Christian Liberty, Blogs, and Beer

The blogosphere is filled with trends and fads – blogs have the “power” to set trends, even in Christian communities.  Though this may rub a few of our readers the wrong way, one trend or fad I can’t help but notice is to include all things smoke and drink into the blog, possibly under the name Christian liberty.  In the blog world of Calvinism, for example, it is trendy and fashionable to compare weak Christians to light beer and strong (manly?) Christians to stout ale.  It is trendy in the blog world to trumpet fat cigars and dark beer while even mocking Christians who do not do these things or do them in “weakened” form.

A few things have to be said to this.  First, Christian liberty is different than the liberty we enjoy in many Western cultures.  Civil liberty means you may listen to music “x” as long as it isn’t over a certain decibel level.  However, Christian liberty is quite different because 1) it puts our neighbor first and 2) because it is tempered with self-denial.  Calvin explains it this way (while reflecting on Rom 14.1, 13, & 1 Cor 8.9, among other texts in his Institutes, III.10-12):

“We who are strong ought to bear with the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves; but let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to edify him.”

“We have due control over freedom if it makes no difference to us to restrict it when it is fruitful [i.e. benefiting our neighbor] to do so.”

“Nothing is plainer than this rule: that we should use our freedom if it results in the edification of our neighbor, but if it does not help our neighbor, then we should forgo it.”

“Our freedom is not given against our feeble neighbors, for love makes us their servants in all things….”

In other words, Christian liberty (as with all true liberty!) has boundaries.  Christian liberty is tempered with love for neighbor (think of him/her before our liberty) and self-denial (we don’t need to indulge in this liberty).  If Christian liberty is not tempered with love for neighbor and self-denial, it is more like a high school fad (i.e. the brand of jeans you wear) than a Christian ethic.

Matthew Henry, in his comments on 1 Cor 8.7-13, says it this way: “We must deny ourselves rather than occasion their [the weak] stumbling…if Christ had such compassion as to die for them, we should have so much compassion for them as to deny ourselves, for their sakes.”  “We must not rigorously claim our own rights, to the hurt and ruin of a brother’s soul.”

I don’t have time to comment on it, but one other thing should be considered: it is probably not a sign of “weakness” if a Christian does not drink beer or smoke – it doesn’t make him the weaker brother.

shane lems

sunnyside wa

Matthew Henry on Prayer

The great puritan Matthew Henry wrote an outstanding book on biblical prayer called A Method for Praying.  In a world where an adverbial phrase – I just want to…like - is the repeated chorus in prayer, Henry’s book is an antidote to such a shallow chorus.  In Ligon Duncan’s terms (from the intro), a scriptural pattern of prayer “…will move us from our inherent man-centeredness in prayer to a Biblical, God-centered way of praying” (p. 9).

To be clear, this book is not really Henry’s devotional thoughts on prayer or “tips” on praying powerfully.  Rather, it is a big outline of the prayer-patterns of scripture with all kinds of verses that display such prayer patterns.  For example, the first part of prayer is adoration.  In this section, Henry simply puts many verses together in which the scriptures adore God (i.e. for his perfections, wisdom, sovereignty, etc).  The next few sections include confession of sins, repentance, petition, supplication, thanksgiving, and conclusions to prayer.  In other words, Henry basically lists many verses from scripture on the certain prayer topics, and puts them together for ease of praying.

Let me give another example.  Under the “Petition” section, Henry lists prayers for more hope in the Christian life.  Here’s how it reads:

“Let patience work experience in us, and experience hope, such a hope as maketh not ashamed.  Through patience and comfort of the scriptures, let us have hope, and be saved by hope.  Let the God of Jacob be our help, and our hope always be in the Lord our God.  Let us be begotten again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and let that hope be to us as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, entering into that within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered” (p. 66).

After nearly each phrase, Henry lists the scripture reference.  This is a great way to improve our prayer language.  It is easy to grasp for straws when we pray, filling the silence (which is sometimes good!) with useless adverbs and adjectives.  Learning to pray this way is learning to pray biblically.

The book also has a few sermons Henry gave on prayer, along with some appendices.  The appendices contain the entire book in outline form both short and long (great for outlining prayers with some specifics).  There is also a brief outline following Samuel Miller’s discussion of public prayer.    This book is a treasury of scripture and a much needed tool for prayer; it will convict you that robust, God centered prayers are those bathed with scripture.

shane lems
sunnyside wa