What
is a clear conscience?
Romans
14:13-23
I
couldn’t get away from the thought this week that today’s passage is
highlighting the “conscience.” I don’t know if I have ever heard a message dealing with
the conscience. Have you?
Paul states in Acts 23:1, in speaking to a Jewish council, "Men and
brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.”
Could you do that today – stand before a judge and say, “I have lived
in all good conscience before God until this day?
Do you live in “all good conscience?”
How does a person live in “all good conscience before God?”
This passage helps us understand what made Paul’s conscience clear.
I.
He lived for Christ’s APPROVAL.
13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather
resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's
way. 14 I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing
unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it
is unclean.
This phrase, “I know and am convinced
by the Lord Jesus . . .” is a key phrase. Before Paul puts anything in his
mouth, he wants the Lord’s approval. Do
you see the rather strong way he says it? “I
know and am convinced.” He wanted
to make sure that what he ate was OK with God.
He went before the Lord with his dinner menu, he searched the Scriptures
to find out what they said, he discussed the issue with others and listened to
their input. He didn’t want to do
anything until he was convinced that what he was doing was approved by his
Master, Jesus.
That’s why he can say, “I have come
to the conclusion, having been persuaded by the Lord, that no food is in itself
‘unclean,’ and will ruin my relationship with God.”
“I can eat meat offered to idols and it doesn’t take me away from
God.” “I can eat
chocolate covered locusts, and spinach covered cherries.”
That’s
the way Paul lived. He could have chosen his food on the basis of his opinion, or
feelings, or prejudices. But he
wanted Christ’s approval. How
often do we examine what we do in light of the Word of God, in light of what we
know that God wants us to do? “Lord
will you be satisfied with me eating this extra piece of pie? It is my fourth piece.”
Everyone around is saying, “go ahead, do it;” or “everyone else is
eating their fourth piece.
And this question expands to much more:
“Lord would you be satisfied with this TV program I am watching?” “With this music I am listening to?” “With this picture I am thinking of?” Paul consulted the Lord even over his diet.
What is a “clear conscience?” Living with the Lord’s approval.
This means examining your actions and desires – not those of your
neighbor. Someone has said, “an
unexamined life is not worth living.” A
clear conscience comes after the examination, after checking to see if what you
are doing is really what God wants you to do.
Notice
the command that led Paul to examine his diet before the Lord.
We see it in verse 13. In
essence, Paul says, “stop judging others, instead use your judging skills on
your own actions.” You don’t
have to judge others because God is going to judge them (verse 12).
He will deal with their problems. Instead
get serious about judging yourself because, God is going to judge YOU!
Judge yourself before He does. Don’t
let less important things distract you from the most important thing –
evaluating your own life before God.
Paul’s conclusion is that no food is
“unclean.” The word
“unclean” refers to something that would interrupt or ruin his relationship
with God. It’s something that would displease God, something to which
He has said “no.” Paul is not
talking about anything in the world there.
He is not saying, “nothing is good or ill, but thinking makes it so.”
There are things that are clearly unclean – lying, immorality,
stealing, coveting – whether you think they are unclean or not, they will
interrupt and ruin your relationship with God.
But in this passage Paul is talking about the controversy over food.
Some people thought they could eat any food, but others thought that meat
which had been offered to idols had poison in it, and that if they ate it, it
would ruin their relationship with God. They
viewed such meat as “unclean” and couldn’t eat it without fear that God
would judge them for their choice.
Paul had run the tests, he had
evaluated the meat and the way he cooked it in light of God’s will.
And so he ate in total confidence.
II.
He lived to protect others
(13-16)
13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather
resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's
way. 14 I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing
unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it
is unclean. 15 Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food,
you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for
whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil;
20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. 21 It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.
There
is more to living your life than what you are sure is right.
Even if you are absolutely convinced by Jesus Christ Himself that what
you are doing is right, that doesn’t mean you should do it.
Whether it is right for you, whether you have liberty
to do it is not the ultimate issue. There
is a more important question – are you hurting the kids? Suppose
I like to ride a sled down an ice covered road at breakneck speed.
It petrifies my kids, but I make them go with me; they scream and I laugh
all the way down. I figure they
need to grow up and experience a real scare.
Jesus
made four statements after He had set a little child in the middle of the
disciples: (1) "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become
as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. (2)
"Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (3) "Whoever receives one little
child like this in My name receives Me. (4) " But whoever causes one of
these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a
millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the
sea” (Matt. 18:3-6) (italics added).
In summary, Jesus says, “You ruin a
little child who believes on me and your life is not worth much.” The protection of a young believer is Jesus Christ’s
priority. Which means that what the
young believer thinks, what he concludes is very important.
And if he can’t eat this
meat offered to idols because he truly believes that it has poison in it that’s
important! And you don’t help him by saying, “oh, get over it, grow
up, get a life, quit being so childish.”
Why not? Because he may not
be able to get over it – at least not yet.
It’s a conviction inside, something that is a part of him, something
that controls his emotions.
Suppose I am careening down an ice
covered road at breakneck speed holding my 6 year old petrified daughter who is
in tears, screaming, and I say, “oh, get over it, grow up, enjoy the ride,
quit being so childish.” What
happens? I can do serious damage to
her. And I am doing nothing more
than exercising my freedom! Is
there anything wrong with sledding at high speed?
Not that I know of. Why go
down a hill anyway? Just to go
slow?
Every one of us knows how important it
is to protect our children. We have
a sacred responsibility to encourage them to grow up in a healthy way.
We go out of our way to do this in many areas, like their physical
well-being.
I
met an amazing example of child-protection a couple of days ago – the pastor
of Hagerstown Bible Church and his wife. Their
son could not eat anything that contained dairy products.
In fact his condition was so sensitive that he had to have a stomach tube
and a special formula designed in Europe. He
lived this way for years, in and out of hospitals, sometimes for weeks.
His mother had to stay with him all the time because the hospital staff
usually did not understand how critical his diet was.
At the same time there were six other children in the family to care for.
In the last six months his constitution is improving so that his body
will accept some dairy products. He
is now 17 years old. Can you
imagine the strain for the past 17 years? We
applaud those kinds of parents. In
a similar way, God wants us to be these kinds of parents to younger believers.
It is our sacred responsibility to encourage them to grow up in a healthy
way.
They may disagree with us on things
like clothes, food, music, Bible translations, and the days we ought to
celebrate in the church year. That’s
alright. We first of all need to
make sure, as we observed last week, that they understand that we welcome them
completely into our lives and include them in our circle of friends.
Then we want to understand them.
Some Christians only eat fish on Friday because they believe that other
kinds of meat affect their relationship with God.
Some Christians believe that wine and alcohol affect their relationship
with God. Some believe that certain styles of music are not from God
and are unclean.
What
do we do in those cases? Are their conclusions of any importance?
Should we just ignore them and call them childish?
Not if it is going to affect their walk with God.
There are people who are convinced that Halloween is wrong, that they
should have nothing to do with it. Should
I joke about that and blatantly practice my Halloween habits?
Not if it is going to hurt their walk with God.
Paul says, 15 Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food,
you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for
whom Christ died.
Paul says over in I Corinthians 8:13,
“Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat,
lest I make my brother stumble.” I
am free in Christ to eat anything. But
I am also free in Christ not to eat what might hurt a younger brother or
sister in Christ.
I can ride my sled down a steep hill as
fast as I want, but if I have a child with me I need to think about the event in
a different way. I am not free to
hurt my child in my search for personal excitement.
Have you ever thought about how your
actions are affecting others? What
does it say to young believers when you say, “I am only a Sunday morning
church person; I don’t come any other time?”
“Sitting in a chair and acting bored is for me the Christian life in
all its glory?” “Criticizing
others is the way we Christians make progress in Christ?”
“Ignoring young believers and new people is what Christ taught us to
do?” Is there anything wrong
with Sunday morning church only? No.
Is there anything wrong with sitting in a chair and acting
bored? No.
You may be excited inside. Is
there anything wrong with criticizing others?
Probably, especially in light of vs 13.
Is there anything wrong with ignoring young believers?
Do
you see where I am going? We have a sacred responsibility to the young, to do all we
can do to protect them. This means
interrupting our liberties to keep from causing them to stumble.
It means that we are interested in their health as much or more than our
fun, or our liberty.
And
what happens when I don’t care? When
we don’t care? When we tell young
believers to “get over it and grow up on their own?”
It’s the word “stumble.” It’s
the word “millstone around neck.” It’s
the word “drowned in the sea.” God
forbid that our lives as well as their lives should be wasted in that way.
III.
He lived to make others STRONG (17-19).
17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 For he who serves Christ in these
things is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 Therefore let us
pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may
edify another.
It’s not only protecting other
believers; it is doing what I can to strengthen them.
The Kingdom of God is not in eating or drinking.
Life is not found as much in rocketing down an ice covered road as much
as in leading my children to peace, and joy, and righteousness.
Christianity is a supernatural life
lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. You
have to eat and drink, but they are not the primary elements of real life.
The primary elements are relational, righteousness, peace,
and joy. God wants His people to
live in righteousness, peace, and joy. Are
you experiencing Righteousness, Peace and Joy today?
Is your neighbor? You say,
“how am I supposed to know?” “Who
cares about my neighbor?”
So
I am careening down an ice covered road hanging on to my screaming, petrified
child. I may think that I am
experiencing peace and joy, and life and thrill all rolled into one.
And God says, “what about your child?”
And I say, “how am I supposed to know?”
“Who cares about my child?” The
condition of my child is an integral part of real life.
Our mission statement says, “BBC is a
family of believers who love and worship God, love and care for His family, and
love and share Him with the world.” We
“love and care for His family.” How?
By helping them experience righteousness, peace and joy.
Once you experience that genuine righteousness and peace and joy in
the Holy Spirit, you want to share it; you want others to experience it.
Once you experience the joy and thrill of careening down an ice covered
hill on a sled, you want your children to experience the same joy and thrill.
And you realize that for them to have a similar joy and thrill in the
snow at their age may require a totally different activity.
You may not help them enjoy the snow at all by forcing them to experience
it your way.
What
do we do? Suppose your daughter
brings home a boyfriend who is, let’s say, “outside your expectations.”
Somehow, for some reason, he doesn’t fit your specifications. Important question: HOW do you, the father or the mother,
respond?
Two basic responses: 1. I will focus on myself and what I want and what I see as
right and best and I will impose my will on the situation.
Question: “Is my response going to cause them to stumble?”
What does stumble mean here? Is
it going to push them into sin? Is
it going to encourage them to disconnect with us and go their own ways apart
from us? Is it going to make it
more difficult for them to think through the issues seriously?
Is my response going to frustrate them in ways that make their lives more
difficult?
2.
I realize that my sacred duty is to my daughter and her new found friend
– at the expense of my agenda and what I may want to do.
The question is, “what can I do to help them grow?”
“What can I do to strengthen them in such a way that they can see more
clearly what the real issues are here?” They
are old enough so that they are going to have to start taking responsibility for
their decisions, and the help they need from you is wisdom as to how to do that.
The statement in verse 18 is, For
he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by
men. You
serve Christ in these things by asking yourself, “what can I do to help others
grow in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit?”
IV.
He lived to help others TRUST GOD
(22-23).
22 Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he
who does not condemn himself in what he approves. 23 But he who doubts is
condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for
whatever is not from faith is sin.
The goal is to help one another live by
faith – not only protecting them, and strengthening them, but helping them
stand on their own two feet of faith. Faith
means I am trusting God for this activity; I am obeying God.
I
can remember Charlie Hanshew talking to a student early in our quartet travels,
and saying, “the important thing is to do what God wants you to do.”
My reaction was, “you should say that the important thing is to come to
the Washington Bible College.” After
all that’s why we are out. We are
being paid big bucks to recruit students. But
a far more important thing is to help them face the issue by faith – what does
God want? Are we going to help them
design their future life in terms of what God wants?
Paul
wanted to make sure that every decision had the approval of God.
“Lord will you be satisfied with me eating this extra piece of pie? It is my fourth piece.”
Everyone around is saying, “go ahead, do it;” or everyone else is
eating their 4th piece.
Faith introduces us to a one-to-one
relationship with God. That
relationship lifts us above the influence of the crowd and the TV and the world
around us so that we respond as David did with “shall I go up?” and get our
directions from the Lord Himself, in a minute-by-minute relationship with Him.
The more you refuse the things that
“convict you in your conscience” the more you live in fellowship with Him. The more you live in that assurance that this is what
God wants me to do right now, the more you live in that
“righteousness, and peace and joy of the Holy Spirit.”
On the other hand, when you live with your conscience saying, “are you
sure?” you will live in disappointment and discouragement. Because that kind of life condemns you and is the essence of
sin – doing what you want to do (23).
We ought to be able to say with Paul in I Cor 10, “whether therefore
you eat, or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God” (10:31).
Sin is not just eating the wrong kind
of food. Sin is living without
faith – whether you eat all the right kind of food or not.
If you do something because someone else did it, if you do it because
someone else told you to do it, if you do it to impress others that you can do
it, are you doing it in faith?
The
key to the Christian life is, “will I walk with God?”
“Will I trust His directions and obey them?”
And in process of walking with God is the question, “will I walk with
others, by living to edify them and build them up?”
Will I take that as a sacred trust?
So what are you eating for lunch?
Do what God wants you to do. And
ask God, “are any young believers getting hurt by my actions?”
“What am I doing to strengthen them in righteousness, peace, and
joy?”
10/02/05,
BBC am
28Rom14'14-23.MEF, 12/13/05