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To me the meaning is derived from the context that the verse is contained within.  A companion section could be Romans 14 where the Apostle discusses "debatable things".   

To me the instructions, in the scripture, come from Paul unto the Church and deals with certain things that various people, Christians, considered as sinful yet Paul knew were allowed under Grace and Christ New Covenant.  For instance Jews had a great many dietary restrictions about what you could or could not eat, but Christ had taught that as a Christian they were not obligated to those dietary laws.  They could eat anything that they wanted, unless it was meat offered to idols, but not all their decisions made in Christian freedom are beneficial.  

I believe Paul expands that thought, and Christian freedom discussion, in Romans chapter 14 where it also expands the instructions to the Christian about how they should do when they dine with people that don't believe they have these freedoms.  Paul says not to allow our Christian freedoms to hurt or harm those that are weaker in the faith.  

The application I would make is regarding strictly the debatable things and not those things that are definite sins.  In other words some people don't believe any Christian should allow alcohol to touch their lips while other's have no problem with alcohol as long as they don't get or promote getting drunk.  What the verse does not say or should not be used for is making excuses to sin or violate God's laws to all believers.  There is no question murder/killing is a sin, adultery, sexual sins, lying, and many other things those are not within our Christian liberties but other things such as Circumcision or dietary concerns, smoking, drinking etc are left to the discretion of the Christian and if a Christian is to live in love toward their fellow brothers then they are not to allow their understanding of their freedoms to be the downfall of their weaker Christian brother/sister.    

Hope I was able to explain my position adequately.  I'll also qualify that as to say Paul was addressing it primarily to the new Gentile Christians who were not contractually obligated between them and God.  For instance Gentiles are not held to the Sabbath laws that Jewish believers are held to under their Exodus 31 covenant with God regarding the 7th (Sabbath) day.   Again it deals with debatable things and not definite commands and sins.  It's not a license for the Christian to deliberately sin saying there will be no consequences.  Many try and make that application but it's not there for that.   Also our Christian freedoms should be constructive and not used to tear another down or cause another Christian to violate what they believe is wrong due to their Christian immaturity or lack of Christian maturity.  Not everything is beneficial in other words.   In 1 Corinthians it specifically relates to dietary regulations and eating meat (other than meat meant for idols which is taboo) but Romans 14 expands the thinking and is also a passage by Paul and I believe is a companion to this passage.

 

Last edited by gbrk

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