Freed from theTyrannies of Others

For some reason I love reading The Message for my devotional time while on vacation. While we were in Brazil I read several passages in Romans – such a delight to read this magisterial book on God’s saving grace. And a special treat to read Eugene Peterson’s rendition of it.

Saturday morning, while riding the shuttle bus to the airport, I read a portion of Romans 14. Such rich stuff about how to deal with our differences of opinions in the body of Christ as we live under His grace. A few quotes:

“Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do. And don’t jump all over them if they don’t see things the way they do… (vs. 1)

“It’s God we’re answerable to…not each other…That’s why Jesus lived and died and then lived again; so that he could be our master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other.” (Bold letters mine)

After reading this Scripture as my bus approached the airport terminal, I thought of a story that one of our volunteers at work told us at our morning devotional. An elderly lady at his church used to insist that Christians should dress up for church and always “give God our best” in what we wore to Sunday morning worship. If a friend from church would say something like that to me today, I would hope that I’d recall this passage and suggest they read Romans 14, especially in The Message

I’m wondering how different our relationships in the body of Christ would if we let the Spirit lead us as to what is right for us in matters of opinion – and extend grace and freedom to other Christ-followers who don’t see things the way we do. If we try binding our opinions on others, then we’re trying to be their Lord and not let Jesus convict and direct them. And if we let others “tyrannize” us by living in fear of what they might say to us about what we wear to church, or our preference for church music or whether or not a Christian can have a beer or drink a glass of wine, then we’re allowing them to be our Master – and not Jesus.

One reason that Susan and I were drawn to raise our family in the church we’ve been in for 16 years is that we perceived that the elders and ministry staff really tried to live by grace. The elders have even said that they don’t to be a controlling leadership but a permission-giving one. I love that. They want the flock to be led by the Spirit, not dominated by their or the preacher’s interpretation of Scripture. It is an environment where we feel free from “the petty tyrannies of each other” and liberated to follow Jesus day by day.

I hope that you are a part of a fellowship where you truly experience freedom in Christ. May we all, in Paul's words, “Forget about deciding what’s right for each other…(realizing that our) task is to single-mindedly serve Christ.”

Jim