行使基督徒自由的四個原則 4Principles for the Exercise of Christian Liberty
作者: Sinclair Ferguson 譯者: Maria Marta
我仍然記得幾年前的那次討論。早堂崇拜結束後, 在走出教堂的路上，我驚訝地發現有一小組人仍在熱烈討論。當中一個人轉身問我：「基督徒可以吃黑布丁嗎（black pudding）？」
對不熟悉蘇格蘭高級美食奧秘的人而言，也許應該說黑布丁不是羊雜碎!黑布丁是用血和脂肪制成的香腸，有時配以面粉或（谷物）粗磨粉。
這似乎是個瑣碎問題，為什麼會引起熱烈的討論呢？當然是因為舊約中關於吃血的條例。（利十七10）
盡管（據我所知）沒有一部神學詞典的B條目含有「黑布丁爭議」的標題, 但這場不尋常的討論提出了一些最基本的釋經學和神學議題：
舊、新約聖經是如何相關聯的？
摩西律法和耶穌基督的福音是如何相關聯的？
基督徒應如何行使基督裡的自由？
使徒行傳第十五章所描述的耶路撒冷會議，試圖回答早期基督徒所面臨的實際問題，因為與會者碰到「如何享受摩西治理時期（the Mosaic
administration）的自由，而又不會成為猶太人的絆腳石」這一難題解, 他們絞盡腦汁想出解決辦法。
這些都是保羅特別深思苦索的問題。畢竟，他是耶路撒冷會議任命的人選之一，負責傳遞和解釋總結了使徒和長老決定的書信(徒十五22；十六4)。羅馬教會也面對類似的問題，保羅為他們提供了一系列同樣適用於21世紀基督徒的原則。他在羅馬書十四章1節至十五章13節的教導, 包含關於行使基督徒自由的明智 (也是非常必要)的指引。以下是其中的四個原則：
原則1：切莫炫耀基督徒的自由。「你有信心，就當在神面前守著。人在自己以為可行的事上能不自責，就有福了。」（羅十四22）
在基督裡，我們不受摩西飲食條例約束，基督已宣布所有食物都是潔凈的（可七18-19）。歸根結蒂，我們可以吃黑布丁！
但你不必為享受自由而行使你的自由。事實上，保羅在其他地方向那些堅持在任何情況下都要行使自由的人提出一些非常尖銳的問題： 這真的造就其他人嗎？這真的使你得自由---或者這些自由實際上開始奴役你（羅十四19，林前六12）？
一個微妙的事實是，必須行使他（或她）的自由的基督徒，卻被他（或她）堅持要做的事綑綁。保羅說，若神的國在乎你的吃喝，諸如此類，你就沒抓住福音和聖靈裡的自由的要領（羅十四17）。
原則2：基督徒的自由並非指, 只有當你將其他基督徒的X或Y觀點整理分類（或為了做到這一點）, 你才樂於接受他們。
在基督裡, 上帝樂於按他們的本相接受他們; 因此我們也應該這樣做（羅 十四1,3）。事實上, 上帝並沒將他們的行為模式作為接納他們的根據, 我們也不應該這樣做。
我們對其他基督徒有很多責任，但作他們的審判官肯定不是其中的一項。只有基督才是審判官（羅十四4，10-13）。我們在談話中聽到提起另一個基督徒的名字（因為我們也經常這樣做），目的只是刻意讓別人立即對他（或她）提出批評，這是多麼的可悲。 與其說這是分辨的標志, 不如說是論斷精神的證據。
要是我們用論斷人的標準來衡量自己, 將會怎樣呢（羅十四10-12，太七2）？
原則3：基督徒的自由決不能用於絆倒其他的基督徒。 （羅十四13）
保羅陳述這項原則，並非出於一時的沖動，而是經過深思熟慮才確定下來的，而且他致力委身這一原則（參林前八13）。當我們作出遵守此原則的承諾，它最終會成為我們思想的一部分, 本能地指導我們的言行。我們在基督裡得自由, 為的是要作別人的仆人, 而不是要放縱自己的私欲。
原則4：基督徒的自由要求掌握引起這種合乎聖經的平衡的原則，「我們……應該……不應該求自己的喜悅……因為連基督也不求自己的喜悅；」（羅十五1 3）
關於這點, 道理極其簡單。將議題簡化至基本問題：愛耶穌；渴望效法耶穌，因為聖靈住在我們心中，使我們更像祂。
真正的基督徒自由，有別於各種俗世的「自由」或「解放」運動，它不是要求我們擁有「權利」 的問題。有誰敢說，即使美國開國元勳們聰明睿達，也可能因談論我們對生命、自由和追求幸福的「權利」，而在不經意間引發對基督教的扭曲？基督徒意識到，在上帝面前, 他（或她）天生沒有「權利」。在我們的罪中, 我們已喪失我們所有的「權利」。
只有當我們認識到我們不配擁有我們的「權利」時，我們才能恰當地將它們當作特權來行使。在教會裡能體恤其他人, 尤其是軟弱者, 取決於我們對自己這種不配擁有的理解。假若我們認為可以不惜一切代價行使自由，我們就會成為團契中潛在的致命武器，所有這些武器都能摧毀基督為之代死的人（羅十四15，20）。
這並非說我必須成為別人良心的奴隸。加爾文（Juan Calvino）的見解一針見血, 他說, 我們限制自由的行使，原因是為軟弱信徒的原故，而非在面對法利賽人要我們遵守不符合聖經真理的要求之時。福音瀕於險境的地方，我們需要行使基督徒的自由; 軟弱基督徒之穩定危如累卵的地方，我們需要抑制基督徒自由的行使。
這是「生活在時代之間」不可缺少的一部分。在基督裡我們是自由的, 但我們還不是生活在一個可以應付我們自由的世界裡。有一天我們將享受「神兒女榮耀的自由」 (羅八21) 。 那時我們隨時隨地都可以吃黑布丁! 但現在還不是時候。
目前, 正如馬丁路德所說：「基督徒是全然自由的萬人之主，不受任何人的管轄; 基督徒是全然順服的萬人之仆，受一切人管轄。」
本文摘自Sinclair Ferguson博士所著的《In Christ Alone》一書。
4 Principles for the Exercise
of Christian Liberty
FROM
Sinclair Ferguson
It
was years ago now, but I still remember the discussion. I was making my way out
of our church building some time after the morning service had ended, and was
surprised to find a small group of people still engaged in vigorous
conversation. One of them turned and said to me, “Can Christians eat black
pudding?”
To
the uninitiated in the mysteries of Scottish haute cuisine, it should perhaps
be said that black pudding is not haggis! It is a sausage made of blood and
suet, sometimes with flour or meal.
It
seems a trivial question. Why the vigorous debate? Because, of course, of the
Old Testament’s regulations about eating blood (Lev. 17:10ff).
Although
(as far as I am aware) no theological dictionary contains an entry under B for
“The Black Pudding Controversy,” this unusual discussion raised some most basic
hermeneutical and theological issues:
How
is the Old Testament related to the New?
How
is the Law of Moses related to the gospel of Jesus Christ?
How
should a Christian exercise freedom in Christ?
The
Council of Jerusalem, described in Acts 15, sought to answer such practical
questions faced by the early Christians as they wrestled with how to enjoy
freedom from the Mosaic administration without becoming stumbling blocks to
Jewish people.
These
were questions to which Paul in particular gave a great deal of thought. He
was, after all, one of those appointed by the Jerusalem Council to circulate
and explain the letter that summarized the decisions of the apostles and elders
(Acts 15:22ff; 16:4). Faced with similar issues in the church at Rome, he
provided them with a series of principles that apply equally well to
twenty-first-century Christians. His teaching in Romans 14:1–15:13 contains
healthy (and very necessary) guidelines for the exercise of Christian liberty.
Here are four of them:
Principle
1: Christian liberty must never be flaunted. “Whatever you believe about these
things keep between yourself and God” (Rom. 14:22, NIV).
We
are free in Christ from the Mosaic dietary laws; Christ has pronounced all food
clean (Mark 7:18-19). We may eat black pudding after all!
But
you do not need to exercise your liberty in order to enjoy it. Indeed, Paul
elsewhere asks some very penetrating questions of those who insist on
exercising their liberty whatever the circumstances: Does this really build up
others? Is this really liberating you—or has it actually begun to enslave you
(Rom. 14:19; 1 Cor. 6:12)?
The
subtle truth is that the Christian who has to exercise his or her liberty is in
bondage to the very thing he or she insists on doing. Says Paul, if the kingdom
consists for you in food, drink, and the like, you have missed the point of the
gospel and the freedom of the Spirit (Rom. 14:17).
Principle
2: Christian liberty does not mean that you welcome fellow Christians only when
you have sorted out their views on X or Y (or with a view to doing that).
God
has welcomed them in Christ, as they are; so should we (Rom. 14:1, 3). True,
the Lord will not leave them as they are. But He does not make their pattern of
conduct the basis of His welcome. Neither should we.
We
have many responsibilities for our fellow Christians, but being their judge is
not one of them. Christ alone is that (Rom. 14:4, 10-13). How sad it is to hear
(as we do far too often) the name of another Christian mentioned in
conversation, only for someone to pounce immediately on him or her in
criticism. That is not so much a mark of discernment as it is the evidence of a
judgmental spirit.
What
if the measure we use to judge others becomes the measure used to judge us
(Rom. 14:10-12; Matt. 7:2)?
Principle
3: Christian liberty ought never to be used in such a way that you become a
stumbling block to another Christian (Rom. 14:13).
When
Paul states this principle, it is not a spur-of-the-moment reaction, but a
settled principle he has thought out and to which he has very deliberately
committed himself (see 1 Cor. 8:13). When that commitment is made, it
eventually becomes so much a part of our thinking that it directs our behavior
instinctively. We are given liberty in Christ in order to be the servants of
others, not in order to indulge our own preferences.
Principle
4: Christian liberty requires grasping the principle that will produce this
true biblical balance: “We … ought … not to please ourselves…. For even Christ
did not please himself ” (Rom. 15:1-3).
There
is something devastatingly simple about this. It reduces the issue to the basic
questions of love for the Lord Jesus Christ and a desire to imitate Him since
His Spirit indwells us to make us more like Him.
True
Christian liberty, unlike the various “freedom” or “liberation” movements of
the secular world, is not a matter of demanding the “rights” we have. Dare one
say that the American Founding Fathers, for all their wisdom, may have
inadvertently triggered off a distortion of Christianity by speaking about our
“rights” to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? The Christian realizes
that before God he or she possesses no “rights” by nature. In our sinfulness,
we have forfeited all of our “rights.”
Only
when we recognize that we do not deserve our “rights” can we properly exercise
them as privileges. Sensitivity to others in the church, especially weaker
others, depends on this sense of our own unworthiness. If we assume that we
have liberties to be exercised at all costs, we become potentially lethal
weapons in a fellowship, all too capable of destroying someone for whom Christ
has died (Rom. 14:15, 20).
That
does not mean that I must become the slave of another’s conscience. John Calvin
puts the point well when he says that we restrain the exercise of our freedom
for the sake of weak believers, but not when we are faced with Pharisees who
demand that we conform to what is unscriptural. Where the gospel is at stake,
liberty needs to be exercised; where the stability of a weak Christian is at
stake, we need to restrain it.
This
is all part and parcel of “living between the times.” Already, in Christ, we
are free, but we do not yet live in a world that can cope with our freedom. One
day we will enjoy “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21).
Then may we eat black pudding whenever and wherever we want to! But not yet.
For
now, as Martin Luther wrote, “A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and
subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and
subject to every one.”
As it
was with the Master, so it is with the servant.
This
excerpt is taken from In Christ Alone by Sinclair Ferguson.
