Joshua 15-17; 1 Corinthians 8

1 Cornithians 8:9 & 13

Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak... 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.

I'm kind of having a hard time noodling this one through in some ways. I understand my love and concern for my brothers and sisters in Christ trumps my freedom to do things that are not in and of themslves sinful. My questions have more to do with how much of my brother falling into sin on account of my actions is my responsibility and how much is his?

Just yesterday my pastor made a comment about the "culture of our church" being one where we seem have certain expectations about dress or expression durring worship. If I am "too demonstative" durring worship and that causes another to become negative or resent it, if it causes them to start backbiting or sinning in another way, does that mean I cease to raise my hands? We're all fallen and no matter how hard we try, there will always be somebody who is offended or doesn't agree with how another person is living.

Growing up there was a whole laundry list of things we didn't do; dancing, going to movies, playing with cards, bowling, drinking, listening to rock n' roll, playing on Sunday, rollerskating, wearing jeans to church. All these and more were rules implemented, at least in part, under the umbrella of not causing our weaker brothers to stumble. But I fear we have done a disservice to the freedom we all have in Christ. It seems rather than set the bar high and expect more maturity from our brothers and sisters, we've stiffeled the ability of so many to be led by the Spirit in the excercise of our freedom.

I don't demand my "right" to live in freedom at the expense of wounding the conscience of my brothers and sisters. If they have a weakness that I don't, how dare flaunt that and thereby sin against Christ. But I must never cease praying that we can all mature together so we can experience the abundant life and freedom Christ came to grant us.