Liberty, License, Legalism

I recently recommended a message by my pastor, Mark Minnick. Here are my notes from that message, taken on my trusty Palm IIIxe. Minnick does something he rarely does: he chooses a controlling metaphor. In the hands of many such a metaphor is a cheesy device. But used sparingly, I think it can be very helpful.

(9/19/2007) Minnick on the Two Closets

• We tend to categorize things as lawful and unlawful, but just because something is lawful doesn’t mean it’s open season, that it’s the best thing to do in a given case!
• Think of choices as having to be placed into two closets: “UNLAWFUL” and “LIBERTY.” Every choice you make must be placed not only within one of those closets, but on one more of the racks into which that closet is subdivided.

Racks in the unlawful closet:

1. Specifically prohibited (even though each of these is questioned within evangelicalism!):
   • Fornication (1 Cor 5-6)
   • Deserting a spouse (1 Cor 7)
   • Women teaching men in church (1 Tim 2)
2. Prohibited by an institution that has authority over me
   • Family
   • Church
   • School
   • Government
3. Prohibited by my conscience (Rom 14)
   • PERSONAL NOTE: Frisbee on Sunday
   • PERSONAL NOTE: Alcohol? (also falls under no.2 and possibly no.1) N.B.: Pastor Minnick puts alcohol on the the potentially overpowering rack and on the rack of things that cause people to stumble and on the institutional (school, church) rack.
4. Applications of general scriptural prohibitions
   • Eph 5:11 – Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
   • Rom 12:2; 13:14
   • 2 Cor 6:14

Racks in the liberty closet:

1. Profitability: Will this thing bring glory to God and therefore benefit to me?
2. Power: the degree of power something will have in my life. Paul said, “I won’t be brought under the power of any.”
3. Things that build people up (on the other end of this rack are things which cause people to stumble).
4. Inconsequential things: am I going to wear glasses or contacts, eat carrots or broccoli?

Additional comments from Pastor Minnick:

• Remember that our simplistic, immature tendency is to think that anything in the liberty closet hangs on the “inconsequential” rack.
  Even these racks are subdivided, from the very profitable down to the inconsequential and unprofitable.
• Unlawful no. 4, applications, are where believers get at odds with each other: music, dress, appearance. We’ve got to distinguish between 1, 3, and 4. The day comes when our applications make no sense and we’ve painted ourselves into a corner (PERSONAL NOTE: face cards?).
• Christian leadership is responsible to think about these things, to avoid simplifying life into two closets with no racks in them.