Religious Liberty

Chapter 5

Religious Liberty in the Church

We have found that on the original foundation, in original conditions, in actual experiences, and in the teaching and works of Jesus, religious liberty has held on, the same true and perfect liberty.

How, now, with the apostles and the early Christians when they went forth to preach the gospel after Christ had gone back to heaven?

The briefest and yet the fullest view of this phase of the subject is in the fourteenth chapter of Romans, beginning with the first verse and reading to the twelfth:

"Receive him that is weak in the faith." (Romans 14:1)

Don't forget that. When he is weak in the faith, he is liable not to live just as righteously and just as perfectly as you and I do. But that is because he is weak in the faith. We are to recognize this and have sympathy, and be merciful toward the weak member.

"Receive him that is weak in the faith, but not to doubtful disputations." (Romans 14:1)

The margin reads, "Not to judge his doubtful thoughts." Not to question him as to just how he believes this or that or the other thing.

Mark it: though he "is weak in the faith," it is the faith that he is weak in. And he who has faith, however weak it may be, that faith connects him with divinity; that faith opens the door to him of eternal life; that faith comes from God and connects him with God; and that faith, though he be weak in it, is entitled to the divine respect of all in heaven and on earth.

So let me say it again, though he be "weak in the faith," it is the faith in which he is weak; and we are to respect the faith, because that faith is of God. Faith is of Christ; of it Christ is the author and finisher; and all men must so regard it or else be guilty of supplanting and opposing Christ.

Accordingly, no man, no set of men that ever was or shall ever be on earth, can ever have any authority or any right to judge anybody's faith or lack of faith in any degree whatever. Faith is a personal thing, wholly between him who has it and the Author of it.

"Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God." (Romans 14:22)

What is the word of God concerning Christ when he should come?

"A bruised reed shall he not break..." (Isaiah 42:3)

A bruised reed! You have seen it. Something has struck it on the side. The bruise shows. It is almost ready to topple over. The slightest touch on the opposite side would cause it to bend a little too far and break. This is the one that is weak in the faith.

And instead of putting so much as a breath against that bruised reed that would cause it to bend too far and break, every soul must handle it tenderly, and seek to strengthen the life that is in it, that the bruise may be overcome, the faith sustained and increased, and life received and enjoyed.

"...and the smoking flax shall he not quench." (Isaiah 42:3)

It is true that flax is exceedingly inflammable; and yet on the other hand, when flax is down only to the smoking point it does not take much to put it out. While flax is perhaps the most easily ignited when the blaze is there, yet it is also the most easily extinguished when the blaze is slower, and it is only smoking.

And he who finds in the world one whose faith is so low, so almost extinguished, that it is compared only to the smoking flax, he must be most careful toward such, that he shall exert upon that weak faith no dampening influence that would cause it to be less alive.

Even a breath must be only of the breath of life, and it must be breathed so tenderly as to strengthen the faith that is weak and make him who has it a victor. That is the word to you and me.

"Receive him that is weak in the faith." (Romans 14:1)

Suppose the individual has not the exact degree of faith that I have. That is none of my business; because I am not the author of faith. He does not owe his faith to me, he does not owe his service to me. Nor does he owe it to you, nor to any other man or set of men on earth.

Has he faith in Jesus Christ? That is the thing. And when he has, however weak it be, he owes it all to God. It all comes from God, and his relationship in it is solely to God; and you and I have nothing whatever to do with it, but only to respect it, to encourage it, and to strengthen it.

"One believes that he may eat all things; another who is weak eats herbs. Let not him that eats despise him that eats not; and let not him which eats not judge him that eats; for God has received him." (Romans 14:2-3)

God received him upon his faith. Even though it be a faith that is only as the strength of a bruised reed or only as the smoking flax; remember that "God has received him" upon that faith. And he will breathe life into that faith and make it grow, and make the man strong unto eternal life.

"Who are you that judges another man's servant? To his own master he stands or falls." (Romans 14:4)

And I am not his master, nor are you his master,

"One is your Master, even Christ; and all you are brethren." (Matthew 23:8)

Let it be so.

"Who are you that judges another man's servant? To his own master he stands or falls." (Romans 14:4)

All that an individual with faith in Christ, owes, because of that faith, he owes to Christ. He is subject to Christ alone; he owes to him his service, his life, his all. Our place--yours and mine--is to be helpers of his joy, and not judges of his faith. Such a one is God's child, and by the Lord he will be kept, upon his faith; for we read, strictly in this connection:

"...he shall be held up, for God is able to make him stand. " (Romans 14:4)

And this is still the same true religious liberty that we have been studying from the beginning; but here it is the religious liberty of the other man.

It is easy enough for each man to claim religious liberty for himself. All are ever ready to do this. But very few are they who claim religious liberty for the other man.

The fourteenth chapter of Romans teaches us to recognize and to be forever true to the religious liberty of the other man. And it is eternally true that whosoever does not recognize and be true to the religious liberty of the other man does not rec ognize, and is not true to, religious liberty for himself, as religious liberty is in truth. True religious liberty he does not know.