Clear Conscience

Have you ever run into someone who claims to be more mature in the Lord than you and they insist you live up to their standards? Paul writes to an element in Rome that is endeavoring to place their values upon those they see as less spiritual than themselves. Some of these were Jewish Christians who were still holding to the Jewish dietary laws and traditions as a ‘higher’ level of life in Jesus. In pagan Rome as in many of the other larger Roman cities across the Empire, this often conflicted with Roman meat markets which often featured meat sacrificed at pagan temples. Not all believers had the same experience, perspective or understanding of what was ‘proper’ under the freedom of life in Jesus.

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. ¹

Some believers are part of the household of a master that expects them to partake of what the master provides. This is not a violation of God’s law but falls within the scope of that which is permissive, where the conscience of the believer is to determine what is fitting. Paul then broadens the view to include other disagreements to draw a clearer perspective:

One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 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. ²

Paul’s determination from what he has learned from the LORD is that each believer in his example is being as faithful to the LORD as he knows from the relation he has to the LORD and the understanding flowing from this relationship. Both are faithful, both are sincere, both are acting through the integrity of their hearts before God, both are honoring God as much as they know how. And, it is not proper for one to impose his ‘superior’ beliefs upon the other. The LORD is Lord ³ of both and they are both equally in submission to Him. The key distinction Paul is making that they are both to be in submission to the LORD and neither is to lord it over the other.

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,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. ⁴

Paul concludes this passage on conscience by turning the offended upside down where the one with ‘higher’ understanding becomes the weaker and it is left to the other party to deal with the weaker’s sensitivities:

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 died. 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. ⁵

Interesting how quickly the ‘more mature’ become less adamant when they see themselves in the light of Paul’s weaker brother. Let us all be sensitive to the LORD and not self-seeking of our ways.