We need to be diligent to only repeat the mandates of God without adding to His word by making rules He never made, just to keep people from sinning.
I remember a lovely older believer who once told me, when she was growing up they were taught that they should never wear red shoes, that it was a sin. I don't see that in the word of God of course and the idea has fallen away from our culture.
The reason was that only prostitutes wore red shoes and you didn't want to look like a prostitute. Prostitutes also ate in restaurants, drove cars, ate food, slept in beds and many other things in life that we would not want to live without. Should we give up all those things because prostitutes do them?
The same was true of bowling, many years ago people were told it was a sin to bowl, the reason was because the allies were always in the back of taverns, but we were not told this part, only that bowling was a sin.
I think it would have been better to teach not to hang out with unbelievers in taverns, the bowling had little to do with it.
Bowling is not a sin, its the character and nature of the people who frequented those places that were of concern. Well.....I like to bowl, and they are no longer in the back of taverns, so we need to modify our stance and realize that many were making the "thing" the evil, when it was the "coming out from among them" that should have been the issue.
It is best to evaluate the rules in terms of God's principles and not condemn something merely because wicked people do them.
Wicked people, eat food, drive cars, take baths, wear cloths, use eye glasses and many other things that believers do and must do to live in this world. We do not base what we do on what wicked people do, we base what we do on the principles of God and do not allow legalistic people to place us in bondage to their idea of goodness to keep their targets in line.
If we have decided to give up something God never told us to give up, then that is between you and God and He may even have told you to do so, but it cannot be license to relegate others to your particular sacrifice, when God never mandated it in His Word.
On the other hand, if God commanded us clearly to do something in His Word, then we have an obligation to present it to other believes in love and gentleness to help, not bradger them to obey. God prefers that each person make the choice to obey Him, He desires our heart. If we obey man to look good to others and it is not in our heart, it will not count with God. Our sacrifice is nothing when it is not because of our love for Him.
We have to remember that we should tell the truth of the Scriptures while leaving the results to God. He can work on someone's heart much better than we. Browbeating demeaning and badgering is not Christlike and very often has the opposite effect.
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