Lesson 8
DECISION – MAKING WITHIN THE WILL OF GOD
Summary Review
Basic Principles: Exercise of Liberty/Freedom.
1. It is to be determined by the circumstances
that surround it and the person who practices it.
2. There
is a 2nd consideration; the person who practices it.
Can
I maintain self control, self discipline.
"I will NOT be mastered by anything."
3. The
principle then: The exercise of liberty is to be determined by the
circumstances that surround it and the person who practices it.
Need
to learn to ask ourselves some questions.
-
Can I maintain my self discipline?
-
If I practice it, Can I say no to it?
-
Is it a threat to the control of my life?
-
Is it a threat to my decision making process?
-
Is it a threat to my volition?
- Is it a threat to my responsibility to
determine right conduct based on sound judgment?
- Is the exercise of this liberty beneficial?
Are there good things that might come from my
actions?
4. Legalism handles the areas of freedom
invariably by substituting rules for mature judgment.
5. Maturing,
spiritual growth involves facing different situations and then making decisions
based on your F/O/R of BD, including recognizing valid areas of prohibition by
the Word and those which fall into areas of freedom!
6. Summary: We should be using Mature judgment
in our evaluation of areas of
freedom. It is not enough
to ask MAY I DO WHATEVER! You must
consider the consequences.
FREEDOM: Some Guidelines 1 Cor. 10:23-33
There
are some limits within the proper function of freedom.
1.
Principle of
* The point Paul makes here is that possession
of liberty is one issue while the exercising of that liberty is another issue.
* This is where we need to exercise mature
judgment and to do that adequately requires knowledge of the Word of God, the
principles that are there.
* The correct exercise of liberty Must be Profitable and it must edify.
-
What is profitable referring to here?
-
The other qualifier is edify; not all things edify.
* It is not enough to determine what we are at
liberty to do, we must also consider the impact of the decisions we make on
others.
2.
In verse 24 we discover the Criteria for
We
have a slight translation problem to correct here.
There
is no word for "good" here in the Greek text, reason in italics.
- From the context it would seem that it would
be best to supply the word profit rather than good, since that is what is used
in verse 33 in dealing with the same concept.
- Would define the parameters of profit in the
context as advancing spiritually.
3.
The Application of Liberty
10:25-30 Paul gives some
case histories!
a.
Eating without asking
Need
to deal with and reconcile the apparent conflict with verse 20-21.
In
vs:25 Paul is dealing with the meat that had left the
temple and had arrived at the market place, the
ma,kellon (stall or shop in the market place).
- Verse 26 gives us the
reason, the justification for this statement by Paul.
b. What about in one's social life?
- Even in this corrupt pagan society Paul does
not forbid social intercourse with unbelievers.
- Key question that must be answered is this, Will it compromise my testimony for Christ?
* Something that we must remember in dealing
with the one with a weak conscience; the strong believer does not alter his
conscience only his behavior in that situation so as not to create a stumbling
block for the weaker believer who needs to grow up spiritually. 1 Cor 8:9-13