08.03 | Free Love
Romans 14:1-15:13
'I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.’
Romans 14:14-15
My eldest daughter Estie is both gluten and dairy intolerant. She also struggles with nuts, and virtually all artificial additives, preservatives and pesticides. Eating or drinking the wrong stuff, for Estie, leads to a rash, stomach pains, headache and insomnia. She lives within these restrictions with extraordinary gratitude and positivity: I’m often stunned at her beautiful attitude towards a life without cheese on toast.
One feature of living with this is the conversation that precedes every trip to visit family or friends that begins with the question: What can I cook for Estie? We’re getting pretty good at the briefing (and packing her portable pantry), but we’re always so blessed by the kindness of people—who adapt the weekend food plan to make things work for all of us. They want Estie to be completely welcome at their table.
Paul is turning his attention now to issues of food. And again, it’s a Jew/Gentile thing.
Remember the background. Jewish people, scattered across the Empire, had had centuries exploring how to live in a way that honoured the food and lifestyle restrictions of the Jewish Law,1 whilst also inhabiting cities and towns where the food practices were far from kosher. Animals were eaten that they couldn’t eat. Even ‘clean’ animals may have been sacrificed to idols, with the remaining meat sold in the marketplace. Jewish holiness was characterised by restriction, avoiding indirect participation in idol worship or eating restricted kinds of meat.
But, Jesus had brought a new paradigm:
Freedom.
Freedom from rules and regulations, unveiling a deeper measure of righteousness that begins in the heart and not the stomach. Jesus Himself had declared all foods to be ‘clean’2—meaning that His new mode of being allowed an individual to live a holy life, regardless of what they ate.
But here's the thing. This brought moments of collision.
Freedom meant, for example, that a believer could eat meat that had been sacrificed to an idol.
Freedom meant that a believer could eat meats previously called ‘unclean.’
Freedom meant that a believer could live without adherence to the sabbath.
Freedom meant that a believer could wear what they liked, eat what they liked, drink what they liked. Prohibition had been replaced by permission.
How could this emerging community, of Jews and Gentiles, navigate this new and radical freedom?
Paul points to a deeper code, that takes Christian freedom and holds it under a greater law. It is the formative ethic behind everything, of which food and drink and sabbath are only just one part. It is this:
Love.
Love is the only atmosphere in which freedom can create beauty.
The primary question, for Paul, is not whether they are allowed to eat meat, or allowed to sabbath on Sunday rather than Saturday, or allowed to eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols, or allowed to drink alcohol. Freedom says that of course, they are allowed. Freedom permits. What they believe—not what they avoid—makes them holy. The greater question is how they steward this freedom in an atmosphere of love. Because love willingly casts aside freedom if doing so enables more life for another.
We deeply need this. In a world where the lead ethic is the expressive freedom of an individual, we can forget that the greater way is the willing restriction of my freedom for the sake of sacrificial love. Jesus’ ethic is not about my right to express and my right to choose. That is the mantra of the entitled, but not of the loving. The love of the free chooses limitation for the sake of blessing. It serves for the sake of empowerment. It is joyfully vegan with vegans, or teetotal with an alcoholic. It calls on a Friday so as to cook something that Estie will love on a Saturday. It is the freely-chosen abdication of self in favour of the greater call to live with great love.
Endless freedom expressed in relentless love is the way of the Kingdom. It is the Way of the King,
Who gave up all freedom and privilege and power and comfort,
To go to the Cross,
That you and I might step into this way of endless freedom
That learns to freely love.
Reflect:
Is there a place where I’m living with a law where I needed to be reminded of freedom?
Is there a scenario where I need to choose restriction for the sake of love?
Pray:
Father,
This stretches my understanding all over the place.
Because I find here that both freedom and love are greater than I realised.
Freedom is greater. Scandalously so.
And love is greater. Such that it demands my all.
And so, Father, I ask this.
Would you embed in my soul so deep and strong and unshakeable,
The knowledge of my endless reconciliation with you,
That I may know ever deeper the measure of freedom.
And would you embed in my soul, so deep and strong and unshakeable,
The ways of endless and sacrificial love,
That I may walk not in the way of the entitled,
But in the Way of Jesus,
Who willing cast aside all freedom
For the sake of love.
My mind is blown.
But your way is endlessly greater.
Take me further in, dear Lord,
That my life may be increasingly like yours.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Numbers 20:14-22:41 | Proverbs 10:1-5
Or Torah: Genesis-Deuteronomy
Mark 7:19
Love too much here to quote!