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When Christians disagree about conduct

9/22/2017

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As near as I can understand it, the vast majority of problems in life are relational – they relate to God, to other people, or to our own conscience. The specific problem among the believers in Rome was whether of not it was okay to eat meat that probably had been offered to idols before being sold in the market place. Since scripture had nothing to say on the issue, Paul urged those who ate meat not to look down on those who didn’t, and those, in turn ,not to judge those who did. The answer to the problem was for each side to give up their divisive attitude and look for ways to live with the others in peace and mutual support.
         Regardless of their position on this issue, neither side should do anything to cause the others to stumble (v. 20).  Let’s say that the Smith family could eat the meat with a clear conscience, but the Jones family couldn’t. Does this mean that each one should go their own way or is there something else involved in the decision? There is. When the Jones family watched the Smith family having a good roast barbeque, and the Smiths invited them over, they decided that it must be okay so against their better judgment they joined the party. That’s good, one might say. Not so, says Paul because in this situation the Smiths are guilty of influencing the Jones to act against their conscience (check v. 20 again). At the same time the Jones family stands condemned because they went ahead and did something they weren’t sure was right (v. 23).
         Conscience is a good workable guide for conduct, but for the believer it needs to be fine tuned by scripture. While is wrong for a person to act against their conscience, it often happens that some believers are overly sensitive about almost everything. One of Satan’s best tricks is to make the Christian feel guilty. It works in his favor to encourage the overly sensitive to develop an abnormal concern about everything. “Could this be wrong?” they wonder. “Perhaps almost everything is wrong!” I can see Satan rubbing his hands together in glee as he strategizes about how to use God’s gift of conscience to work against what God wants to happen. Clever! In fact, diabolical!
         So, here is Paul’s position on the problem of the morally neutral items in the life of first century Christians (the adiaphora) and for members of our  local churches some two thousand years later:
         Don’t judge or look down on how the other person acts when it  comes to the less significant       issues of life.
         Don’t let your freedom cause the other person to act in a way that violates their conscience.
         Be sure that your concern to do it right doesn’t become so all-encompassing that you feel guilty for everything you do.
 
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    Robert H Mounce
    President Emeritus
    Whitworth University
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