Thoughts on the the practice of faith-based righteousness in relationships within the christian community. Believers are to accept one another without condemnation for personal convictions (14:1-2). We have no right to judge others on such issues, for they are matters of conscience, to be settled between the individual and the Lord. Believers must then,"stop passing judgement on one another". A matter is "disputable" when it involves choices which God has not spoken clearly of in His Word. Adultery and theft, are not disputable matters. Many convictions which christians hold dearly - do's and don'ts some believe are God's will even though scripture is silent - fall into this category. There is the greek word paralambano (accept), it is a powerful relational term. It means to welcome, as with open heart and arms, eager and ready to share all of life. This is the kind of love we owe one another in Christ. People need to stop trying to be the Holy Spirit for other people.
happy2beadam
Maybe that came out backwards from what I meant. What I gathered from Romans 14, was that the main line churches have no right to judge us for naturism. I believe our choice is personal because it is not spelled out in scripture. It is something that we settle between us and God. According to the word of God, they should accept us for the sake of Christ. If you stick strictly with scripture, we are not aloud to pass judgement on actions the bible doesn't call sin. Thanks joch for helping me spell out more clearly what I was trying to say.
There are two types of judgments, since we do make judgements all the time. But if something is not clear, then we have to sit down and look at the overall purpose and the heart and find out what it is the person is doing and why.
Judement is then made, but it will still be up to the individual and according to their faith, and that is where judgement ends and faith begins.
If something is clearly not right and the bible is very clear about it, then we do not have to make a judgement, since that is already made for us. We do not judge someone by condemning them, but we make the judgement by letting them know what they are doing is clearly out of biblical bounds. But we have to sit down with, well, good judgment, and show them from scriptures what is right and wrong. Never accuse them as we are the accuser of the bretheren.
Making jugements about something is one thing, passing judgements on others is another.
I hope that made sense. "What? Do you not know that we will be judging angels?"
Yes, these churches do have to make judgements, but to pass them on as absolutes when the bible is very unclear, then it's time to put away the iron rod.
Oh, Adam said it very well. I just thought that, because our forums are occasionally read by non-naturists and perhaps even anti-naturists, I had better make my position clear beyond any reasonable doubt.
