Take a moment to read 1 Corinthians 8:9-13 before reading the devotional below.
Your spiritual life is not about you. Obviously, first and foremost your spiritual life is about Jesus if you have chosen to follow him. But in addition to that, your spiritual life is about those around you. How you live and treat others matters — so much, in fact, that Jesus summed it all up as “Love God and love others.”
There are different ways that we can embrace our freedom given to us by Jesus. We can live out the reality that rules are not the most important thing. There is freedom in that. But if someone alongside you in the spiritual journey follows some rules because they find freedom in that, you don’t need to make their spiritual life harder. Give them room to live by their conviction and have the humility to participate with them if the opportunity arises.
Here’s your freedom for today:
Your freedom is meant for sharing.
These verses talk about not causing another follower of Jesus to stumble in their faith. That means if you are doing something because you feel free to do it, but another person may struggle with handling that freedom, give up your rights for the other person. In my church, these verses are the basis for our decision to have everyone in leadership or any influencer position commit to not drink alcohol. It’s not because we claim that alcohol is always categorically wrong. But in our context with a lot of recovering (or in need of recovering) alcoholics, drinking is something we give up in solidarity. We would not want anyone to relapse because they saw someone they looked up to having a drink. What could you give up for your brothers and sisters in Christ? How might this give you even more freedom than hanging on to what you feel is “allowed” for Christians?