Quote:
Originally Posted by votivesoul
If my (fill in the blank) makes my brother or sister to offend...
We are not to use our liberty as a cover to be hurtful to others (i.e. a cloke of maliciousness). There are genuinely innocent and yet detrimental things we could do that would hurt a brother or sister's faith, especially a new covert's.
All things may be lawful but not all things are expedient. Just because we have the right, doesn't make it right. Agape love of the brethren (which proves we love God), is sacrificial in nature. It costs us something to prefer someone else's wishes and desires before our own.
That is why embracing modesty, humility, and simplicity in outward appearance, for both men and women, is the key, because by default, it becomes harder to offend or bother someone when there isn't anything offensive or bothersome in the first place.
I'll give you a perfect example: My wife's sister and husband, as licensed UPCI ministers of the Gospel, once moved to an ultra-con state that generally speaking, hated the idea of wedding rings as something sinful. So, instead of bucking the system and fighting the trend, they simply removed them from off of their hands as a sacrificial service to those brothers and sisters who might otherwise have been offended.
Legalism, perhaps on the one hand, but true Christian charity and humility on the other. It is this that I advocate. It's never about make-up, hair length, pants, beards, wedding rings, tattoos, shorts, or any other thing. We came naked into this world and we leave the same way. It's about being an unprofitable servant who cares more about the needs and well-being of others before self.
Self may want many things, even have the right to many things, but self must be denied to follow Jesus. How far are we willing to go?
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I applaud your stance, and I think that you have a good point here.
If you and other brethren want to not do some things in order to avoid offending a brother or a sister that is fine, you have my full support.
But there is a difference between voluntary abstinence and mandatory abstinence.
I have nothing against voluntary abstinence of certain habits or rights, but many preachers make that a mandatory abstinence of things which the Bible never prohibited or even mentioned. There is absolutely Zero scriptures for most of those rules.
Yet, you know full well that people get ejected from church if they do not comply with the man-made rules. You are being charitable by abiding by the man-made rules, but where is the charity toward those who do not feel a conviction to abide by man-made rules?
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