Introduction: How can we use wisdom in dealing with people both in the Church and outside the Church? Here are three principles that may help in this discussion.

1. Love (Matt 22:36-38) – “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” 

Would you agree that there is a difference in God’s love and man’s love? For example, the writer to Hebrews expresses some incredible insight to our Lord’s love. 

“My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Heb 12:5-6).

This is proof that we are children of God; i.e. we are disciplined when we get out of line. Therefore, we can conclude that our love for others ought to be based on God’s love for us. Sometimes, we need to exercise discipline to those we love. Not because we are “judgmental” or “legalistic” but because the Truth of God’s Word must supercede our feelings.

2. Legalism (Matt 23:1-3) – “Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their finger.”

The Pharisees were legalistic. They made the outside clean, but the inside was left dirty. But they tried to impose their 613 commandments – plus – on every body else. Basically, Jesus called them hypocritical. Both before becoming a CHRISTIAN and afterwards, we can easily get caught in the trap of legalism; i.e. trying to enforce our “rules and regulations” on everybody we know.

3. Liberty (Gal 5:13) – “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”

Here again, these Galatian believers as well as us today were prone to use their “liberty” once they had been gloriously saved to do whatever they wanted to – not necessarily sinful in itself. But, if it caused others to “stumble,” then it would be wrong. A certain example was in regards to eating meat that had been offered to idols (Rom 14-15). Stronger CHRISTians said it did not bother them to eat the meat since there was only one God; however, the weaker CHRISTians didn’t think it was right. Therefore, Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit declares it would be wrong to eat it because of the stumbling block effect even though they had liberty to do it.

Are you using your liberty and causing others to stumble?