{"id":4520,"date":"2013-03-02T18:01:45","date_gmt":"2013-03-03T00:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/?p=4520"},"modified":"2013-02-26T21:31:13","modified_gmt":"2013-02-27T03:31:13","slug":"controversial-issues-in-the-christian-life-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2013\/controversial-issues-in-the-christian-life-part-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Controversial Issues in the Christian life (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<table width=\"285\" align=\"left\">\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/images\/grey-areas.png\" width=\"275\" height=\"220\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"5\" border=\"0\" alt=\"What about the Grey Areas??!\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>This is part 2 of a study we started yesterday on controversial issues regarding the Christian life.&nbsp;&nbsp;This is a more-or-less direct translation from Spanish of a study we did here in Mexico City.<\/p>\n<h3>Doesn&#8217;t the Bible say &#8220;all things are lawful for me&#8221;?<\/h3>\n<p>This phrase is from <b>1Corinthians 6:12<\/b>.&nbsp; Paul certainly isn&#8217;t saying that Christians don&#8217;t need to obey God! &nbsp;This passage is about immorality.&nbsp; There are numerous commandments in this passage, including &#8220;flee from sexual immorality&#8221; (<b>1 Corinthians 6:18<\/b>).&nbsp; In fact, the Bibles says that we know that we love God if we keep His commandments (<b>1John 5:3<\/b>).<\/p>\n<p>Paul is probably referring to something that the Corinthians were saying.&nbsp; Because there was freedom for believers when it came to things like Jewish dietary laws, they used this phrase as an excuse to sin.<\/p>\n<p><i>No!<\/i> says Paul  We still need to live to glorify God (<b>1Corinthians 6:20<\/b>).<\/p>\n<h3>When the answer isn&#8217;t clear . . .<\/h3>\n<p>When we&#8217;re dealing with these kinds of decisions, we need to search God&#8217;s Word for the answer. &nbsp;Here are 10 things to keep in mind:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Is it for <u>the glory<\/u> of God?  (<b>1Corinthians 10:31<\/b>)<\/li>\n<li>Can I do it in the <u>name<\/u> of the Lord Jesus, giving <u>thanks<\/u> to God?  (Colossians 3:17)<\/li>\n<li>Does it belong in <u>the temple<\/u> of the Holy Spirit?  (<b>1Corinthians 6:19-20<\/b>)<\/li>\n<li>Does it come from <u>faith<\/u>?  (<b>Romans 14:23<\/b>)<\/li>\n<li>Will it <u>edify<\/u> others? (<b>Romans 14:19<\/b>)<\/li>\n<li>Am I <u>loving<\/u> God and others? &nbsp;Or am I <u>loving<\/u> myself and the world?  (<b>1John 2:15<\/b>; <b>Matthew 22:37-39<\/b>)<\/li>\n<li>Will I be <u>yoked<\/u> to unbelievers?  (<b>2Corinthians 6:14<\/b>)<\/li>\n<li>Will it allow something to <u>master\/dominate<\/u> me? (<b>1Corinthians 6:12<\/b>) &nbsp;Will it make something other than God my master?<\/li>\n<li>Do I have the mind of Christ about this issue?  (<b>Philippians 4:8<\/b>)<\/li>\n<li>What does my church think about these things? (<b>Hebrews 13:7,17<\/b>)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b><i>Living in community&#8230;<\/i><\/b><br \/>Are there times when I need to limit my freedom out of love for others?&nbsp; For sure!&nbsp; Our goal is to help others to grow and be strong!<\/p>\n<p>In <b>1Corinthians 8<\/b> we have an example.&nbsp; Unbelievers in Corinth were eating food offered to idols.&nbsp; The believers didn&#8217;t want to give honour to idols, so they would often avoid eating this food.&nbsp; However, some believers didn&#8217;t think it was a big deal.&nbsp; What does Paul say about this in <b>1Corinthians 8:8-13<\/b>?  (You can read the whole chapter if you have time.)<\/p>\n<h3>To summarize . . .<\/h3>\n<p><font size=\"+2\">Live to <u>glorify<\/u> and <u>love<\/u> God in everything.<br \/><u>Study<\/u> the Scriptures.<br \/>Treat other believers with <u>love<\/u>, <u>forgiveness<\/u> and <u>grace<\/u>.<\/font><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the end of the study. &nbsp;I wrote a little about <a href=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2012\/grey-areas-follow-up.html\">the discussion we had about it here in Mexico here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><font size=\"-2\">Special thanks to <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0842316191\/jcotsweb-20\">An Introduction to Biblical Ethics<\/a><\/i> by Robertson McQuilkin (1995) for some of the ideas in this lesson.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is part 2 of a study we started yesterday on controversial issues regarding the Christian life.&nbsp;&nbsp;This is a more-or-less direct translation from Spanish of a study we did here in Mexico City. Doesn&#8217;t the Bible say &#8220;all things are lawful for me&#8221;? This phrase is from 1Corinthians 6:12.&nbsp; Paul certainly isn&#8217;t saying that Christians [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[1151,1370,598,1109,1302,605],"class_list":["post-4520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional-and-bible","category-ministry-glimpses","tag-1corinthians","tag-1john","tag-bible-study","tag-descubriendo-la-vida","tag-grey-areas","tag-iglesia-biblica-sendero-de-vida-jesus-maria","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Controversial Issues in the Christian life (part 2) - Finding direction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2013\/controversial-issues-in-the-christian-life-part-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Controversial Issues in the Christian life (part 2) - Finding direction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is part 2 of a study we started yesterday on controversial issues regarding the Christian life.&nbsp;&nbsp;This is a more-or-less direct translation from Spanish of a study we did here in Mexico City. 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