Pretentious Piety

As I said in Receive Blessings video, too often on I see those who wish to turn things into sin which aren't, so they can condemn others who don't conform to their self-made standards.  It's almost as if they just make it up as they go, in a blind attempt to seem uber spiritual and holy, when Scripture says nothing to back up their claims.  In fact, in most cases Scripture says the complete opposite.

Romans 14 is a perfect example.  This chapter deals with things like meat, drink, and holidays, and Paul exhorts us not to judge our brethren in these matters. 

"Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.

Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike.

Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks." 
(Romans 14:3-6)

I've seen that holidays have become taboo on the religious side of YouTube.  But celebrating a holiday isn't a sin!  Neither is NOT celebrating holidays.  Yes, perhaps Christianised holidays were once pagan.  Well, the very days of the week were named after pagan Gods.  Are we celebrating Thor on Thursday?  No.  Neither are we celebrating Eshtar on Easter.  On the contrary, just as Paul used the altar to the unknown god as a platform to preach Christ unto the Atheenians, so we have turned formerly pagan holidays into days to celebrate and preach Christ!  And if eating meat actually offered to idols is permitted for those of us in faith (as stated in 1 Corinthians 8), then so would celebrating a formerly pagan holiday now reclaimed unto the Lord.  I understand that there are those young in the faith who are truly wanting to please God, and they've heard the false teaching that it's a sin to have a Christmas tree.  They don't yet realise that the Old Testament references are talking about a poor man's idol -- cutting down a tree, fashioning the wood into an idol, and then plating it with gold and silver, and attaching it to the wall.  It's not talking about decorating seasonally for a celebration!  However, if someone think it's a sin, then they certainly shouldn't do it.  But if they truly have the Holy Spirit, he'll bring them into understanding.

As for birthdays, my parents would be heartbroken if they weren't allowed to celebrate what they regard as days of great blessing when God gave them my brothers and me.  It was a wonderful day that the Lord gave you and me life!  We shouldn't be ashamed in allowing others to rejoice and thank God for that.  I want to celebrate when God gave you breath, and I hope you'd want to celebrate when God gave me breath!  That's what we do when we love each other!  So to deny that all in the name of some kind of stoic feigned humility is the EPITOME of being selfish and unspiritual.  I don't know who's more ridiculous -- the fake holiness side of YouTube, or the go-and-sin-some more folks.

Likewise, nowhere in Scripture is drinking alcohol forbidden.  It is always DRUNKENESS which is the sin -- "whosoever is DECEIVED thereby is not wise," "be not DRUNK with wine," "not given to MUCH wine," "wherein is EXCESS."  Certainly if drinking were a sin, Paul wouldn't have exhorted Timothy to drink no longer water, but a little wine for his stomach's sake.  The Lord gave us fermented drink not only for its various medicinal properties, but for our enjoyment as well.  The children of Israel even tithed their wine and liquor.  Jesus himself turned SIX big ol' pots of water into wine at a party.  Did he get drunk on that wine and revel it up?  No.  But he celebrated, and he drank wine such that the Pharisees tried to take a lame pot-shot at him by calling him a drunkard!  Obviously, they wouldn't have attempted that accusation if Jesus was sipping mere grape juice.  So when I see the popes of YouTube pompously proclaim that alcoholic beverages should not be named among those professing Christ... when Christ HIMSELF not only drank wine, but MADE it, I can't help but shake my head and laugh at such deliberate ignorance on behalf of false piety.

"For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.
The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!
But wisdom is justified of all her children." 
(Luke 7:33-35)

Now as Paul clearly states, even if we have the faith to eat or drink, we should not do so while in the company of a brother who is weaker in the faith than we.  We wouldn't want our freedom in Christ to cause him trouble.  If I was preaching to or fellowshipping with someone who thought eating meat or drinking was a sin, obviously I wouldn't sit there enjoying myself on a charbroiled angus cheeseburger and ice-cold Corona.  We're considerate of those who are in our company, and do nothing that we know would cause another to be bothered while they are growing in faith and coming into a better understanding of the Word.

"It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth." 
(Romans 14:21-22)

Denying ourselves and picking up our cross daily means that we let go of our life's wishes and plans to do the will of God.  We do his will on a daily basis, setting aside our own albeit holy agenda.  But it does NOT mean that the Lord doesn't want us to enjoy blessing, here and now.  Even Jesus had a seamless robe that the soldiers gambled over.  So just because there are prosperity teachers out there preaching greed, doesn't mean we can't enjoy material blessing.  Denying self is not putting words in God's mouth when it comes to what we're allowed to eat, or do, or enjoy, and turning anything beyond basic survival into a "lust of the flesh."  A deliberately Spartan lifestyle can be just as unspiritual as an excessive one.  If people evaluate their spirituality by how much they do without, or how much they've gained, they're missing the point -- they're both two opposite poles of pride.

The Scriptures say that the poor will always be among us in the church.  I believe we take turns being the poor.  Some time ago my father was out of a job, and we really had to lean into the Lord to make ends meet -- one time my mother and I, with the help of the Holy Spirit, managed to make 10 meals out 2 chickens, for our family of 10.  We joked that it reminded us of the widow in scripture who's oil and meal didn't run out!  So in Christ, we know how to be abased, and we know how to abound!  When we're needy, we can humbly receive assistance, and when we abound, we can overflow in our giving, and in our personal blessing.

But I see so many beating themselves up over things they needn't, having long unhappy faces all in the name of denying themselves and not looking like the world.  Yes, we have plenty of suffering, persecution, and heartbreak in our walk with Christ, but we DO have blessing, and times of reprieve, and it's those times that give us refreshment from trial to trial.

Being a goody-two-shoes doesn't make you holy through and through.  The self-righteous desire to set rules and regulations where Scripture does not, looking to accuse the children of God at every turn, just as the Pharisees did to Jesus.  They'll nit-pick over whether someone has sinned by having allowed themselves a glass of wine, or celebrating Christmas, or buying a new suit, when they themselves are liars, adulterers, false prophets and teachers, secret perverts, backbiters, and busybodies, who cannot cease from sin.

So, let us not be shaken in our faith and liberty in Christ, and let's MOVE ON from continuing to lay again the foundation of repentance from dead works.  But giving none offense, let whatever we eat, or drink, or do, do all to the glory of God.