Could vs Should

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.

My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.

This is our daily Bible program and today we're going to be looking at 1st Corinthians chapter 8.

In 1993 one of the biggest films of all time came out and it was called Jurassic Park.

In that movie Jeff Goldblum was playing a character named Ian Malcolm and during the discussion about the cloned dinosaurs Ian Malcolm said a very memorable line.

But your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could they didn't stop to think if they should.

Ultimately what he said was that the scientists were so busy worrying about whether or not they could do something they didn't think about whether or not they should do something.

Well that particular statement really goes along with our lesson today from 1st Corinthians chapter 8.

1st Corinthians 8 is a relatively short chapter.

It's only 13 verses long and it ties into chapter 9 which we're going to see tomorrow.

But in chapter 8 the Apostle Paul is talking to the Corinthians about whether or not they should be eating meat which has been offered to idols.

And ultimately this takes him into a discussion of how doing so might cause their brothers, their Christian brothers and sisters, to stumble in their faith.

And ultimately he says that even though we know that the idol meat really is being offered to nothing because idols are nothing, that knowledge does not give us the right to flaunt our liberty in front of our Christian brothers and sisters.

So even though we can do something it doesn't always mean that we should do that thing.

And so ultimately what Paul teaches us, and this is very simple, our Christian liberty is sometimes limited by the consciences of other people.

If what we are doing is overtly offensive or would draw a brother or sister into doing something that would violate their conscience, then we ought not to do it.

At least, certainly, we ought not to encourage them to do it and do so in their presence.

And this leads to a lot of ethical questions and when it comes to the Christian life comes the questions of, well, are Christians allowed to then go to the movies? And if so, what movies? Are Christians allowed to dance? Are they allowed to drink alcohol? And all of these questions are questions that many Christians have discussed and had dealt with ethically, but one of the things that I want to encourage you to remember is the question shouldn't always be, can we do something? The question should be, should we do something? And if what we are doing violates our brothers, if what we are doing causes someone else to violate their conscience, if what we are doing encourages someone else to sin, and remember how Romans 14 defines sin.

Sin isn't always simply the hard and fast breaking of God's law.

Sin can be, sin can be someone violating their conscience.

Romans 14 tells us this very clearly, that if a person believes something is wrong for him to do, then ultimately it's wrong for him to do it.

That which is not of faith is sin.

Does that mean sin is subjective? Well, no, not all sin is subjective, but there are some things that simply are wrong because I cannot do them with a clear conscience, and therefore if my brother cannot do something with a clear conscience, and I can, and it's not a sin, at least not a breaking of God's revealed law, then I still ought not to encourage him to violate his conscience because it's not a good idea to become good at violating your conscience.

At the same time, though, we have to consider the other side of this.

There are some times when people try to force their limitations upon others when that's not always right either.

I'm reminded of a story of a pastor who was preaching at a church, and he was a guest speaker, and after the sermon he came down and one of the ladies pulled him off to the side and she said, I want you to shave your beard because your beard is causing me to stumble, and he said, Madam, unless I'm encouraging you to grow your own beard by me having mine, then there's really no way that my beard is causing you to stumble in the biblical sense, and so what we have to understand is this.

Our goal should always be to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, and if that means sometimes foregoing certain liberties for the sake of their conscience, then we ought to be more than willing to do that.

We ought to truly seek to love our neighbor as ourself, but that doesn't mean that we have to give up all liberties.

That just means that we have to seek to put our brother or sister first, so and with that in mind, I want to encourage you.

Think of what the greatest commandments are.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

So the next time you ask yourself, can I do something? Maybe you ought to ask yourself, should I be doing this? And then ask the next most important question, in doing this, am I truly seeking to love my neighbor as I love myself? I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.

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Again, my name is Keith Foskey.

I'm a Calvinist, and I look forward to seeing you each day as we go through the New Testament together.

May God bless you.