Limiting Our Liberty to Influence Others

“Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.” - Romans 14:13

Liberty That Loves

One of the marks of spiritual maturity is how a leader handles liberty. A new believer often asks, “What am I allowed to do?” A growing believer asks, “What can I do to glorify God?” But a mature believer asks, “What can I give up to help others grow?”

Paul lived in the tension between freedom and love, rights and responsibility, grace and guidance. He said in 1 Corinthians 9:19, “For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.” His liberty was always leveraged for influence.

Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Liberty does not mean license; it means the freedom to become all that you can in Christ and to serve others without fear.”  Our calling as leaders is not to flaunt freedom, but to focus it; to limit what we can do for the sake of what we should do.

Legalism: The Fence that Becomes a Prison

Legalism attempts to earn God’s favor through manmade rules. It emphasizes outward conformity over inward transformation. Jesus confronted this in the Pharisees, saying, “Ye have made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition” (Matthew 15:6). Legalism replaces conviction with comparison and holiness with hypocrisy.

Legalism is man’s attempt to do the work of the Holy Spirit.

License: The Freedom that Becomes Folly

License abuses grace and dulls sensitivity to sin. Paul warned, “Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh” (Galatians 5:13). When grace becomes a shield for selfishness, liberty morphs into rebellion. John Stott observed, “Christian freedom is freedom from sin, not freedom to sin.”

Love: The Balance that Becomes Blessing

Love is the balance between the two extremes. Love limits liberty for the sake of others. “Take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak” (1 Corinthians 8:9).

7 Principles For Leaders To Consider

I. The Principle of Love: “Let Love Lead Your Liberty.”

Love must be the motive behind every decision of freedom. Paul’s conviction was clear: “If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth” (1 Corinthians 8:13).

Paul refused to enjoy something permissible if it caused pain to another believer. Mature leaders don’t measure actions by their freedom but by their impact. When D. L. Moody was once offered a glass of wine at a banquet, he declined, knowing that a young believer struggling with alcohol sat nearby. He later said, “I would rather abstain than cause pain.”

Love looks beyond personal comfort and considers another’s conscience. Charles Spurgeon said, “Discretion is the salt of liberty; without it, freedom soon spoils.”

Love must lead our liberty because love seeks the highest good of others. A self-focused leader asks, “Can I?” A Spirit-filled leader asks, “Should I?”

II. The Principle of Limitation: “Let Boundaries Bless.”

Paul wrote, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Corinthians 6:12).

The mature believer understands that the best use of liberty is not always the broadest. Liberty must be guided by edification and self-control. Oswald Chambers noted, “The surrendered life is not bound by law, but by love that limits itself for the sake of others.”

A spiritual leader’s self-restraint becomes his strength. He understands that the way to lead effectively is to model boundaries that bless, not boundaries that boast.

A professional pianist once said, “I practice scales daily so that when freedom comes, it sounds like music, not chaos.” Likewise, a leader’s disciplined limits produce spiritual harmony. Limitation isn’t a loss; it’s leadership wisdom. What you forgo for others’ sake becomes what you gain in influence.

III. The Principle of Leadership: “Let Your Example Educate.”

Romans 14:7 declares, “For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.” 

Every decision you make teaches something. Leadership magnifies lifestyle. When Paul wrote to Timothy, “Be thou an example of the believers” (1 Timothy 4:12), he meant that ministry influence flows more from who we are than what we say.

A young man once justified a compromise by saying, “My pastor does it.” That pastor’s liberty became another man’s license to sin. John Maxwell put it succinctly: “People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do.”

Leaders must recognize that liberty without leadership becomes recklessness. Your actions shape others’ appetites, and your example can either elevate or excuse.

IV. The Principle of Lifting: “Let Your Liberty Build, Not Break.”

Paul wrote, “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another” (Romans 14:19). The word “edify” means “to build up.” Mature believers use their liberty to construct, not to cause collapse.

When a leader insists on his rights rather than investing in others’ growth, he shifts from being a builder to a bulldozer. Warren Wiersbe said, “When we major on the minors, we destroy the very ones we are called to disciple.”

Bridge engineers add supports where the weight is greatest. Spiritually, wise leaders do the same; they add encouragement where others struggle. Liberty is never neutral; it either strengthens or stumbles someone. Choose to lift, not loosen.

V. The Principle of Leverage: “Let Liberty Advance the Gospel.”

Paul’s philosophy in 1 Corinthians 9:22–23 is one of the clearest statements of gospel-centered flexibility: “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”

He adapted his cultural approach without compromising his moral convictions. He used liberty as leverage for evangelism.

Missionary Hudson Taylor adopted Chinese dress and customs to identify with those he served. Traditionalists criticized him, but converts followed him to Christ. Paul leveraged freedom for the gospel, not for gratification. “Unto the Jews I became as a Jew… to them that are without law, as without law.” (1 Corinthians 9:20–21).

Our liberty should never distract from the gospel; it should display it. When liberty becomes leverage for evangelism, it fulfills its highest purpose.

VI. The Principle of Listening: “Let Conscience Convict Before Culture Corrects.”

Romans 14:22–23 warns, “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat…”

A tender conscience is one of the most powerful tools of leadership integrity. Leaders who ignore conviction eventually invite correction, whether from God or public opinion.

A. W. Tozer wrote, “A tender conscience is a safeguard to a holy life.”

When a ship’s compass is off by only one degree, it can drift hundreds of miles off course. The same is true of a conscience that ignored. It leads to quiet ruin long before visible failure. Listen when the Spirit whispers. The culture will shout later. It’s far better to lose a liberty than to lose your testimony.

VII. The Principle of Lowliness: “Let Sacrifice Speak Louder Than Self.”

The supreme example of limiting liberty is Jesus Christ Himself. Philippians 2:6-8 describes His humility: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation…”

Christ, who was free to reign, chose to serve. He limited Himself for our redemption.

Corrie ten Boom kept a box labeled “Things I Have Given Up for Jesus.” She said, “Each sacrifice became a seed of greater joy.” Spiritual leaders resemble Christ most when they willingly give up what they could keep, in order to lift those they lead.

Oswald Sanders said, “The measure of a man’s greatness is not what he achieves, but what he is willing to give up for others.” Lowliness is leadership. Every surrendered right becomes a stepping stone for someone else’s growth.

Paul summarized it beautifully in Romans 15:1–2: “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.” The strongest spiritual leaders are those who gladly surrender their rights to strengthen others' faith. Liberty is not the right to do what we please; it’s the power to do what pleases Christ.

Leaders limit their liberty not because they have to but because they love the One they follow and the ones they lead.