All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
—1 Corinthians 6:12 (NKJV)
I heard a caller on a Christian radio station say, “I just became a Christian. I was wondering what Christians do for fun?” I love how candid that new believer was.
That’s a great question to ask, because there are a lot of gray areas we may encounter as Christians. Here are three questions—three litmus tests, as it were—that we can apply to those so-called gray areas of life.
First, does it build you up spiritually? Will it promote growth in Christian character? Or, to put it another way, will it discourage growth in Christian character? Anything that would tear you down spiritually, anything that would tear you away from the people of God or dull your hunger for the Word of God, anything that would keep you from Christian fellowship or take the edge off your desire for prayer or appetite for Bible study, and anything that would make this world more attractive should be avoided at all costs.
Second, does it bring you under its power? It could be alcohol. It could be television. It could be music. It could be possessions. It could be something else that is more important to us than God. So many things can bring us under their power. It is freedom to say, “I don’t need that stuff. I don’t want that stuff. I don’t want to do those things.”
Third, do you have an uneasy conscience about it? The Bible says, “For whatever is not from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23b). Do you have an uneasy conscience about it? Don’t try to rationalize it; just don’t do it.
We want to avoid the things that will hurt us spiritually, because not only are there things that will build us up spiritually, but there are also things that will tear us down.
In Jesus,
Cap'n Kenny
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