Grey Areas

I had a discussion with a friend this weekend about one of the 'grey areas' of Christianity. It was one of those issues that I had a personal opinion about but that was not explicitely defined in the Bible. My friend had a different opinion about this particular issue.

It all comes back to Romans 14.

"Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters."
"...The man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him."
"...Make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way."
"So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves."

To rephrase it a bit, don't pass judgement on something that isn't clearly spelt out in the Bible and don't try to prove that your opinion is the correct one that others should follow. Sure, you can talk about it in normal conversation, but you can't assume that it's anything that you should make an issue about. More than that, this passage says that the more mature Christian is the one that should be more flexible about such issues, if only for the sake of helping the younger Christian.

I especially like that last line I quoted. We are actually blessed for not making an issue about the grey areas. We are blessed for not saying anything. Gotta love blessing for doing nothing.

On a personal note, I actually find this to be a little more difficult for me to learn than I expect it to be. I'm very passionate about discipleship, teaching and leading younger Christians and youth. As a result, I tend to look for teaching opportunities all around me. (And as I stated in previous posts, I'm always looking for opportunities to learn things myself.) The thing is, the grey areas are not teaching opportunities. Most probably, the only thing that results from teaching on disputable matters is confusion and debate. There may a little benefit in discussing such matters, but they are not things that require 'correction.' It's sort of a paradigm shift for me, which is very good even if it is hard for me to pull off.