The power of example, coupled with the faithful teaching of God's Word, is key to spiritual growth because character is more caught than taught. What does it look like to love others in our choices about gray matters? The Apostle Paul answers that question by sharing a personal example of giving up his rights in order to win others to Christ.
When it comes to issues of conscience, or "gray matters," many Christians are eager to exercise their "freedom" to indulge in those things that are not clearly spelled out in Scripture as matters of sin and righteousness. Although we may well be right about the issue at hand, when we act out of this sort of selfishness and disregard our weaker brothers and sisters in Christ we damage those who are precious to our Lord.
The category of "Christian liberty" has always been the source of much debate and division in the church. When it comes to issues that are neither directly or indirectly forbidden or encouraged by Scripture, what are Christians to do? God desires for us to glorify Him even in the things that seem to be rather inconsequential (1 Cor. 10:31). Find out what is the guiding principle that must govern all our decisions concerning gray matters.
The Epistle to the Ephesians tells us that Christ has reconciled all creation to Himself and to God, and Christ has united people from all nations to Himself and to one another in His church. Ephesians 2:11-22 teaches us that through the blood of Christ people have not only been reconciled to God, but reconciled to each other. Through Christ the wall of hostility that once existed between God and man has been removed along with the wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile. The result is that all believers are brought together, in peace and love, by the blood of Christ.
