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The first question of the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) asks, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” Answer: “That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” The idea that we belong to Jesus comes directly out of the Bible, and if you put that idea into practice, it will change the way you live.

Romans 14.5-8 clearly states the idea of belonging to Jesus: 

One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 

In these verses, Paul is continuing the argument he began at 14.1: “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.” As I demonstrated yesterday, Christian nonjudgmentalism is rooted in a distinction between moral principles and personal preferences. All of us must make judgments about the application of moral principles. But we should not make judgments about personal preferences. How we use our freedom is between us and God, not between you and me. 

But our freedom of choice in matters of personal preference is constrained by two factors: First, as Paul puts it, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” Just because you are free to do something doesn’t mean that you should. Take drinking alcohol, for example. The Bible explicitly prohibits drunkenness, not drinking (Ephesians 5.18). In other words, sobriety is a moral principle applicable to all Christians, but drinking is a personal preference available to some Christians. Just because you can drink doesn’t mean you should, however. If your conscience tells you not to drink, and you drink anyway, you have violated your conscience. You have acted without being “fully convinced in [your] own mind.” 

The second factor constraining our freedom of choice is our relationship to God. Notice how often Paul repeats the phrase, “to the Lord,” in verses 5-8. Whatever we do, we should always ask what God thinks is best for us to do and what would bring him the most glory. To use the example of drinking alcohol again, remember that at the wedding in Cana, Jesus brought God the most glory when he turned water into wine (John 2.1-12). But John the Baptist brought God the most glory when he took a lifelong vow of abstaining from alcohol (Luke 1.13-17). 

Christian freedom, then, does not mean doing whatsoever we want to do. We belong to the Lord. No, freedom means doing whatever God thinks is best in a given situation.