REFORMED WITNESS
Volume XIII, July 2005, Number 7
Not Commanded, Not Forbidden
"Freedom In The Adiaphora"
By Rev. Barrett Gritters
From the October 15, 1992 issue of The Standard Bearer
"Should I do it? Or should I not?" For a good portion of the Christian life, the Bible does not give direct answer to us whether we should or should not. These things, about which the Bible does not give direct instruction, are called adiaphora. Adiaphora means, literally, "the things indifferent." The concept is important as important as your salvation. The word ought to be known by us. Thus, I included it in the title of the article. Please learn it: adiaphora: 'The things indifferent'.
In contrast to the Roman Catholic Church (and other modern, legalistic churches or sects), the Protestant Reformed Churches must guard jealously the freedom of her members in the things indifferent. Members of these churches, under the careful protection of their office-bearers, have the right freely to use and enjoy all the good gifts of God, receiving them with thanksgiving and sanctifying them with the Word of God and prayer.
They believe that things which God neither commands nor forbids may be performed or omitted by them as a matter of indifference. None decides for them. They are free to do or not do, use or not use, as they themselves determine.
According to the reformer John Calvin, this aspect of our freedom in Christ is the third main part of Christian liberty. First: the Christian is free in his conscience from the terrors of the law. Second: he has freedom of conscience to obey the law from the heart. Third: he is given freedom of conscience regarding the use of the indifferent things.
The restoration of this teaching rescued the poor people of God in the Roman church. Holding the miserable view that every area of the Christian's life must be circumscribed by the church, the Roman church made law upon law, precept upon precept for the sheep under their 'care'. The twin error of the Roman church, and thus the double oppression for the people of God, was that these regulations, although not found in the Word of God, were binding on their conscience for salvation. Extra-biblical, yet necessary for salvation!
The laws regulated almost every nook and cranny of life, public and private, for the clergy as well as laity. A former Roman Catholic priest recounts that in addition to the regulation for priests, "Thou shalt not marry," the institution where he was trained required, "Thou shalt not look out the window; thou shalt not touch flowers; thou shalt not have close friendships." "Brother Ass" (the body), they claimed, must be ruled strictly. (See H. J. Hegger, I Saw the Light, 1961, Presbyterian and Reformed, pages 27, 31).
For the laity the laws included, "No wine at the Mass, No meat on Fridays, worship and love Mary or you will be damned." Still today the Roman Catholic Church makes these extra biblical yet binding pronouncements for her members.
What is amazing about these pronouncements is that they come from the pope. Having really pulled them from his sleeve, or having sucked them from his thumb, he audaciously claims that they come directly from God. But this is no different from the lordly Pharisee who said, "You go to hell if you eat with unwashed hands," or the proud legalist today who says, "If you drink a glass of wine or a bottle of beer you are damned." Both bind the believer's conscience with a law not found in Scripture. We must resist this with all our might, lest we make "void the grace of Christ" (Calvin on Colossians 2:16ff.).
The men whom God raised up to give deliverance to His oppressed people found these abusive regulations to be insufferable. Carefully they pointed the people of God to their freedom to live as they themselves judged to be pious Christian behavior in all areas where the Bible is silent.
Luther has a marvelous explanation of the broad picture of Christian liberty, "A Treatise on Christian Liberty," in which he spells out the whole message of the gospel in a clear, heartwarming manner. (See the Works of Martin Luther, Philadelphia Edition, 6 volumes, 1982, Baker, Volume 2). Every Reformed Christian would do well to read this short treatise. But in a sermon to the people at Wittenberg, Luther puts briefly that aspect of Christian liberty we refer to here. He says, "Take note of these two things, 'must' and 'free.' The 'must' is that which necessity requires, and which must ever be unyielding; as for instance, the faith which I shall never permit any one to take away from me, but which I must always keep in my heart and freely confess before every one. But 'free' is that in which I have choice, and may use or not.... Now do not make a 'must' out of what is 'free,' as you have done..." (Works, volume II, page 395).
Commenting on Colossians 2:16ff., and referring to those church members or rulers who would condemn us in these indifferent matters, Calvin warns, "How bright a mirror there is as to this in popery! ...human traditions are a labyrinth, in which consciences are more and more entangled; nay more, are snares, which from the beginning bind in such a way that in course of time they strangle in the end." "In short, when persons have once taken it upon them to tyrannize over men's souls, there is no end of new laws being daily added to old ones, and new enactments starting up from time to time." In his Institutes he warns against consciences which are "tormented about the use of things indifferent" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.19.9, translated by Ford Lewis Battles).
Taking his starting point at Romans 14, one of the important passages on the adiaphora, Calvin hears Paul subject "all outward things to our freedom, provided that our minds are assured that the basis for such freedom stands before God" (Institutes, 3.19.9). What Paul says is, "I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself" (Romans 14:14a).
In I Corinthians the apostle repeats the doctrine in this way: "All things are lawful unto (for) me" (6:12, 10:23). In I Corinthians 8:8, speaking of food, he says, "But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse." Eating meat is a thing indifferent.
Warning against those who would spy out and pilfer their liberty, Paul says, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days..." (Colossians 2:16). Puzzled that those who are dead with Christ from the ordinances of the world would return to bondage, Paul asks the Colossian Christians, "Why are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which are all to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?" (2:20 22). He exposes the vanity of these laws in the next verse, pointing out that these regulations are no more than hypocrisy, "a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body..." (verse 23).
Both with regard to the Old Testament civil and ceremonial laws (theonomists to the contrary notwithstanding) and with regard to man made regulations, "brethren, ye have been called unto liberty" (Galatians 5:13a).
The reason for this liberty is that the church has come of age. By the indwelling Spirit of Jesus Christ, the church is sufficiently mature to be freed from the minute regulations that control every second. Paul likens the maturity of the church of the new dispensation to the maturity of a child who reaches adulthood (Galatians 4:17). For anyone to believe he may (or must) regulate the life of the believers with even one law that the Scripture does not bind us with, is among other things to deny the maturity of New Testament believers, to do despite unto the Spirit of grace. Calvin calls it "pernicious" (Commentary on Colossians 2:16ff.). To allow others to bind our conscience is to lose the light that is in us, and to offer insult to Christ, the author of our freedom (Calvin's Commentary on Galatians 5:1; Institutes, 3.19.14).
The Protestant Reformed Churches do not make (and may not make) any rules for their members that are extra biblical, which bind the conscience, for which the member may be excommunicated. Tempted sorely, seeing the great evil of the abuse of the television, to make a law against television (as one Reformed congregation is reported to have done), we resist, believing that the danger of legalism is a soul destroying evil. Observing the grievous destruction that alcohol wreaks on the lives of some church members, the pastors and elders may be tempted to say, "Drinking alcohol brings your membership in this church into jeopardy." They will not make that regulation, knowing that the Word of God does not prohibit the use of alcohol.
Observing the abuse of television or liquor or tobacco or birth control or any other "indifferent" thing, the pastors and elders warn with all their heart from Galatians 5:13, "Your liberty is not meant for the satisfying of your flesh." Doing this, God's servants believe (as do Christian parents who face the same problems) that the warnings of Scripture are used by the Holy Spirit of Christ to sanctify wholly the children of God.
When they warn in this way (no rules, but passionate, stern cautions against abuse), office-bearers are faithful to Scripture and follow in the path restored by the reformers. Repeatedly, when Calvin raises the subject of the things indifferent, he acknowledges that many will be tempted to give reign to unbridled lusts. This (unbridled lusts) is one result of and reaction to the attempt to bind the child of God with unnecessary laws! Some will live licentiously without provocation. Others are driven to it by the spying out of their liberty (see R. C. Wallace, Calvin's Doctrine of the Christian Life, Eerdmans, 1969, pages 310, 311).
At almost every point where Scripture teaches our liberty in Jesus regarding indifferent things, it sounds a clear warning not to prostitute that liberty. This is a different warning from the ones the other writers refer to elsewhere in this issue, different from the apostle's caution, "Think not that your liberty gives you permission to violate the law of God". Here, the warnings call us to live out our maturity by asking ourselves some important questions regarding why we will use or avoid the use of the indifferent thing.
First, where Paul proclaims, "All things are lawful unto me," he quickly adds for the sake of our maturity, "but not all things are expedient" (I Corinthians 6:12, 10:23). Out of love for God and the neighbor, the mature child of God is able to answer this question, "Is my use of the thing profitable for me and for others?"
Second, Paul says, "All things are lawful for me, but I will not come under the power of any." Both Luther and Calvin warn that, because we are lord of the good gifts of God, we must not let them become lord over us. Liquor, tobacco, food, sports, all have that dangerous power. Christians are free. Do not become slave to these.
Third, Paul warns, "But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling-block to them that are weak." We care for the neighbor; we love him. So it matters who is looking when we do what we do, or refrain from something. Because we love the neighbor, we do not want him to stumble.
Fourth, required by the Word of God is that anything we do be done "unto the Lord" (Romans 14:6). Is a thing pure and lawful for me? Then when I am finished, I am able before God to say to Him, "Thanks, Lord, for that good gift" (I Corinthians 10:30, I Timothy 4:4,5). Do it "unto the Lord." "Do all to the glory of God" (I Corinthians 10:31).
Free with the glorious liberty of Jesus Christ, we will let no one rob us of it. We take the advice of Calvin in his commentary on I Corinthians 10:29: "The soul of a pious man looks exclusively to the tribunal of God, has no regard for man, is satisfied with the blessing of liberty secured for it by Christ, and is bound to no individuals, and to no circumstances of time and place."
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