Thursday, June 7, 2007

Romans 14

Even within the boundaries of what would be considered appropriate behavior, there are things that can cause us to sin. For example, there are no remaining boundaries on proper eating behavior, but someone that eats in place of a relationship with God is in sin. We all have to eat, and we can all eat whatever we want, and some of us even use eating as a substitute for a relationship with others. All of that is okay (not necessarily sociologically or dietary wise, but it's okay in terms of your relationship with God). However, if you replace your relationship with God with eating, then you have moved into an area of sin with something that is really not generally considered sinful.

Now, if you have that issue and must be careful with what and how you eat for fear of damaging your relationship with God, then who am I to tell you any different? And if I do not have that issue, then who are you to tell me that I need to be more like you? The focus is not on the action – the eating, not eating, or anything else – the focus is on your relationship with God, and if we both have that, then we are both right.

Be careful here, because this is not moral relativism. This is not saying that just because something feels okay to me makes it okay. It's not saying that just because something feels wrong to you doesn't necessarily make it wrong for me. This is strictly within the confines of things that are already established to be okay morally. Things that are outside of the moral boundaries are wrong regardless of how you feel about them, and those things always damage your relationship with God.

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