Today my preacher addressed the text in the headline, and it appeared to be difficult. Not because he was unprepared. Not because he didn't deliver well. It is just a difficult subject. The greatest hardship in addressing this text is it's connection with the preceding text about "Judge not that ye be not judged" (Luke 6:37). There is a irresistible tension set up when one attempts to harmonize what we heard today with that text that immediately precedes it. The quandary goes like this: "If we are not to judge--then how are we to judge people's fruit?" There are only two options here: 1) Do not judge other's fruit all 2) Or judge them.
The Scripture calls us to make too many judgments (remember that pesky discernment), for the first option to be a live one. So this inevitably leads us to a second sticky question:
How are we to judge people?
My preacher gave the simple answer and explained it well: Judge all things by the Word of God.
This led him to the difficult position of explaining that all things people judge as evil are not evil. However, this is not the end of the story. There is a burden upon Christians to consider their actions, so sin is not the only issue. There is also the issue of other believer's consciences. So anything that makes one stumble, lose faith, or does the same to others, is off limits.
Here is where the difficulty came in. My pastor noted a vineyard owner in town who has been rejected by his church. Then came the shocking statement: "It might not be a sin to own a vineyard and sell wine." Without a doubt, this is true, but I'm sure it raised some eyebrows this morning down here in the Bible Belt! Let me say immediately that I agree with my pastor. He is one of my heroes, and I love him. However, this kind of thing in the ministry in a Bible Belt Baptist Church is where I got my title. O how carefully one must step amongst the landmines of cultural sensitivity!
My pastor went on to explain that this is a Romans 14 issue--an issue of conscience. Not all people are able to handle a person selling alcohol. I can even hear Habakkuk 2:15 being shouted out by people all over the county right now! Yet right there in that passage, the motivation for the one giving out the alcohol is exposed: "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, to thee that addest thy venom, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! (Hab 2:15 (ASV)). The motivation of this person is to bring drunkeness and shame on his neighbor. This is most likely not the cold-hearted motivation of the local vineyard owner my pastor talked with. The Bible roundly condemns drunkenness, but never condemns plain use of alcohol as a beverage, nor of its selling to others. Similarly, soldiering is an occupation that without a doubt can bring someone into the position of harming someone, but God doesn't condemn it through John the Baptist earlier in Luke, because a soldier's duties don't always involve personal malice as a rule (3:14).
God is all about the motivation of the heart concerning behaviors that can affect others for good or bad. Certain sins are named in the Bible, and that's that for them. There is no other case or argument. However, many things in the Bible require careful discernment, judgment, and grace to determine their moral value. I have become convinced through today's sermon and my previous studies of Romans 14, that we don't know that chapter as we ought here in my state. It's true in missionary work, that anything that is a cause for stumbling or a hindrance to the Gospel, ought to be abstained from. However, that doesn't mean its easy to determine what is legal. Every situation must be analyzed with the highest goal of loving God and man as first priority. That said, we are required to live wisely, in the fear of God, more than anything else.
Keep floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee Brother R!
Greg
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