Freedom

As I hinted yesterday, there’s been a bit of controversy in a few blogs lately. You can see some of the aftermath at Real Live Preacher – 90 comments and counting on his decision to remove his last essay. Controversy on blogs is hardly newsworthy. There are a few reasons I care in this case. One of them is that I think I sent one of the people over who reacted a bit harshly to RLP’s first post, so I feel a bit responsible. This isn’t the first time either. When people start to get hurt, I start to care. I don’t think this controversy deserves too much time. But I do have a couple of thoughts, one today, and one (I hope) tomorrow. Two thoughts is pretty good for me. 😉 Some people seem to think that the stricter view always wins. I’ve seen this in a few places this past week: don’t do this and don’t do that and you’re okay. Do these things (watch movies with certain language, use certain language, support a certain political party, even talk honestly about something that happened accidentally) and you’re clearly ungodly, maybe even not a Christian. I just happened to be teaching on Colossians 2 yesterday, the latter part of the chapter. It turns out that this was exactly the problem Paul was addressing. The stricter party was trying to impose their views on the others. They looked a lot holier, and their standards are a lot stricter. In most churches, these would be the heroes. But not to Paul. “Don’t let anyone judge you…don’t let anyone disqualify you.” Paul had some pretty harsh things to say to those who impose their standards of Christian morality (“Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”) on others in the chapter. That sure makes me think. This isn’t a license to do anything. It is a statement of freedom, though. If you’ve been set free, don’t ever let anyone – no matter how well-intentioned – shackle you with their rules, which lack any value and only lead to pride. You’ve been set free. Don’t ever look back.