Paul tells us to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who of his good pleasure works [Gr. energeō] in you both the will and the performance” (Philippians 2:12-13).
Who is in a position to test whether this energeō from the Holy Spirit is even within us, and that we are not making our own intuition and preferences automatically equivalent to the Holy Spirit? Do we wait for someone to give us an answer before we act? Are we even required to wait? I think that it is best to give the Holy Spirit the benefit of the doubt lest we end up doubting God and not making use of the supernatural discernment that we are supposed to have. No one can be a replacement for this, anyway, whether we have it or not.
Do we let God put limits on our liberty; or, do we let the Church put limits on our liberty? These are not one and the same. When the Holy Spirit within us tempers our fallen nature by grace, then we can be truly free. When the Church attempts to do it only by imposing rules and regulations, then we are not truly free. “For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13. Cf. 5:4; Romans 8:21; 2Corinthians 3:17). There will always be those who use freedom for the purpose of sinning, but this does not invalidate Christian freedom. Without it, we are rejecting the liberation that the Holy Spirit can bring us. There is no Christianity without this; and we are left with a powerless form of godliness.
Much to ponder deeply by being honest with our own self!
Paul tells us to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who of his good pleasure works [Gr. energeō] in you both the will and the performance” (Philippians 2:12-13).
Who is in a position to test whether this energeō from the Holy Spirit is even within us, and that we are not making our own intuition and preferences automatically equivalent to the Holy Spirit? Do we wait for someone to give us an answer before we act? Are we even required to wait? I think that it is best to give the Holy Spirit the benefit of the doubt lest we end up doubting God and not making use of the supernatural discernment that we are supposed to have. No one can be a replacement for this, anyway, whether we have it or not.
Do we let God put limits on our liberty; or, do we let the Church put limits on our liberty? These are not one and the same. When the Holy Spirit within us tempers our fallen nature by grace, then we can be truly free. When the Church attempts to do it only by imposing rules and regulations, then we are not truly free. “For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13. Cf. 5:4; Romans 8:21; 2Corinthians 3:17). There will always be those who use freedom for the purpose of sinning, but this does not invalidate Christian freedom. Without it, we are rejecting the liberation that the Holy Spirit can bring us. There is no Christianity without this; and we are left with a powerless form of godliness.