Matthew 11:16-19 says. “But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like little children sitting in the market places, who call to the others and say, We have played the flute to you, and you did not dance; we have sung a dirge, and you did not mourn. For John came neither eating nor drinking; and they say, He has a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking; and they say, Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard.” Here we see that the Lord Jesus did not lay down any strict rules. He did not lay down stringent guidelines for outward Christian behavior. He said that John came neither eating nor drinking, while He came eating and drinking. This is the Christian way. Christians are not fettered by outward forms of eating and drinking. Both “eating and drinking” and “neither eating nor drinking” are right. These are not the basic issues. John lived in the wilderness, while the Lord Jesus attended the marriage feast in Cana. There was nothing unchristian about John’s not eating, and there was nothing unchristian about the Lord Jesus’ eating. Since we have the glorious things of Christ, everything else becomes a minor issue. Our concept has to be turned around. Do not dwell on the minor things. Do not make them the essential things of your life. Please bear in mind that a Christian is not one who eats and drinks, nor one who does not eat and drink.
Philippians 4:11-13 says, “Not that I speak according to lack, for I have learned, in whatever circumstances I am, to be content. I know also how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to hunger, both to abound and to lack. I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me.” Please bear in mind that a Christian can be abased or abound, filled or hungry, in abundance or in want. He can be filled, and he can be abased. We accept all discipline from the Holy Spirit. As long as it is under the Lord’s sovereign arrangement, we can be hungry or filled. We can be in want or in abundance. In other words, we can be flexible in all things. In everything that we do, the Lord is the One who empowers us. This is the positive focus. Everything else is minor and insignificant.
I hope that you will learn this lesson before the Lord. This is what it means to have a flexible life. A Christian is neither an ascetic nor a glutton. Christians do not practice asceticism, and they do not practice indulgence. They live a flexible life. The outward living of a Christian is always governed by the discipline of the Holy Spirit, not by his own choice.
Paul’s word in 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 is very special in regard to how a Christian should live: “Those who have wives should be as though they had none, and those who weep as though they did not weep, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, and those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use the world as though they did not abuse it; for the fashion of this world is passing away.” This is a Christian. Outward things do not matter because the Lord who dwells in us is so much greater than these things. Man tries to suppress these things or to abstain from them. This only proves how strong these things are. The more a person practices asceticism, the more he is filled with lust. Only those who are filled with Christ have no need of asceticism. Those who have wives may be as though they had none. Those who do not have wives will not ask for them. It does not matter whether one weeps or rejoices. Those who buy are as those who do not possess, and those who use the world are as those who do not use it. Christians are transcendent over all things. The Christian life is not a life of asceticism but a life of transcendency. It transcends everything.