There is a difference between “Can” and “Should.”
I mention that because the distinction is becoming blurrier by the day. Allow me a brief example… earlier this month, it was made known that a group of scientists have made the bird flu more contagious. On purpose. Sure, it is research – I get that. But they made the bird flu more contagious.
I can only imagine how that project must have started. “Hey Bill. We’ve got some bird flu out in the truck. Think you can make it more deadlier?” “You know what? I bet I can…”
Perhaps that example is a little too foreign though. So think back to your childhood days… how many emergency room visits began with the phrases, “I bet you can’t…” “I bet I can…”
Maybe those moments weren’t restricted to your childhood. Maybe your childhood hasn’t ended yet.
Nevertheless, how much injury and expense could be avoided if we would learn to shift our thinking from “I wonder if I can,” to “I wonder if I should?”
Of course, we could be talking about ethical dilemmas. I think most of these aren’t too hard to solve. Suppose someone is walking ahead of you, and you see a five dollar bill fall out of their pocket unnoticed. You pick it up and are confronted with a choice: whether or not to keep it. So let’s consider the problem… Can you keep it? Yes, of course. In fact, that is the easier thing to do. You just put it in your pocket and your done. Now, the more important question is, should you keep it? I think we all know that you should not. You know who lost it, and the right thing is to return it to them.
I think that one is pretty simple. While it may not legally be considered stealing, in essence that is exactly what you are doing. You are within your legal rights to keep it, but that doesn’t mean it is right to keep it.
Let’s take another example. You have the constitutional right to say just about anything you want. If you chose to, you could come to me after the service and tell me I am a horrible person. You could call me names. You could make me miserable with your constitutionally protected free speech. You can do that. But should you? Having the right, doesn’t make it right.
You would think that this is a no-brainer for Christians, but the truth is it has been a problem for just about as long as the church has been around. We want to do what we want to do, and if it isn’t breaking a commandment then people need to be okay with it, right? Not so fast.
In 1 Corinthians we read about a bit of a controversy over eating meat… specifically meat that was dedicated to idols. This is causing a bit of a conflict between the supposedly mature Christians and the ones who were new to the faith. See, the “mature” Christians had their theology right. Idols aren’t real gods. There is only one God, and everything else is just make-believe. Therefore, if someone sacrifices meat to an idol nothing is really happening. The meat is unchanged… it’s just meat. There is no real god behind that sacrifice, so the sacrifice is meaningless. The meat is just meat – delicious, inexpensive, meat.
That’s what the “mature” Christians thought. Were they right? According to Paul, yeah. They were right. Could a Christian eat that meat? Yes. But should they?
See, the “should” question is what actually separates the mature from the immature. It doesn’t matter how knowledgeable you are or how good your theological arguments are if you aren’t primarily motivated by love. Aren’t Paul’s words striking? “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” An abundance of knowledge makes me look and feel like I am bigger than I am, but love actually makes me and my neighbor better than we are.
See, in Jesus we have an incredible amount of freedom. We know that God loves us no matter what we do. We don’t have to live in fear of His judgment. The world is full of choices and possibilities and potential.
There is a bit of a refrain that Paul uses throughout His letter to Corinth that goes like this: “Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.” Can I? Sure, but Should I?
So back to the topic of meat dedicated to idols. Was it permissible for Christians to eat it? Well, yes. But it wasn’t the right thing to do. See, there were other folks with less sophisticated theology who looked at that whole thing as a gross hypocrisy. Sure, they said they worshiped the One, True God, but their actions seemed to contradict their words.
Now Paul could have said, “You tell those immature Christians to grow up. You keep go on with your barbecue and they’ll just have to deal with it.” But that isn’t what Paul said at all. Instead, Paul’s message was just the opposite: “If you think you are mature, then you bend over backwards for the immature brother.” It’s fine to exercise your Christian freedoms, but your freedom is far less important than helping your brothers and sisters in Christ keep the faith.
You know, I don’t have the ability to look into people’s hearts the way God does, so it can be hard for me to measure how well we’re doing as your pastors. Nevertheless, we have to try and look for signs of spiritual maturity in you all, and this is one of the most telling ones. When I see folks willing to set aside their preferences and privileges to help out those new to the faith, I see maturity and strength. When I see folks who get bent out of shape because things aren’t exactly the way they want them… well that isn’t a sign of maturity. And then there are the folks that get mad about the people who are getting mad…
The devil loves that kind of stuff. But Jesus didn’t die on the cross so we could crucify each other. He didn’t call his church into being so that we could be petty and callous toward one another. He called us together to love one another. He died to make us clean, free, and holy people.
That is the picture that God has for His church – the strong give up their privileges for the weak. We encourage one another, and when we hurt each other, we apologize and seek reconciliation. It isn’t easy, but it’s God’s calling. And when He calls us, He will provide the “can” for every “should.”
