25 Bible Verses about Abuse, Of Christian Freedom
Most Relevant Verses
Accordingly, sin must not continue to reign over your mortal bodies, so as to make you continue to obey their evil desires,
For sin must not any longer exert its mastery over you, for now you are not living as slaves to law but as subjects to God's favor.
Therefore, as we have so vast a crowd of spectators in the grandstands, let us throw off every impediment and the sin that easily entangles our feet, and run with endurance the race for which we are entered, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the perfect leader and example of faith, who, instead of the joy which lay before Him, endured the cross with no regard for its shame, and since has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he will ask and God will grant him life; yea, He will grant it to any who do not commit a sin that leads to death. There is a sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. Any wrongdoing is sin; and there are sins that do not lead to death. We know that no one who is born of God makes a practice of sinning, but the Son who was born of God continues to keep him, and the evil one cannot touch him.
What is our conclusion then? Are we to continue to sin for His unmerited favor to multiply? Not at all! Since we have ended our relation to sin, how can we live in it any longer?
What are we to conclude? Are we to keep on sinning, because we are not living as slaves to law but as subjects to God's favor? Never!
But if our wrongdoing brings to light the uprightness of God, what shall we infer? Is it wrong (I am using everyday human terms) for God to inflict punishment? Not at all! If that were so, how could He judge the world? But, as you say, if the truthfulness of God has redounded to His glory because of my falsehood, why am I still condemned as a sinner?read more.
Why should we not say, as people abusively say of us, and charge us with actually saying, "Let us do evil that good may come from it"? Their condemnation is just.
Now if, in our efforts to come into right standing with God through union with Christ, we have proved ourselves to be sinners like the heathen themselves, does that make Christ a party to our sin? Of course not. For if I try to build again what I tore down, I really prove myself to be a wrongdoer. For through the law I myself have become dead to the law, so that I may live for God.read more.
I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live, but Christ is living in me; the life I now live as a mortal man I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I never can nullify the unmerited favor of God. For if right standing with God could come through law, then Christ died for nothing.
But you must see to it that this right of yours does not become a stumbling block to overscrupulous people. For if somebody sees you, who have an intelligent view of this matter, partaking of a meal in an idol's temple, will he not be emboldened, with his overscrupulous conscience, to eat the food which has been sacrificed to an idol? Yes, the overscrupulous brother, for whom Christ died, is ruined by your so-called knowledge.read more.
Now if in such a way you sin against your brothers and wound their overscrupulous consciences, you are actually sinning against Christ.
For you, brothers, were called to freedom; only you must not let your freedom be an excuse for the gratification of your lower nature, but in love be slaves to one another.
Live like free men, only do not make your freedom a pretext for doing evil, but live like slaves of God.
A case of immorality is reported as actually existing among you, an immorality unheard of even among the heathen that a man cohabits with his father's wife. And yet, you are proud of it, instead of being sorry for it, and seeing to it that the man who has done this be removed from your membership!
Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is good for me. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not become a slave to anything. Foods are intended for the stomach, and the stomach for foods, but God will finally put a stop to both of them. The body is not intended for sexual immorality but for the service of the Lord, and the Lord is for the body to serve. And as God by His power raised the Lord to life, so He will raise us too.read more.
Do you not know that your bodies are parts of Christ Himself? Then may I take away parts of Christ and make them parts of a prostitute? Never! Never! Or, are you not aware that a man who has to do with a prostitute makes his body one with hers? For God says, "The two shall be physically one." But the man who is in union with the Lord is spiritually one with Him. Keep on running from sexual immorality! Any other sin that a man commits is one outside his body, but the man who commits the sexual sin is sinning against his own body. Or, are you not conscious that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit that is in you, whom you have as a gift from God? Furthermore, you are not your own, for you have been bought and actually paid for. So you must honor God with your bodies.
But I hold it against you that you are tolerating that Jezebel of a woman who claims to be a prophetess, and by her teaching is misleading my slaves to practice immorality and to eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her immorality. See! I am going to lay her on a bed of sickness, and bring down to great and pressing sorrow those who practice immorality with her, unless they repent of their practices;
But a man named Ananias, in partnership with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and, with his wife's full knowledge of it, kept back for themselves a part of the money and brought only a part of it and put it at the disposal of the apostles.
So when you hold your meetings, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper, for each of you is in a rush to eat his own supper, and one goes hungry while another gets drunk. It is not that you have no houses to eat and drink in, is it? Or, are you trying to show your contempt for the church of God and trying to humiliate those who have no houses? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? No, I cannot praise you for this.
Therefore, as we have so vast a crowd of spectators in the grandstands, let us throw off every impediment and the sin that easily entangles our feet, and run with endurance the race for which we are entered,
If we claim "We are already free from sin," we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in our hearts. If we confess our sins, He is to be depended on, since He is just, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from every wrong. If we claim "We have not sinned," we are making Him a liar, and His message is not in our hearts.
Stop letting anyone deceive you with groundless arguments about these things, for it is because of these very sins that God's anger comes down upon the disobedient.
and: "A stone for them to stumble over and a rock to trip them up." They keep on stumbling over the message, because they are disobedient to it, and this is their appointed doom.
By this we can be sure that we know Him -- if we practice obedience to His commands. Whoever says, "I know Him," but does not practice obedience to His commands is a liar, and there is no truth in his heart;
Keep on pursuing love, but still keep cultivating your spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophesying. For whoever speaks in ecstasy is speaking not to men but to God, for no one understands him, and yet by the Spirit he is speaking secret truths. But whoever prophesies is speaking to men for their upbuilding. encouragement, and comfort.read more.
Whoever speaks in ecstasy builds up himself alone, but whoever prophesies builds up the congregation too. I would like for all of you to speak in ecstasy, but I would rather that you prophesy. The man who speaks with real prophetic insight renders greater service than the man who speaks in ecstasy, unless the latter explains it, so the congregation may receive an uplift. But as it now is, brothers, if I do come back to you speaking in ecstasy, what good shall I do you, unless my speech contains a revelation or new knowledge or a prophetic message or some teaching? Even inanimate things, like the flute or the harp, may give out sounds, but if there is no difference in the notes, how can the tune that is played on the flute or the harp be told? Again, indeed, if the bugle does not sound a call distinct and clear, who will prepare for battle? So it is with you; unless in your ecstatic speaking you speak a message that is clearly intelligible, how can the message spoken by you be understood? You might just as well be talking to the air! There are, supposedly, ever so many languages in the world, and not one is without its own meaning. So if I do not know the meaning of the language, I should be a foreigner to the man who speaks it, and he would be a foreigner to me. So, as you are ambitious for spiritual gifts, you must keep trying to excel for the upbuilding of the church. Therefore, the man who speaks in ecstasy must pray for power to explain what he says. For if I pray in ecstasy, my spirit is praying, but my mind produces no results for anyone. What is my conclusion then? I will certainly pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind in action too. I will certainly sing with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind in action too. For if you give thanks with your spirit only, how is the man who occupies the place of the illiterate to say "Amen" to your thanksgiving? For he does not know what you are saying. You are, indeed, doing right to give thanks, but your neighbor is not built up. Thank God, I speak in ecstasy more than any of you. But in the public congregation I would rather speak five words with my mind in action, in order to instruct the people too, than ten thousand words in ecstasy. Brothers, stop being children in intelligence, but as to evil keep on being babies; and yet as to intelligence be men of maturity.
Now about the foods that have been sacrificed to idols: We know that every one of us has some knowledge of the matter. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If a man supposes that he has already gotten some true knowledge, as yet he has not learned it as he ought to know it. But if a man loves God, God is known by him.read more.
So, as to eating things that have been sacrificed to idols, we are sure that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but One. For even if there are so-called gods in heaven or on earth -- as there are, indeed, a vast number of gods and lords -- yet for us there is but one God, the Father, who is the source of all things and the goal of our living, and but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom everything was made and through whom we live. But it is not in all of you that such knowledge is found. Some, because of their past habits with idols, even down to the present moment, still eat such food as was really sacrificed to an idol, and so their consciences, because they are overscrupulous, are contaminated. Food will never bring us near to God. We are no worse if we do not eat it; we are no better if we do. But you must see to it that this right of yours does not become a stumbling block to overscrupulous people. For if somebody sees you, who have an intelligent view of this matter, partaking of a meal in an idol's temple, will he not be emboldened, with his overscrupulous conscience, to eat the food which has been sacrificed to an idol? Yes, the overscrupulous brother, for whom Christ died, is ruined by your so-called knowledge. Now if in such a way you sin against your brothers and wound their overscrupulous consciences, you are actually sinning against Christ. So then, if food can make my brother fall, I will never, no, never, eat meat again, in order to keep my brother from falling.
Yet I hold it somewhat against you that you have among you some who are clinging to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to set a trap for the children of Israel, to entice them to eat the meat that had been sacrificed to idols and to commit immoral practices.
