What sort of spiritual boundaries should we set in our lives?

In the first passage that I read this evening the apostle presses the truth of individual responsibility to the Lord, as a reason why no one should set himself up to be his brother's judge. Each one ought to respect the conscience of another. It is very easy to make the light I have, or the measure of my conscience, the standard by which I judge others. But our business is to judge ourselves and not other people, and to put no stumbling block by our own conduct in our brother's way. "Let every one be fully persuaded in his own mind." "Hast thou faith, have it to thyself before God." The subject here is connected with matters of liberty of conscience, so the apostle says "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbles." It is not of course any question of doing evil, or having fellowship with evil. We must not be led into evil, or violate our consciences, because others with less light do things which we, who have more light, cannot do. Each must keep a good conscience before God, and at the same time respect the consciences of others, for "none of us lives to himself and no man dies to himself." "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

We have seen that the liberty which is accorded to us must be used in the full light of our responsibility to the Lord, which will reach its termination at the judgment seat. Now we find that the brotherhood which has been established also lays a restraining hand upon our exercise of the liberty with which we are entrusted. In certain matters I may be a 'weak' brother, entertaining scruples, to which you, as a 'strong' brother, are an entire stranger. In such a case I must keep my hands off you, and not drag you before my judgment seat, demanding that you conform to my thoughts. In other matters possibly you may be the weak brother and I the strong. Now again I must be careful, lest I despise you and insist upon going my own way, quite regardless of your feelings and of the spiritual damage I may be inflicting upon you. I may be convinced that the thing in question is according to the will of the Lord, and one that, under ordinary circumstances, I should do; but if, under these circumstances, my doing it would work damage to you, then it is the will of the Lord that I refrain from doing it.

Now it is well to remember that human nature always tends to one or other of the perils which threatened the saints at Rome. Liberty, if not exercised immediately in Christ's service, is apt to slip into a lack of conscience: sense of responsibility, if not maintained with full and unclouded rest in God's grace, soon degenerates into a burdened and groaning scrupulosity. The Christian is in principle delivered from both these snares: he is dead with Christ, and so ordinances of "touch not, taste not, handle not" no longer apply. They are meant for those who are living in the world; whereas, he is dead with Christ and risen with Him, no longer to be occupied with such earthly restrictions, but free to set the mind upon things above, where Christ sitteth at God's right hand. Such is the position of the Christian for himself; but then for his brethren, there is the love that bears with and respects the conscience that is tried by the very things in which he realises his liberty. Love bends to feebleness of faith, never to latitudinarianism; love does not put a cause of tripping or stumbling before one's brother.

But there is another point connected with this. The presence of God is the only place where faith can really act. But God is light. And in that light is everything to be weighed before it is allowed under the plea of liberty. Conscience thus becomes the regulator, as it were, of faith. Else mere persuasion of self-will might easily usurp the place of genuine faith toward God. And so it is added: "Happy is he that condemns not himself in the thing that he alloweth." A weighty sentence, and full of needed caution, such as may temper and regulate the flow of Christian liberty, lest, ceasing to be restrained within the conscious limits of godly fear, it should degenerate to mere self-pleasing, and the natural license of the fleshly will.

It is really marvellous to see the energy of the Spirit of God in dealing with this subject through the apostle. Again guarding the conscience of the weak, Paul says, "All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence." What then is the conclusion drawn? "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak." If we were all but governed by this divine principle, the whole face of Christian fellowship would be changed. All harshness, censoriousness, and uncharitable judgments would be displaced by gentle forbearance, tender consideration, and bearing with one another in love. "Are we then never to exercise our undoubted liberty?" Yes, says the apostle, if you have faith, faith to use it, have it to thyself before God; use it in private, but not publicly, when its exercise might stumble a weak brother. It must, however, when maintained in private, be before God, and hence the apostle adds a caution. "Happy is he that condemneth [judgeth] not himself in that which he alloweth." Be sure that it is Christian liberty and exercised before God in faith; for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Even liberty may degenerate into licence and indulgence, and will, when the conscience is not in exercise, and we are not acting in faith under the eye of God.

Then there is another thing: that is that you must consider your brother. You cannot do anything just because you have liberty to do it. You may have liberty to eat meat, but if your eating makes your brother offend then you must not eat meat lest you make your brother to offend. You use your liberty in this way, and you forego this or that, even though quite lawful if it causes your brother to offend. You think very much of the welfare of your brother, if you are in the truth of the house of God; and you forego many things you might otherwise do, because you want to profit your brother. You abstain from using your liberty in certain cases, though you maintain that you have this liberty. There is a great lack in this respect. One often hears, "Why should I not do so and so; I see no harm?" Still, if it harms your brother, do not do it. Abstain, unless you have a command from God. This tenderness for your brother may seem to hamper, but it will bring a rich reward.

Still, the conscience was to determine the man's actual way. "To him that esteems anything to be unclean, it is unclean." And love, which is the bond of perfectness, would keep a man who walked by that rule from grieving his brother's conscience with his liberty of meats (verse 15). It is to be remarked, that the exercise and privilege of personal liberty is founded on individual faith. It it thus a private matter strictly. It is a constituent part of that perfect blessing in liberty which makes the believer free and happy anywhere and everywhere as being Christ's, and seeing, and touching, and using nothing that is not Christ's. Where, therefore, a Christian is associated with others, this conscious feeling of liberty (though ever held firmly fast in his heart) is to be tempered in practice by the mightier principle of love. He is not to think of himself, but to have respect to the state and requirements of those with whom he is associated, or before whom he walks.

The second principle governing our conduct towards one another is love. Love will not find its pleasure in censuring, nor will it delight in causing a brother to offend or fall. Where true love is operating, no brother who thinks a thing to be wrong will be forced to do it. If he thinks it is sinful, to him it is sinful; and to force him to do it is to crush his conscience. To despise the conscience of another is not to walk in love toward him. One may indeed be within the limits of what is perfectly right, and as to which his own conscience is free and clear, yet be liable to have his good considered evil. As the servant of Christ he is not to think of what he may consider his rights, but of the benefit and blessing of his brother. Love will seek peace and edification for its objects (verses 13-23).

Having thus laid the ground on which our mutual relationships should proceed, the apostle passes on to indicate our responsibility to care for, and to guard one another from occasions of stumbling or being ensnared. We may have full liberty, for example, to eat anything, for there is nothing unclean of itself; but if we persist in using our liberty before a brother who is not in the enjoyment of this liberty, and wound his conscience, or encourage him to violate it, we do not walk according to love. The importance of this principle cannot be over-estimated: and it is put in the strongest possible way when the apostle adds, "Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died"; and again, "For meat destroy not the work of God." It is not the apostle's meaning that we can accomplish the destruction of a brother, but rather it is that, as far as we are concerned, we act by asserting our liberty in a way that would tend to damage him eternally. Now love to our brother, walking in love, would shelter him from every possible cause of offence, would consider his weakness and bear with it, and at the same time would seek his edification by leading him on as he might be able to bear it.

"The liberty of God's children is absolute, but they are expected to use it as imitators of God. We have to consider not ourselves only, but both our brethren and the world. A saint may be walking without circumspection, and yet with an unruffled conscience. But this is dangerous. Heed must be taken lest, while enjoying, in one sense blamelessly, our liberty, we become unwittingly a stumbling block to others. An ostentatious use of liberty rarely fails to injure the boaster and those who may observe his ways. True grace, because it is free and knows its happiness in fellowship with God, makes no effort to seem free. Rather it will seek to use its liberty in love, considering the weak, and neither despising them, nor tempting them by wrong example to act in anything beyond their faith."--Pridham.