Knowledge Puffs Up...

"Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers," 1 John 3:15-16.

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One passage that first helped me in my walk when I first became a Christian and now helps me in loving people in their walks is Romans 14:23b, "For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." It was January 2015 and I was a babe in the Lord. By June, after my first expedition with Overland, I was extremely zealous and hungry for God! I began to lay roots in Christian communities and really give my life to ministry. I realized that with that, there were lots of opinions in the church of what was right or wrong that I did not find in scripture. Be it what I wore, what I drank, who I hung out with, how many times I attended service, where I sat, spiritual doctrines...you name it. All the sudden I was surrounded by a lot of people who loved me and were excited for me, yet were also trying to force ideas on me. I was skeptical to say the least, while also having unwavering faith in the Bible. I didn't recognize the reason for my skepticism in the beginning, but as my relationships deepened so did my skepticism of what people said. The reason being...well I realized it after one of my very first fights with JJ.

We dated long distance the majority of our relationship, from different states and countries, so we FaceTimed A LOT. One FaceTime date, we decided to take communion together. Sweet right? We are pretty cute sometimes. We took turns reading passages from the Last Supper. Then, we took our bread, broke it and ate it together. I shut my eyes and I let the bread dissolve in my mouth while I meditated on everything we just read. I suppose I meditated a little too long because JJ then says, "you know you can chew that right?" I open my eyes immediately annoyed. See, I grew up Catholic and JJ grew up Baptist. Readers...it was about to go down. He began telling me about transubstantiation, a word I had to look up to type in this blog and that I still have a hard time pronouncing. He told me how Catholics believe that the body becomes the literal body of Jesus, that they think they are eating His flesh, and so they have a ton of weird rules with it. Although he was right, I didn't know that! I just thought communion was a holy time for meditation and thanksgiving. So JJ and I argued and then I remembered the power I had at the time as an unmarried woman...click...call over. I finished communion by myself. I am sure we talked later that night and made up because here we are today, happily married.

Pretty humorous memory for me now. I love my husband. This fight brought me to a realization that I had a lot of doctrines and religious habits that I do, but I was not sure why. I knew more about rules than I did about the Gospel and the Bible. I was challenged to be renewed not by culture but by the word of God. When I read Romans 14 and got to verse 23, I learned that it's not a lack of cultural habits that is sin but actions not done in faith. I did not allow the cultural things of the world to bury me. Instead I realized true sin - if I had the faith to do something (I had an understanding or a conviction), then didn't do it, I sinned. That might sound heavy but to me it was a relief! I didn't have to look like everyone else but simply fall in love with Jesus, know His word, and let Him mold me. What a fun journey that is. What a genuine love that creates with Christ and others.

So I entered into the world holding on to Paul's challenge of being all things to all people, while yet recognizing first the culture of Heaven that cannot be sacrificed. My first year of Christianity I ministered in bars, at work, at my college, at church, in low-income communities, in beauty salons...anywhere. I recognized their culture, I spoke and carried myself in a way they could relate to and ministered Heaven to them. I then went on to do this in Southeast Asia, Africa, South America, Africa, Middle East, and Europe.

So wrapping this back to how this then relates to loving others...In Romans 14:13-23 and 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Paul is addressing Christians about how to handle relationships with others that still struggle with food offerings and idolatry. "Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that all of us possess knowledge. This knowledge puffs but, but love builds up," (1 Cor 8:1). You see how this knowledge is italicized? I hear that part with a little bit of sass. Because Paul later points out that it was this knowledge that caused your brothers in Christ to stumble. "We know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no God but one." and "I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks that it is unclean." Therefore, "let us not pass judgement on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother." Paul says indeed EVERYTHING is clean but it is wrong to make someone stumble. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I don't care if I believe a food is good or not, I will never eat it.

I remember we had an expedition member in Cambodia who felt that the Holy Spirit was leading him into a vegetarian lifestyle. One of the leaders was so excited to poke at that, but I quickly had to poke at that leader and tell them to respect a person's relationship with the Holy Spirit. Another example, I bought my older sister this statue from Africa of a woman holding a pot on her head. When I later visited her home, I saw that it was in her garage. A little insulted, I asked her why my gift to her was in the garage. She said she believed it was a fertility stick and didn't want to get pregnant. Humorous for me. I told her that wasn't true and she didn't have to be afraid, that it was simply a statue. But she didn't have the faith to keep it and that is her prerogative. I love her by respecting her choice by not condemning her with my knowledge. You can't convince people to have faith, this is only done by a revelation of the Holy Spirit. You lead by example, love in every opportunity, respond when the opportunity to lead them to a deeper understanding of God, and respect them in their position of faith. This does not mean you condone practices that are contrary to the word, rather you just do not condemn them with your "knowledge," because as Paul says..."and so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, the brother whom Christ died for."

This is a lot to chew on for me, and like I preface in other blogs, it is a revelation that I am sure will continue to stir in my heart and grow in my mind as the practical application of these passages become more clear.

Much love - JM.