Freedom To Love

Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Romans 13:10

The famous nineteenth-century preacher Charles H. Spurgeon was fond of smoking cigars. Because this was before the days of research into the effects of tobacco, he saw nothing wrong with the practice. Until, that is, he passed a tobacco shop with a sign advertising a particular cigar for sale: “The cigar smoked by C. H. Spurgeon.” That was the last day Spurgeon ever smoked a cigar.

Charles Spurgeon recognized that something he had a right to engage in might be viewed as a vice by other believers. He didn’t want his actions to be a stumbling block for others; his love for people was greater than his love for cigars.

Spurgeon learned this spiritual lesson in love from the apostle Paul, who counseled first-century Christians to be self-sacrificing in their love for one another. While “all things are lawful,” he wrote, “all things are not helpful” (1 Corinthians 6:12). Freedom in Christ does not mean we have the right to do anything we want. Rather, it means we have the power to do everything we ought.

If there is any right you love more than a brother’s or sister’s progress toward holiness, it is a right that is best left unexercised.