Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ

by D.A. Carson

The stakes get even higher when leaders begin to impose prohibitions that Scripture clearly allows, as did the false teachers Paul warned about in 1 Timothy 4:1–4. Reflecting on that passage and the problem of man-made prohibitions, the Swiss Reformer Ulrich Zwingli echoed Paul when he nailed the source of such ascetic legalism: “Those that take from Christians such freedom by their prohibition are inspired by the devil.

You need God’s wisdom to discern the difference between (1) weak and wavering believers for whom you must flex and (2) controlling Christians who want to force their scruples on everyone else. Why? So that you, like Paul, can preserve the truth of the gospel for the next generation.

4. Each believer must be fully convinced of their position in their own conscience (Rom. 14:5). One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own

5. Assume that others are partaking or refraining for the glory of God (Rom. 14:6–9). The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

He assumes that both sides are exercising their freedoms or restrictions for the glory of God.

In their book Ethics for a Brave New World, John and Paul Feinberg suggest “eight questions (tests) that each Christian must face when deciding whether or not to indulge in a given activity”:14 1.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)

6. Do not judge each other in these matters because we will all someday stand before the judgment seat of God (Rom. 14:10–12). Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written,

7. Your freedom to eat meat is correct, but don’t let your freedom destroy the faith of a weak brother (Rom. 14:13–15). Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ

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.

8. Disagreements about eating and drinking are not important in the kingdom of God; building each other up in righteousness, peace, and joy is the important thing (Rom. 14:16–21). So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.

The kingdom of God is not a matter of schooling choices, political parties, musical styles, and so on. Once again, we’re not suggesting that third-level matters are unimportant. We have some strong opinions on them. But they are not what the kingdom of God is about.

9. 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

10. A person who lives according to their conscience is blessed (Rom. 14:22b–23). Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is

11. We must follow the example of Christ, who put others first (Rom. 15:1–6). We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

12. We bring glory to God when we welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us (Rom. 15:7). Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of

1. There is a danger that we’ll preach against sins that are not truly sins in any culture, but simply cultural accretions, baggage that we’ve carried to our new country from the West

2. There is a danger that we’ll preach against what those of us in the West consider a true sin but those in the local culture do not because we define the details of the command differently.

3. There is a danger that we’ll not be careful to value the virtues of the local people’s conscience.

A North American going to live with the Aguaruna may be highly incensed at the occasional beating of an errant wife, at arranged marriages, at polygyny, or at the marriages of 13-year-old girls to 45-year-old men. For traditional Aguaruna each of these is perfectly wholesome and appropriate. On the other hand, the Aguaruna are angered when North American anthropologists or missionaries fail to share the food they are eating with visitors. Food is, above all things, that which must be shared. And when such foreigners are invited for a meal, they fail to exercise careful self-restraint in eating meat—a limited and highly valued food item. Self-restraint, in such a setting, implies consideration for the needs of others and self-denial on their behalf.

Cultures vary in what is thought of as erotic, and thus in what modesty entails. For many medieval Europeans a woman’s bare feet were thought highly erotic, while the bosom was associated primarily with nursing. . . . Similarly, contemporary Fulani men say it is the sight of a woman’s thighs that stimulates lustful desires. They find it hilarious that Western women go swimming in suits that carefully cover the bosom, a matter of relative indifference to modesty, while flagrantly uncovering their thighs to the world. . . . For many Arab men, on the other hand, the mere sight of a woman’s hair tends to stimulate lustful thoughts. Modest Arab women cover their hair in public. Behavior and dress that are appropriately modest in one cultural context may be deemed shockingly immodest in another context. Christian modesty in the U.S. will look quite different from Christian modesty in Iran.

if missionaries fail to treat cross-cultural conscience issues with care, they may bypass the native conscience, and natives may “convert” not to Christianity but to a different culture.

The prohibition against eating pork? Jesus said in Mark 7 that such a prohibition was no longer a matter of right and wrong. It was just a preference. Do you think it was easy for Paul to make that switch? We’re sure it wasn’t, but Paul still obeyed. You can teach your conscience. Special Jewish holy days? “Out they go. Whether I observe holy days or not, it’s no longer a conscience issue but a matter of wisdom, love, and gospel witness.” Love for enemies? That was probably missing from Paul’s conscience! He had to add

Eat pork? If it advances the gospel. Stop eating pork? If it advances the gospel. Celebrate a Jewish holy day? Sure, when I’m in Jerusalem. Abstain from wine or meat sacrificed to idols? No problem, if partaking might embolden my brother with a weak conscience in those areas to

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).

Christian Liberty: The Freedom to Discipline Yourself to Be Flexible for the Gospel

It’s not easy. It requires years of carefully tending the garden of your conscience. Or to use our original metaphor, it requires years of calibrating and recalibrating your conscience. It requires spiritual maturity, theological conviction, Christian love, personal discipline, and an unswerving commitment to the gospel. It should come as no surprise, then, that the paragraphs before and after 1 Corinthians 9:19–23 are all about self-denial and self-discipline for the sake of the gospel and the sake of the

the freedom to discipline yourself to be flexible for the sake of the gospel. This definition comes straight from 1 Corinthians 9:19, as illustrated in table

Christian liberty is not about you and your freedom to do what you want to do. It’s all about the freedom to discipline yourself to be flexible for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of weaker believers.

That’s what Christian liberty is all about: being free to discipline yourself to put the gospel and others first.

A message to future missionaries: You can’t live this kind of life if your conscience is cluttered with all manner of restrictions that God hasn’t instituted. If you’ve taken fifty little issues and made them into big issues in your conscience, those are fifty fewer areas in which you will be able to follow Paul’s missionary example of flexing, because if your conscience says those fifty issues are sins, then you can’t bend on any of

But if you do that, you’ll end up with what Professor Mark Vowels calls “franchise missions,” little cookie-cutter duplicates of our home church in a foreign country: same dress, same songs, same buildings, and the same bound consciences—bound by things that those poor folks had no idea were even sins until the missionaries came and brought American Christian subculture, adding to their burden instead of lifting

The person who lives by endless rules and who forms his or her self-identity by conforming to them simply cannot flex at all. By contrast, the person without roots, heritage, self-identity, and nonnegotiable values is not really flexing, but is simply being driven hither and yon by the vagaries of every whimsical opinion that passes by. Such people may “fit in,” but they cannot win anyone. They hold to nothing stable or solid enough to win others to it! Thus the end of Paul’s statement in verse 22 is critical: “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some” (9:22).