my friend, is liberty. And that is why good citizens want government off their backs, so we will not be hindered from serving God according to the dictates of our conscience.

This is a high and holy calling we have. We can glorify God in all that we do. We can give of ourselves to win the lost, both with our time, our talent, and our treasure. And we can disciple and be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ as members of our Church.

This is the aim of Christian liberty. And it’s an aim which you, by God’s grace, can exercise to great and fruitful effect in your Christian life.

__________

[1] Rogers, Jr., Cleon L. and Rogers III, Cleon L., The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key To The Greek New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 1998), page 373.

 

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