Now for a third reflection regarding our conscience (#1… #2). Consider what is written in 1 Corinthians 8:6-13…
There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. 7 However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
Today we don’t struggle with eating meat sacrificed to idols. But there are other things we do struggle with in our context. These are things that we have no problem with, but others do. Things like drinking a little wine or having a beer, the kind of movies or TV shows we watch, political persuasion, et al. The context Paul is dealing with here is within the believing community. Specifically, how the way one Christian lives is viewed by another Christian and its effect on their life.
Our perspective is to be informed by verse 6… Everything is about God. Everything, all inclusive, nothing excluded. Therefore ALL our conduct is to take Him and His glory into consideration (1 Cor 10:31). This means when God approves, or doesn’t DIS-approve of something, the believer is at liberty to engage it. There is nothing that inherently commends or makes a person worse off in relation to God in a of it’s self. But that comes with a warning in verse 9.
This is not easy to work through… but continue we must. If something I am at liberty to engage in… say, having a glass of wine… causes a weaker brother in Christ to stumble, THEN it becomes a sin. Why, HOW? When the person does something contrary to their conscience as a new believer simply because I do it… and their spirit is thus wounded as a new believer… then I have become the source of their stumbling. Their faith is bruised from following me when their level of spiritual maturity has not yet risen to be able to handle it. As a result Paul writes, “You sin against Christ!” This makes me complicit in their stumbling as opposed to being built up and encouraged. Thus Romans 14:20-23…
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. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.