A Christlike Conscience

Hello!

This week in Scripture I came upon Romans Chapter 14. The whole chapter has a lot to unpack. But I wanted to share a few of my thoughts and what I am learning!

Here’s the chapter in the NIV version:

The Weak and the Strong

14 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them.

4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written:

“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’”

12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.

19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

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Like I said in previous topics, the concept of freedom has recently been intriguing me. A Christian counselor gave me a scenario to help better paint the picture of freedom in everyday life.

She told me that her brother was once trying to make a decision regarding which two job options he should take. Both offered benefits, but he didn’t know which would be better. He didn’t know what God would prefer him to do.

So he told his wife he was going to go to a quiet place to pray. He said he would not be back until he heard from God which choice he should go with.

After some time, he came back and met his wife in the kitchen- twirling her around and dancing. This was highly out of character for him, and his wife was confused.

As she wondered what had gotten into him and what had happened during his quiet time, he expressed that “God actually didn’t care which of the two options he chose.”

The counselor told me that if I’m ever faced with a decision, and I am not sure which direction to choose to remember her brother dancing in the kitchen because God didn’t have a preference.

Of course, in some cases, God definitely has a preference regarding what choice we make. But, in many cases, we have the freedom to choose. Oftentimes more than one option can be beneficial to ourselves, others, and the Kingdom.

This chapter of Romans speaks to different degrees of freedom that humanity faces. Certainly, we are all free, yet this freedom is not realized or fully accepted by everyone. We certainly operate on a spectrum of freedom- some at 1, others at 5, and few towards 10- a total freedom.

My Moody Bible Commentary tells me that

“What Paul really says is, "As one who has been taught by the Lord Jesus, no food is unclean in itself." The Lord Jesus did say that. It was he who said, "No food is unclean." He does not mean that all foods are good for you; some foods are not; some things you can eat are highly poisonous. Jesus does not mean that everything is all right to take in; he means that there is no moral question about food. It is never wrong, morally, to eat what your body may enjoy. Jesus taught that himself, and Paul says, "That is enough for me. That sets me free." But that is not the only problem involved. The conscience needs to be trained by this new insight into liberty. One person's conscience may move much slower than another's, therefore, we are to adjust to one another's needs along this line.”

I liken this to crossing a swinging bridge over a mountain stream. There are people who can run across a bridge like that, even though it does not have any handrails. They are not alarmed by it, they can keep their balance well. They are not concerned about the swaying of the bridge, or the danger of falling into the torrent below. That is fine; some people can do that. But others cannot. You watch them go out on a bridge like that, and they are very uncertain. They shake and tremble; they inch along. They may even get down on their hands and knees and crawl across. But they will make it if you just give them time, if you let them set their own speed. After a few crossings, they begin to pick up courage, and eventually they are able to run right across. It is like that with these moral questions. Some people just cannot see themselves moving in a certain area that they have been brought up to think is wrong; they have difficulty doing so. As in the case of the swinging bridge, it would be cruel for someone who had the freedom to cross boldly to take the arm of someone who was timid and drag them across, to force them to run across. They might even lose their balance and fall off the bridge and suffer injury… (Steadman, n.d.).

Clearly, you cannot force freedom on anyone. It is a personal choice. At 20, I am learning that I have the job of freedom.

I think a lot of embracing the freedom that Christ involves training our conscience to be in alignment with Christ. And this is really hard because most of us are stubborn. We like what we like, and we like to judge others we don't agree with.

I recently learned that our freewill as humans and Christians involve the following three things:

1. Choice of volunteer muscle movement

2. Choice of attention focus

3. Choice of thought-stream

In the psychological realm, these 3 things are largely involved in exposure therapy. People are usually able to overcome their fears, triggers, traumas, etc. through exposure, reshaping their thoughts, redirecting their focus, etc.

“Do you know what he felt like when God told him to eat some food that his conscience felt strongly was wrong to eat? In fact, Peter continued to struggle with training his conscience on this detail months or maybe even years later (Gal 2:11-13). We know this because sometime later, Paul confronted him for leaving the table with Gentiles when certain Jewish people came around. He didn’t want them to see him eating with Gentile Christians. The struggle to train or retrain our conscience to match God’s Word is not always about getting stricter, is it? And it’s not always easy to do, at least not quickly. The key to retraining our conscience is not waiting until our conscience feels okay with doing a certain thing or not. It’s doing what we know the Word of God clearly teaches, even when our conscience disagrees. Once you’ve acquainted yourself with the clear teaching of the Bible on a certain subject (not just one isolated verse or another which may easily be taken out of context), you are free (even obligated before God) to act in a different way, even though your conscience disagrees. Over time (sometimes quicker than others), your conscience will adapt to God’s Word. But in the meantime, you should humbly do what God’s Word teaches you to do, just as Peter submitted to God’s will and ate kosher food” (Overmiller, 2020).

A lot of life’s upset comes from our narrow mindsets. We get stuck in our ways.

Many eating disorder patients get stuck in their food rituals.

Many exercise addicts believe their is only one way to workout.

Many straight A students believe that making a B would ruin their future.

Many parents believe they must control their children and protect them from hurt at all costs.

Many adults believe there's only one way to succeed and make money.

Though our narrow mindedness may favor a way of living that is beneficial and even admirable, it is important to consider alternate routes that God may also deem acceptable. Perhaps even ones that would strengthen our faith in God.

The truth is that we have more freedom in Christ than we perhaps will ever know what to do with.

Romans 14 and the online articles discussed in this blog present a challenge for sure- if not for you then definitely for me.

We all need to ask ourselves the question, “Is there anything that my conscience feels strongly about based upon past teaching or bad experiences that is not in line with God’s Word?”

"Refusing to study God’s Word with the prospect of training your conscience more accurately also means that you may be choosing to permanently cut off possible witnessing opportunities for the gospel. Is that okay with you? It shouldn’t be” (Overmiller, 2020).

We have the job of freedom, and the responsibility to discern when the best time to exercise that freedom. And this should be based upon if it will help ourselves and others (rather than serving as a stumbling block). Luckily, the freedom that Christ gives us also involves freedom from condemnation when we mess up. Praise God because your girl is so far from perfect !!!

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

Psalm 34:5 (NIV)

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesusthe law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:1-4 (NIV)

Talk to you next week!

• Bailee Chavez,

your always learning- never perfect- weekly blogger <3

References

Rydelnik et al. (2014). The moody bible commentary. Moody Publishers.

Stedman, R. (n.d.). The right to yield (Romans 14:13-23). RayStedman.org. aaaaahttps://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/romans/the-right-to-yield

Overmiller. (2020, July 1). Training and retraining our conscience. Shepherd Thoughts. aaaaahttps://shepherdthoughts.com/baptistchurchny/training-and-retraining-our-conscience/