As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
Believers are free, yet they remain servants of God, so liberty is to be exercised in obedience and well-doing and godly living and never used as a cloak for maliciousness or wrongdoing or evil. One born of God becomes a free soul as God designed, set free not to continue in sin or to perpetuate sin by practice but to be free to practice virtue and holiness under Christ's rule. That liberty must not be used to oppress others or to speak bitterness, but must be used with consistency of conduct in words, in patience, and in meekness that reveals Christ in the heart.
Using the Christian name and profession as a cloak to hide evil deeds misuses this liberty, as when those who bear Christ's name serve themselves and money and sell their integrity for worldly gain. Calling oneself a Christian while remaining unchristlike in words, in spirit, and in business dealings is using the Christian name to cover evil, and claiming to believe God's Word and to make it the rule of action while following an inconsistent course dishonors the name of Christ and His church and brings reproach upon the truth. Pretending to be saints while acting like the worst sinners also encourages others to go astray.
Toward civil authorities the verse requires doing what is right rather than using freedom as an excuse for malicious or defiant conduct, with careful submission to every lawful human ordinance for the Lord's sake and with well-doing and restraint that puts to silence the ignorance of foolish men, silences ignorant criticism, and avoids giving a false impression. It forbids using freedom as a cloak for maliciousness, defiance, boasting, sharp retaliation, personal thrusts, retaliation, anger, and actions that could be seen as malicious. It forbids any unwise word or act that awakens prejudice, cuts off influence, ties the hands, and hedges up the work.
In facing civil restrictions the verse does not permit passionate resistance when liberty about Sunday work is taken away, but calls for prayer and trust in God to restrain rulers. It does not require obedience when a requirement shows disrespect to the Seventh-day Sabbath and violates God's law, and there eternal interests require firm refusal, obedience to God rather than man, and patient endurance of suffering while still refusing requirements that show disrespect to the Sabbath. God has chosen a people out of the world to remain forever separate from the world, living in the world without being of the world and kept free from its contaminating influences. Freedom as God's servants is lived out in laboring in the manner the Lord designed, with right relations between physicians and their brethren, with the medical missionary work bound up with the gospel ministry instead of being made the body, without binding up with worldlings by inviting them into councils and without dishonoring the truth by bringing worldly lawyers into connection with the work of God.
Believers are free, yet they remain servants of God, so liberty is to be exercised in obedience and well-doing and godly living and never used as a cloak for maliciousness or wrongdoing or evil. One born of God becomes a free soul as God designed, set free not to continue in sin or to perpetuate sin by practice but to be free to practice virtue and holiness under Christ's rule. That liberty must not be used to oppress others or to speak bitterness, but must be used with consistency of conduct in words, in patience, and in meekness that reveals Christ in the heart.
Using the Christian name and profession as a cloak to hide evil deeds misuses this liberty, as when those who bear Christ's name serve themselves and money and sell their integrity for worldly gain. Calling oneself a Christian while remaining unchristlike in words, in spirit, and in business dealings is using the Christian name to cover evil, and claiming to believe God's Word and to make it the rule of action while following an inconsistent course dishonors the name of Christ and His church and brings reproach upon the truth. Pretending to be saints while acting like the worst sinners also encourages others to go astray.
Toward civil authorities the verse requires doing what is right rather than using freedom as an excuse for malicious or defiant conduct, with careful submission to every lawful human ordinance for the Lord's sake and with well-doing and restraint that puts to silence the ignorance of foolish men, silences ignorant criticism, and avoids giving a false impression. It forbids using freedom as a cloak for maliciousness, defiance, boasting, sharp retaliation, personal thrusts, retaliation, anger, and actions that could be seen as malicious. It forbids any unwise word or act that awakens prejudice, cuts off influence, ties the hands, and hedges up the work.
In facing civil restrictions the verse does not permit passionate resistance when liberty about Sunday work is taken away, but calls for prayer and trust in God to restrain rulers. It does not require obedience when a requirement shows disrespect to the Seventh-day Sabbath and violates God's law, and there eternal interests require firm refusal, obedience to God rather than man, and patient endurance of suffering while still refusing requirements that show disrespect to the Sabbath. God has chosen a people out of the world to remain forever separate from the world, living in the world without being of the world and kept free from its contaminating influences. Freedom as God's servants is lived out in laboring in the manner the Lord designed, with right relations between physicians and their brethren, with the medical missionary work bound up with the gospel ministry instead of being made the body, without binding up with worldlings by inviting them into councils and without dishonoring the truth by bringing worldly lawyers into connection with the work of God.