Phantom Jutsu
I feel a little bad posting this with all of these real life questions, but I really do feel like it is a good question.
A lot of the role play Battles I have seen end in death, and it occurred to me; even if it is just for fun(although sometimes role play is done more in anger than for fun) is it okay to pretend to disobey God's law? Is it okay to act out in anger when some one is being a jerk and bullying you or your friends? Am I reading way too far into this or what?
please tell me your thoughts. I do want to be able to use my Gaia account to show Christ's likeness, but I also really enjoy role playing; so I'm not sure what that should look like.
It's hard for me to imagine a good role play battle that is filled with the fruits of the spirit.
Let me start off by saying I am an experienced Role Player. I have been role playing on various sites around the internet for 9 years, and been acting/role playing since I was in kindergarten. Role playing can be a source of temptation and sinful desires, but is it bad? Does it have to be? No.
Now...
"Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak...And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. This, sinning against your brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble."
~1 Corinthians 8:8-9,11-13
Ok, so looking at this some of you might be confused and trying to figure out what food has to do with RPing. For those who don't know the context of this story, let me explain. Back in Paul's time the law required much animal sacrifice, sometimes to God, but more often to idols. The sacrificed animals to appease the gods, to cleanse their sin, etc. Once they were done they had no more use to for the dead animal. Strictly speaking you're not supposed to eat an animal you sacrificed for your sins/to appease the god.
So what could they do? they sold it in the market place, made some money off of it. Of course the meat still isn't technically supposed to be eaten, but after it's sold who was going to know? This passage refers to this situation, there were some people of the time that were uncomfortable eating meat bought at the market place because they didn't know if it was the meat of a sacrifice. Especially for Christians, they didn't want to eat the meat of an animal sacrificed to an idol.
Looking again at the passage we begin to see a different meaning, lets take it part by part.
"Food will not commend us to God."
Our salvation is not based on what we do. Most people would agree on this, so to start off with After accepting Christ nothing cane take it away.
"we are no worse off if we do not eat it, and no better off if we do."
By this point i'll clarify that food can be substituted for role playing in this case, or really anything else. (Disclaimer: I say this within reason. For example a situation where something has become an idol, it is entirely different.) Essentially what is says is that by participating it really doesn't matter. It has no effect on us for better or worse. It doesn't put us in worse standing with God or better, doesn't earn us a jewel in heaven or lose us one. In Chris we are Free, we can do what we want without fear, it is out inherited right as children of God. Does that mean that we can continually sin intentionally and go to heaven? Let's read on.
'But take care that this right of yours does not become a stumbling block to the weak."
The answer is yes, you can still go to heaven even if you continue to sin intentionally, but here's the catch, Christ changes us. If he saves us we will change, our desires won't become for ourselves. We have the rights to do 'eat' without fear, but we are called to lay those rights down for others. Does it cause others to stumble? It it hurt other peoples relationship towards God? That is the real question when looking at something like this because, as he explains in vs. 11-12, is we cause them to sin by being inconsiderate we are held responsible.
"Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest i make my brother stumble."
So ultimately the answer is not it effects the other person. To take the extreme role playing example, mature romance RP's. In theory, if you role played a mature RP in a way where it wasn't done out of lust, maybe you wanted to show the blessings of God between a man and woman. Either way, you LEGITIMATELY do it out of a non-sinful intent. Could you do it without it harming your relationship with God? Yes. However, if it causes the other person TO lust, despite your intents, DON'T DO IT.
Please don't get to caught up on the example, that's not the point i'm trying to make, i'm just using an extreme example so you can at least SEE the difference i'm trying to make. It is up to your judgement if it's anything that causes the people are you role playing with to stumble or not, I hope this helps!!
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