1 Cor 8 and Rom 14 deal with specific ‘grey areas’ of 1st century life. Eating meat sacrificed to idols and celebrating certain days more than others were areas of concern for Christians getting to grips with how their faith related to their everyday living. The ‘grey areas’ of 21st century life might look very different. Is it OK for Christians to drink alcohol? What kind of music should Christians listen to? What about shift work or Sunday work for Christians? Should a Christian ever watch an 18-rated film? And so on. Grey areas would also include things like the format of church services (using liturgy, choice of songs and hymns, timings of services and so on) and many other aspects of everyday life (what colour socks to wear, for example!) – things where we cannot say the Bible gives us a hard-and-fast answer, however much we wish it did!
Adiaphora (the technical word for these ‘grey areas’, areas which are neither specifically prohibited nor endorsed by the Bible) cause us to wrestle with scriptural principles. Some argue that if the Bible does not specifically prohibit something and it goes against no clear biblical commands, then it can be done for the glory of God. A more extreme position would be that unless the Bible specifically gives us the go-ahead on something, we should not do it. Since the Bible was written before computers, cars, aeroplanes and other aspects of 21st century life which we take for granted, however, this last view leads us to live a very narrow life!
The Bible is a guide book to life, but it’s not a rule book in the sense that many of us would prefer. By that, I mean a book that controls us, giving us directions for every possible situation, restricting our freedom of choice and forcing us into an ABC of life which is perhaps easier but not more mature. It’s a book that tells us we have free will which should be harnessed to godly obedience. Paul says our guiding principle should be ‘whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’ (Colossians 3:17).
We have great freedom in Christ (Gal 5:1, 1 Cor 10:31). Paul reminds us of this in Col 2:16 ‘Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day’. But we also have a duty not to be mastered by anything other than God (see 1 Cor 6:12, 1 Cor 10:23). We also have a duty as Christians to live in consideration of other believers, not causing them to stumble or fall into sin (1 Cor 8:13, 1 Cor 10:31-32) and to do all that we can to build other people up, not tear them down.
We may wish the Bible had more to say on modern issues because it’s hard to wrestle with principles and come to our own conclusion on these grey areas. It’s even harder when other believers disagree with our conclusions, often causing us heartache and confusion. But we cannot avoid the conclusion that there are many things on which Scripture is silent and it is unwise to be dogmatic and arrogant about those things. Nor can we avoid the need to wrestle if we are to grow up.
Children have little choice initially in this world: they have to eat what they are given by parents (or starve); they wear the clothes put on them because they don’t know how to dress themselves; they go to the places they are taken because they cannot get from A to B under their own steam. With loving parents, this is not a bad thing, but it would still be very odd if a ten-year-old could not dress himself or a fifteen-year-old could not go somewhere on foot without a parent to guide her. As children grow, they have to learn to make choices and to take responsibility for their own actions. This is all part of maturing.
Similarly, a baby Christian latches on to the commands of God and drinks from this milk. There are plenty of commands in Scripture and we spend a lifetime learning these and seeking to obey them. But as we grow, we also discover there are whole topics on which Scripture is silent and apparently indifferent (the root meaning of the word ‘adiaphora’) and we have to learn to chew on meat, interpreting difficult passages and working through principles that we can apply to those ‘grey areas’ of life. It is not a cop-out to admit ignorance, but it is a cop-out to refuse to chew on these matters and to act blindly and thoughtlessly. We have a duty to have our thinking transformed by God (Rom 12:1-2) and to ponder how He wants us to use our time and energies, since we are not our own; we have been bought at a price. (1 Cor 6:19-20)