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did not intend conscience to do, and to explain how your conscience works, how to care for it, and
If you heard that a judge accused of a crime had decided to hear his own case, you’d laugh.
conscience is like a judge who comes to hear hiss wn case
You can damage the gift of conscience, just as you can damage other gifts from God. Oddly enough, you can damage it in two opposite ways: by making it insensitive and by making it oversensitive.
“We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29)? That holds true even when the “man” happens to be you! You must God rather than yourself.
Whenever “obey conscience!” collides with “obey God!,” “obey God!” must come out on top—every time. Thankfully, a Christian with a well-calibrated conscience will rarely have to make this choice.
Our starting point is to read and reflect on all of the passages in which conscience (translating syneidēsis) appears in the New Testament. Only then can we responsibly attempt to define the word. Conscience occurs twice in Acts, twenty times in Paul’s letters, five times in Hebrews, and three times in 1 Peter. As you read all these passages, notice the words that occur along with the word conscience. You can learn a lot about a word by studying the words that often accompany it. For example, imagine that you were trying to figure out what a car door is. You might study a sampling of one
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on dsefining a word
In the Greek text, “conscience” is the grammatical subject of the verb “encouraged” (or
When you embolden your brothers and sisters to disregard their moral consciousness (even if it’s misinformed), you are sinning against them by causing them to feel intense guilt since their misinformed (and thus oversensitive) moral consciousness condemns them. In that way, you also sin against Christ.
3. Conscience functions as a guide, monitor, witness, and judge.
funtions of conscience
When we share the gospel with non-Christians, we should stress this incredible promise of a clean conscience.
we miss out on talking about the blessings of a clean conscoencd
God forgives and covers all their sin, and he never counts that sin against them for all eternity because he counted that sin against Christ instead. Only this message can comfort a non-Christian’s guilt-racked conscience.
The war against indwelling sin grows only stronger. This is because your knowledge about God’s will in the Scriptures usually increases at a faster pace than you can put that knowledge into practice. And that gap between knowledge and obedience grows as the years go on (see figure
yoir knowledge of Gods will grows faster than your ability to carry it out
Now we can have a “clear conscience” (Heb. 13:18).
“The possession of a good conscience is ‘the best pillow’ for enjoying a peaceful Christian
As a general rule, you should assume that your conscience is reliable, even if it isn’t perfect. And since conscience is usually right, the Bible says that we should do what our conscience says until we are convinced from Scripture that it needs adjusting.
Christians are called to do much better: to cultivate conscience rather than to stifle its occasional chirps.”
Christians are called to cultivaate conscience not convenjently or undiscernikngly enjoy the "benefits" of a weak one
Paul himself had a strong and confident conscience on these matters (Rom. 15:1), but he never explicitly commanded the weak in conscience to change their theologically uninformed standards. He left room for a conscience that had not yet been corrected or calibrated on specific issues.
Having said that, it’s also clear from Romans 14 that the strong in faith do not necessarily please God any more than the weak in faith. Both can glorify God, and both can sin against God.
whether strong conscience or weak, nejither glorofies God more than the other
That’s essentially what calibrating is: aligning an instrument with a standard to ensure that it is functioning accurately. Your conscience is a part of you that functions like an instrument, and it doesn’t always function accurately. So you need to calibrate your conscience to align it more closely with the standard of God’s Word.
1. Your conscience might become more hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Some people think that their mind is broadening, but in reality their conscience is stretching.11 Feeding excuses to your conscience is like feeding sleeping pills to a watchdog. 2. Your conscience might follow the standards of other people such as your culture, family, or spiritual leaders. You simply go with the flow without thinking through issues. 3. Your conscience might conform more to truth, especially the truth of God’s Word. Sinning against Your Conscience vs.
3 Reasons yoir conscience might change
1. You are sinning against your conscience when you believe your conscience is speaking correctly and yet you refuse to listen to it. Emphasis on “you believe”: you must obey your conscience if you believe it’s functioning accurately. It may not be functioning accurately, but if you think it is, then you must follow it. If you think that it’s wrong to drink root beer, then you are sinning if you drink root beer. As Mark Dever puts it, “Conscience cannot make a wrong thing right, but it can make a right thing wrong.”12 2. You are calibrating your conscience when Christ, the Lord of your
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how do i know if i'm calibrating or sinning againsst conscience
A regular diet of Scripture will strengthen a weak conscience or restrain an overactive one.
Just because you can sin with a clear conscience doesn’t mean that what you’re doing is okay.
conscience cann make a right thing wrong but it cant make a wrong thing right - Devr
One more observation: Our position on tattoos illustrates that someone can have a strong, free conscience on a particular issue and yet choose to act in a way that is externally indistinguishable from someone with a weaker, stricter conscience. Think of two groups of believers. One group is theologically correct in believing that it is morally acceptable to have a tattoo today; the other group is theologically incorrect in believing that it is inherently sinful to have a tattoo. Yet both groups choose not to get tattoos. Functionally, they act the same on this matter, but what undergirds their
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The words “first importance” imply that although everything in the Bible is important, not everything is equally important. Some doctrines are more important. To simplify things, we could think of three levels of theological triage:
So can you guess what happens when a group of self-professed Christians joins together as a church—even a doctrinally robust, gospel-centered church? They will disagree about many matters. We should expect disagreements with fellow Christians about third-level matters, and we should learn to live with those differences. Christians don’t always need to eliminate differences, but they should always seek to glorify God by loving each other in their differences. Understanding what the conscience is and how it works helps us do that.
christians dontt always need to work through differences of consciennce
In the greatest letter ever written in the history of the world,
Huh?
But human nature being what it is, some from both sides went too far and began to impose their freedoms or scruples on others
we dont do well living with differences of consciece
Mature Christians should help other Christians train their consciences, but no one should force others to change their conscience.
we are to hlp people train their consciences, we musy not force them to channge their consciences
As long as they are not contrary to the gospel and hindering the work of the church, we should learn to tolerate these differences.
CHH- What LeCrae is doing is not hindering the work of the church AT ALL!
“You can continue to use your freedom because in principle you’re right about these issues. But what you must not do is look down on (i.e., despise) the strict. You must welcome them, learn how to get along with them, and learn to appreciate their subculture. You need to assume that they’re being strict for God’s glory, not because they’re neurotic fundamentalists. And one more thing: when you use your freedoms, don’t flaunt them. Don’t be ‘in-your-face.’ That’s not showing love. Most important, if the way you use your freedom emboldens a wavering brother or sister to sin against their
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conscience
And one more thing: stop trying to force others to obey the rules of your conscience. Your conscience is for you, not them. Welcome those who disagree with you on food and drink and holy days. Learn about them. Appreciate their robust conscience.
“The issue is not who has the most faith,” Moo notes. “The issue is who thinks that his or her faith lets him or her do this or that.”
But we must stress again that those with a strong conscience do not necessarily please God any more than those with a weak conscience. Both can glorify God, and both can sin against God.
strong conscience and weak conscience dont translate into pleasing God more or less
you have a responsibility to resist the temptation to judge the person freer than you to your left and a responsibility to resist the temptation to look down on the person stricter than you to the right.
you have a responsibility not to judge the person freer than you or to look down on the person more constrained than you
Have the right proportion. Keep disputable matters in their place as third-level issues. Don’t treat them like first- or second-level issues. And don’t become preoccupied with them or divisive about them. They shouldn’t be so important to you that it’s all you want to talk about. They shouldn’t be the main reason that you choose what church to join. They shouldn’t be issues that you are the most passionate about such that you are constantly trying to win people over to your position and then looking down on them if they decide not to join your side.
You must respect the consciences of others and not make fun of their rules or freedoms. If you have an opportunity, you can slowly help them train their conscience to be more in line with God’s standards, but you must never compel someone to sin against their conscience.
never compel someone to sin aginst their conscience
Assume that others are partaking or refraining for the glory of God (Rom. 14:6–9).
charitable way to overcome judging other Christians freedoms
Am I fully persuaded that it is right? (Rom. 14:5, 14, 23) 2.Can I do it as unto the Lord? (Rom. 14:6–8) 3.Can I do it without being a stumbling block to my brother or sister in Christ? (Rom. 14:13, 15, 20–22) 4.Does it bring peace? (Rom. 14:17–18) 5.Does it edify my brother? (Rom. 14:19) 6.Is it profitable? (1 Cor. 6:12) 7.Does it enslave me? (1 Cor. 6:12) 8.Does it bring glory to God? (1 Cor. 10:31)
i8 diagnlostic questions to ask about Christjan freedom
Free and strict Christians in a church both have responsibilities toward each other. Strict Christians have a responsibility not to impose their conscience on everyone else in the church. It is a serious sin to try to bind someone else’s conscience with rules that God does not clearly command. But the second half of Romans 14 places the bulk of responsibility on Christians with a strong conscience. One obvious reason is that they are strong, so God calls on them to bear with the weaknesses of the weak (Rom. 15:1). Not only that, of the two groups, only the strong have a choice in third-level
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weak are not to impose their standards on the strong
the strong are to bear with thre weak and considerd abstinence for the health of their brothders
We must never allow the conscience of others to determine our own conscience. But we must always consider the conscience of others when we determine our own actions.
If you have freedom, don’t flaunt it; if you are strict, don’t expect others to be strict like you (Rom. 14:22a). The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God.
For a Christian, to “bear with” the weaknesses of the weak means that you gladly help the weak by refraining from doing anything that would hurt their faith.
It is “I do what brings glory to God. I do what brings others under the influence of the gospel. I do what leads to peace in the church.”
Each of us tended to see the “sin” for which the other person had no conscience category.2 Since “Don’t pick fruit that belongs to others” was a big part of my conscience, I immediately saw my friend’s “brazen” disregard for that obvious command. Since “Don’t be stingy with food” was a big part of my friend’s conscience, he immediately saw my obvious moral failure.
When we preach against those kinds of “sins,” the conscience of our hearers won’t affirm our message. It remains completely silent.
Western missionaries tended to assume that their consciences were advanced beyond that of local peoples, who they felt had little if any sense of right and wrong. They took on themselves the task of teaching moral scruples, all too often imposing new cultural (rather than biblical) values and belittling or trampling on local values in the process. To understand the cultural forms of conscience is of critical importance in missionary work. It carries implications for elenctics (the conviction of sin) as well as cross-cultural ethics. When we feel that another does not have a proper conscience,
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western arrogance
Paul became someone who could glide from culture to culture, making nearly seamless transitions without attracting attention to himself, because it was not about him. It was about Christ and the gospel and the eternal souls of men and women.
He was able to do this because he had done the hard work of calibrating his conscience to match God’s standards, not the standards of people. And what motivated him to develop this kind of cultural flexibility? He mentions the reason seven times in this paragraph: winning more people for the sake of the gospel (note the italicized words in the preceding quotation).
This will mean creating new categories in our minds, new files, to which we will move the matters that we previously placed in the category of “Right and Wrong.” One file might say, “Family Rules,” another, “Wisdom Issues,” another, “Hygiene,” another, “Good Manners.” I (J. D.) have at least three different “Good Manners” files: one for when I’m in America, one for when I’m among Khmer in Cambodia, and one for when I’m among tribal minorities in Cambodia. All three cultures care very much about appropriate manners, but the details are different.
