Most of you have probably seen the new title and the new focus of my blog. And a lot of you are probably wondering what in the world it means. Well, here is an explanation as well as a preview of some of the things that I would like to be doing on my blog in the future.
The phrase 'preference and principle' is actually a question. It is asking the question whether our conviction is a preference or a principle. Christianity today is full of people who draw lines in the sands over things that are not rock hard principles, but only personal preferences. For instance, the way a church leads worship is a very controversial subject. Many people are really turned off by the drums or a guitar. Some people think we should sing hymns only. Some people think that a piano is all that should play or that we should even sing without instruments.
These beliefs are often thought to be hard principles that every Christian should hold to, when in reality they are actually personly preferences when it comes to music and worship. I know I have been guilty of pressing my own preferences on someone else and mistaking them for principles. This is exactly what the Pharisees did. They made the extra fence around the law and called in principle. If anyone broke the extra laws they created to protect the law, they were considered to have broken the law itself.
Preference and principle will be exercises of discernment in our world. Ephesians 5:10 says that we are to discern what is pleasing to the Lord and we know that we are to test that which we come across to see whether it matches the will of God. I will be applying this test to various movements, books, thoughts, and whatever comes up.
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2 comments:
We had a sunday school series on this- it was such a relief to know what the difference was between a conviction, opinion or preference. We throw the word "conviction" around too much. Conviction refers to a flat out sin, but most "convictions" people talk about are mere preferences.
Happy Birthday Mr. 26!!!
To avoid anything that subverts the primacy of preaching would be a principle worth holding onto. That would be the place where I would draw the line. There's certainly plenty of room for preferences in worship, but some things are nonnegotiable.
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