Thoughts for another day

August 29, 2006

Today's verse: 1 Cor. 89. But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak. (KJV).

The Christian faith is about tolerance and building up. Tolerance is extremely important because without it we become fanatical and extreme. Difficult it might be, but it is necessary to tolerate the other brother or sister. I know it is difficult because some of the mannerisms exhibited by my neighbor may be out rightly obnoxious yet; God wants that we tolerate that person. I trust that God gives us the Grace to overlook the bad things and see the better attributes.

St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians says that we are one body in Christ and we are called to build His body, the church. In the above verse, he talks about certain actions of ours, which though are not wrong clinically, are able to upset the consciences of the weak. The message I would like you to glean from this is; there are certain areas in our life where God has blessed us and made us superior to others, so should we consider us to be higher than another who is not so blessed?

Besides, when we come to the real knowledge of God, and understand the freedom He has bestowed on us in ways of seeking Him we must not put down another for their lack of the same knowledge. Like for instance, someone may be particular about fasting on some occasions as they feel closer to God if they do and we aren’t because of a deeper understanding of God’s ways. In this situation, should we be happy and look down upon those who as yet have not transcended the earlier ways? No we shouldn’t lest it hurt the little faith that they have. But rather, for a while, we must also fast until they come to the knowledge of the truth.

The verse also spawns a number of other things that we need to do apart from the above and we must delve deep inside the knowledge and understanding our Father gives us in learning the things we do to people. For remember at the end He will say, ‘Whatsoever you did to the least of my people, you did unto Me.’