Imaginary Grace

A few years ago I published what I thought to be an excellent article by a profound writer friend entitled, "Saying No to the Needs of Others." Along with it, I included his picture. The photo showed him with a cigar in his mouth. As I mentioned to my readers at the time, I inserted the picture purposely to see how much grace some had. It's always good to check up on ourselves from time to time to see if we have what Paul calls, "true grace," or if it be only imaginary. How embarrassing to find you're not as spiritual as you thought yourself to be.

Out of all our readers, many of whom wrote concerning the blessing they received from the article, there was one very unhappy fundamentalist who took me to task. He apparently did not read the article; he only saw the stogie. Ironically, he didn't attack the one with the Havana between his lips, but me personally. It seems he was upset with my apparent (to him) sinful life-style, and what he saw as my abuse of grace in condoning and propagating sin. I'm sure he was not aware of the wonderful compliment he was giving me (Romans 3:8).

I would not have been offended in the least had I been in the presence of the great Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, when he lit up a cigar; nor would have I been when the renowned Bible expositor, G. Campbell Morgan, smoked his eight a day. Also, many of the Puritans when drinking a glass of wine.To do so would only have proven me to be the weak brother (Romans 14). And I'd like to think myself a little more mature than those who get upset at questionable things such as these and other things.

I like what C.S. Lewis has to say on this issue in his book, Mere Christianity. He writes, "One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing without wanting everyone else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons-marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning."

"Not only do some people frustrate the grace of God, but it frustrates them!