Individual Soul Liberty
Judge: to judge or pronounce judgment; to condemn; assuming the office of a judge.
Discern: to distinguish between; to separate out so as to investigate; to examine, determine, or decide.
Individual soul liberty is the right of our brothers and sisters in Christ to have different opinions than us. Matthew 7:1, 2 We are not to judge someone who is truly saved. We don’t condemn them if they do things we wouldn’t do or maybe worship in a different style than we do. Matthew 7:16-20; Luke 6:43,44. On the other hand we need to be fruit inspectors and discern whether those who we fellowship with are truly Christians. For example, the easy-believist have infiltrated many Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, etc. churches. The easy believist teaches a head knowledge only so-called salvation. They teach you take Jesus as Savior at one time, then as Lord later. Since, Jesus is both Lord and Savior; He can not be taken only half at a time. Luke 2:11 Easy believist teach that just repeating a prayer saves you, not total surrendering to God (faith) which entails repentance from sin. By being wrong on salvation, the easy believist is not a Christian, because they haven’t repented of their sins and taken Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We can discern that they are not of the faith and avoid them. “Come out from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing.” II Corinthians 6:14-17.
If someone isn’t saved we don’t fellowship with them. We believe in salvation by faith. Ephesians 2:8,9. Roman Catholics believe in salvation by works. Since, they are not of the faith we do not fellowship with them. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” When we see a fruit tree with apples on it, we say that is an apple tree. We discern by the fruit what the tree is. We aren’t judging or being critical to say because the tree has apples on it that it must be an apple tree.
If someone is saved, then we defend their right to be wrong. We agree to disagree agreeably. I am a Baptist and believe in Baptism by full immersion. A Presbyterian believes in sprinkling. As long as they are right on salvation, then I will still fellowship with them, even though I may not agree with them on how much water to use in Baptism.
God commands us to have agape love for the brethren. John 13:34,35. If we love our brothers and sisters in Christ then we won’t be critical and judgmental of them. For example, someone may think women shouldn’t wear jeans much less to church, another sees nothing wrong with wearing jean shorts to church. We need not be critical, but allow the Holy Spirit to enlighten those who may not see things our way. God also through the Holy Spirit will enlighten us to the truth. The job to judge is God’s. Anytime we judge a brother or sister in Christ we usurp God’s authority and we sin.
We can and should correct someone if they are in outright sin though. We need to correct our brothers in a loving a manner. We need to speak the truth in love and is best done going to that brother in private. We need to pray first, to make sure that we ourselves aren’t the one in the wrong. Let’s be careful not to judge, but also not to allow sin in the camp either. We need not impede each other’s soul liberty. Some matters like adultery are worth correcting. Some matters like someone who wears a different name brand of jeans than us isn’t.
Individual soul liberty is to not judge, but we can discern. We do not judge fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, but we are to discern whether they are worthy of fellowship. The Bible tells us not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Not all that claim to be Christians are. We can not fellowship with the things of this world. We avoid doing sinful things after salvation. For example, Lev. 19:28 There isn’t such a thing as a Christian tattoo. Tattoos were used and many times still used to worship pagan deities. A Christian is to be separate from the things of this world. We can discern that this is a sin by applying the Bible.
There is a difference between judging or condemning a fellow believer and discerning whether someone is a Christian. We must be fruit inspectors and avoid being unequally yoked with unbelievers. With fellow believers we must respect their right to be wrong. We must not be critical of fellow believers, but love them the way God loves us. Individual soul liberty means that we allow the Holy Spirit to guide them, the same way He guides us. We let God show them truth and allow God to judge. We choose to disagree agreeably. We love fellow believers the way God loved us. We overlook their flaws and they overlook ours. We love each other in spite of being imperfect. We fellowship with each other regardless of denomination provided they are right on salvation. Individual soul liberty is the right of our brothers and sisters in Christ to have different opinions than us. We defend their right to be wrong to the death if needs be. We must love one another the way God loves us. He loves us so much that Jesus died for us. We need to have the same love for the brethren.
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