Romans 14:1-15:7 - The Conscience in Community - The Weaker Conscience

As I was getting this sermon ready for today, I kept thinking about the old Cub Scout competition of the Pinewood Derby—are you familiar? (The other incarnation of it that a lot of kids today know about is the AWANA Grand Prix.) Whatever version of it you’re talking about, the concept and execution is pretty much the same. A long gravity-powered track with grooves cut into it where you place a car that you’ve carved out of a 7” x 1-3/4” x 1-1/4” inch block of white pine and carefully added weight to until it comes out to exactly 5.0 ounces.

Now, if you’ve been to one of these races, or if you’ve been a competitor, you know how these races play out—there are some cars there that look like they were made by The Master Craftsman Elf in Santa’s Toyshop—sleek, shiny, exquisite detail, and they flash down that gravity track straight and true as if they were an arrow shot from a bow. Then there are other cars (specifically, my car when I was a kid) that I carved out with an old rusty hacksaw and then painted with leftover watercolors that would wobble its way down the track about a half-second slower than the rest of the heat.

I mean, I always did my best, I worked hard to make my car as speedy and good-looking as possible, but I always wound up feeling inadequate—like I should have done better. I should have worked harder, I should have spent more time making sure the axles were straight and the wheels spun freely...

And then there was the other reaction that I would have—I would look over there at those flashy, speedy cars that won handily and take cynical notice of the fact that the kids who raced them were never allowed by their dads to touch them! “Well, naturally those kids win—their dad is a machinist, for crying out loud!!!” So there was a fair amount of temptation towards judgmentalism when it came to comparing my racer with theirs.

Now, can you see how this kind of thing translates over to thinking about the conscience? We talked last week about the attitude of the stronger conscience toward the weaker conscience, and today we want to consider the attitude of the weaker conscience toward the stronger. And those two reactions—inadequacy and judgmentalism—are the peculiar dangers that a believer with a weaker conscience has to guard against in our relationships with our fellow believers who differ with us in third-order issues.

And that’s why we want to turn to Paul’s words here in Romans 14 again—because he is addressing believers who have a weaker conscience as well as those with a stronger conscience. (Again remembering that issues of conscience are not an “On/Off” switch of “strong” or “weak”, but a scale of “stronger” or “weaker”. You can always find someone who is more confident than you on a particular matter, and you can always find someone who has a weaker conscience than you on the same matter.)

Last week we learned from God’s Word that a strong conscience leads a Christian to a walk of humility; this week what I want to show you from these verses is that

A weak conscience leads a Christian to a WALK of DEPENDENCE

The way that we combat the sins of inferiority and judgmentalism towards other in matters of conscience is to walk in a spirit of dependence—first,

I. In your walk before GOD

The first thing to consider is that there is no liberty that you can enjoy—no strength of conscience or freedom in disputable matters—that can compare with the treasure you have of your intimacy and close fellowship with God in Christ. In all of the considerations of your conscience and what it forbids, you must always

LOVE Him more than any LIBERTY (Romans 14:6)

Look at verse 6 of Romans 14--

rom 14:6

Romans 14:6 (ESV)

6 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.

Paul is reminding his readers that the believers who only eat kosher do it because they love and honor God—and the same is true for those who eat anything. And so what this shows us is that there is no freedom or liberty that you can pursue that is worth losing your intimacy with God! Do you feel like you are “missing out” because you don’t share the freedom that another Christian might have in those third-order issues? How much more would you be “missing out” if you pursued that freedom in conflict with your conscience, and then had to deal with the distance you feel from God, the cooling of your intimacy with Him, the deflating of your prayer life, the drag on your Bible reading? In other words, whether or not the issue you are concerned with is actually a sin or not, if your conscience tells you it is sin to do it, then you are sinning against God if you disobey your conscience! And there is no good that can come out of violating your conscience that is worth losing the sweet fellowship and intimacy you have with God when you walk in obedience to Him!

Walk in dependence on God by loving Him more than any liberty you may miss out on. And secondly, in Romans 14:7-8 we learn that we are to

SUBMIT to Him more than your NEIGHBOR (Romans 14:7-8)

Romans 14:7–8 (ESV)

7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 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.

Now, there’s something surprising in the way Paul lays out his argument here in these verses. Here’s what I mean. He’s exhorting the church to get along with each other—and so you would expect him to follow up the statement “none of us lives to himself or dies to himself” with “we live and die for each other...”

But he doesn’t go there, does he? Instead he says, “None of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself—if we live we live TO THE LORD and if we die we die TO THE LORD”. What is he after here? Why does he turn our attention to our relationship with Christ, and not toward each other?

One reason, at least, is that your weak conscience must be guided by Christ, and not by the fear of men! Far too often Christians are tormented in their weak conscience more by what other people will say about them, rather than by what Christ wants of them.

Surely what Paul means by focusing our attention on the fact that we live to the Lord instead of focusing on living for each other is that a Christian with a weaker conscience must never be ashamed of their convictions—you live in dependence on CHRIST, not on them.

Your fellow Christian did not die for you; they did not rise from the dead for your salvation! You answer to God alone for the things your conscience restricts (or permits). Let’s say that you are the only Christian that you know who is convinced that it is a sin to go to a restaurant on Sunday, and all your friends at church are going out to eat after the service and invite you. And you want to go share fellowship with them, you love them and want to be with them but you simply can’t go and be a part of the reason the diner staff are working on the Lord’s Day.

You may love and cherish your fellow church members’ friendship and love—but you owe God your faithfulness more! You love Him more than any liberty, you submit to Him in obedience to your conscience even more than you love your fellow Christians. And you are not permitted to feel inadequate about it! You abstain, you do it to the glory of God, and you never need apologize for glorifying God in your weakness! You live and die before Him, not your neighbor!

A weak conscience leads a Christian to a walk of dependence—in your walk before God, and secondly

II. In your PURSUIT of HOLINESS

Keep your finger in Romans 14, but turn with me for a few moments to the book of Galatians. Galatians Chapter 2, (Page 973 in the pew Bible.) Though Paul does not directly address issues of conscience here in this book, he does say a great deal about the way we are to think about where our righteousness before God comes from. And as I hope you’ll see, this is directly relevant to our study of the conscience.

Look for a moment at what Paul says in Galatians 2:21

Galatians 2:21 (ESV)

21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Paul is warning the Galatians that if they try to consider themselves justified on the basis of how well they follow some set of rules, they will cancel out God’s grace. I hope you can see how this relates to matters of conscience, because the temptation of the weak conscience is to think that because I abstain from this particular liberty, I am more acceptable in God’s sight!

But Paul says here that in your pursuit of holiness,

Do not NULLIFY God’s GRACE to you (Galatians 2:17-21)

Your righteousness does not consist in your weak conscience--your avoiding of disputable matters does not make you more righteous in God’s sight. The peculiar temptation of the weaker conscience is to begin to believe that not smoking or watching R-rated movies or going to a diner on Sunday makes you more acceptable in God’s eyes.

But Paul says that when you allow that thought to creep in, you are gutting the grace of God in your life. You are saying, in effect, “Jesus made me sufficiently acceptable to God, but if I add this matter to my conscientious pursuit of holiness, I will be even more acceptable to Him! He is more satisfied with me because I only read the King James Version; I am more justified in His sight because I refuse to go to a restaurant that serves alcohol!

The Scriptures tell us in Colossians 2 that none of those things get us anywhere with God:

Colossians 2:22–23 (ESV)

22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

As one author put it, when we begin to believe that our weak conscience is a sign of our greater holiness, or that the things we are compelled to abstain from make us more acceptable to God somehow, it is as though the high priest in the Old Testament would run into the Holy of Holies and do one hundred pushups to impress God with his piety and depth of worship—and God asks, “Who told you I wanted you to do that??” Don’t nullify God’s grace to you by acting as though the abstinences of your weaker conscience are somehow more impressive to God or make you more holy in His sight!

In your pursuit of holiness, don’t let your pride in your weak conscience nullify God’s grace to you. Instead,

Always RECKON on Christ’s SACRIFICE for you (Galatians 3:10-14)

Look over one page at Galatians 3, starting in verse 10:

Galatians 3:10 (ESV)

10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”

No matter what disputable matter you are abstaining from or whatever issue of conscience you are bound by, remember that you can never perfectly keep any rule (v. 10). Turn that issue of conscience around, and instead of thinking of it as a matter of your purity and piety before God, imagine that it is a condition of your salvation!

To take the example from a few minutes ago. Say your conscience does not permit you to patronize a restaurant that serves alcohol. In and of itself, fine—third order issue, your conscience tells you it is a sin to spend money there, no harm, no foul.

But then, partly out of the sense of inferiority that your weak conscience makes you susceptible to, you begin to tell yourself that you are actually being more spiritual because you won’t spend money there—God is particularly pleased with you for your sensitive conscience! And that’s where the danger comes in, that’s where you begin toying with gutting the grace of God in your life.

And here’s a way to think about this that reveals the danger in it—move this issue up into “First Order” territory. Imagine for a moment that not spending money at a place that sells booze actually impacts your salvation! That your justification before God really does depend on not spending money there. What happens to you the day that you go to your favorite “dry” restaurant and as you are paying your bill you see a waitress walking by carrying a tray with a bottle of beer to another table! They just started selling alcohol, and you ate there without knowing! And where is your salvation now??

That’s the force of Paul’s warning in Galatians 3:10--”Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them!” Do you see how ridiculous it is to tell yourself that the restrictions of your weaker conscience make you somehow more pious and pure before God? This is why Paul goes on to say in Galatians 3:13 that

Galatians 3:13 (ESV)

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

It is Jesus Christ who sets you free from keeping some personal moral code, it is His death under the curse that makes you free before God in holiness! And your weaker conscience over whether or not to eat in the dining room at the Hitching Post has nothing whatsoever to do with your salvation! Don’t do it if your conscience restricts you—but don’t succumb to the temptation to confuse a weak conscience with great personal holiness!

A weak conscience leads a Christian to a walk of dependence—in your walk before God, in your pursuit of holiness, and also

III. In your WALK with OTHERS

We have been saying that the peculiar temptation we have with a weaker conscience is towards a sense of inferiority compared to other believers—the other temptation is towards judgmentalism towards other believers. The temptation to say that they aren’t faithful Christians because they differ with my conscience, that they need to “get right with God” and agree with me on spending money at the Hitching Post. Against this mindset, Jesus offers a stern warning and rebuke:

Do not BIND them with LAW (Matthew 23:4)

What did Jesus say to the Pharisees in Matthew 23?

Matthew 23:13–15 (ESV)

13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

We said last week that a believer with a strong conscience can play the role of Satan in a fellow believer’s life by making them stumble into sin—see here that a believer with a weaker conscience can become a Pharisaical slave master in a fellow believer’s life by

Matthew 23:4 (ESV)

4 …[tying] up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and [laying] them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

Christian, does your weak conscience convict you over a third-order issue where your fellow believer is free? Then you may not become a Pharisee in their lives! You may not force or coerce your convictions of conscience on them. You are forbidden by the Word of God and the authority of Jesus Christ who shed His blood for them. You will not place a yoke of slavery to law on those for whom Christ died.

And in this word I must preach to myself as well—because pastors and church leaders all have weaker consciences in some areas than the people that they minister to. And if you are entrusted by God with any spiritual authority in another believer’s life, you must understand your own heart and your own conscience so that you do not fall into the sin of binding them with the chains of works-righteousness. It is easy, when you are in a position of spiritual authority, to believe that your third-order issues of a weak conscience are really second-order issues of fellowship—and there are those who take their own matters of conscience and try to set them up in their churches or ministries as first-order issues of salvation! It has been called “the tyranny of the weaker brother”, and it has poisoned the fellowship and destroyed the ministries of many, many believers and churches.

And so what must we do? How do we guard against the tyranny of the weaker conscience and avoid laying burdens of works-righteousness on our fellow Christians? Paul makes it clear in Romans 14, that we must

Fill the SPACE between us with GRACE (Romans 14:10, 13, Romans 15:2)

Romans 14:10 (ESV)

10 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;

Romans 14:13 (ESV)

13 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.

Romans 14:19 (ESV)

19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

Romans 15:2 (ESV)

2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Here is the end of the matter—love your brother, and leave his conscience between him and God. Don’t chase after trying to make sure that everyone else in church validates your weak conscience by submitting to what you believe about a third-order issue. Instead, pursue what makes for peace—pursue what will build your brother up! If you believe that your brother or sister’s conscience needs to be recalibrated, that they are either sinning and calling it liberty or that they are bound in legalism because their conscience wrongly convicts them, then build them up in prayer! Pray for them that they would walk so closely with God and seek His wisdom so earnestly and delight in Him so thoroughly that if God needs to recalibrate their conscience that they will be open and ready and glad for Him to do it. And in the meantime, you bless them as fellow blood-bought souls purchased by your mutual Savior! Believe the best about them, believe that they are pursuing that liberty (or declining that liberty) because they are seeking to glorify God and serve their Master Jesus Christ—you may not understand how they can do it, but you love them in the grace of God who saved you both!

What great love your Father in Heaven has lavished on you, that you should be called a child of God! What a precious flood has washed over you in the blood of Jesus Christ that has cleansed and purified you and made you His precious possession! What joyful, blood-bought freedom you have to eat or abstain, to observe or ignore, to pursue or leave alone the liberties and freedoms of conscience! And what sweet and precious fellowship He has created for you with your brothers and sisters in Christ! And so may the way Paul concludes his words on these matters be the prayer and the goal of your life in matters of conscience:

Romans 15:5–6 (ESV)

5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

BENEDICTION

Hebrews 13:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

Are you more prone to sins of judgmentalism or inferiority over your weaker conscience? How does Paul address those sins in Romans 14?

Read Galatians 2:17-21 again. What does it mean to “nullify God’s grace” by believing that your issues of weaker conscience are actually signs of greater holiness before God?

Look at Galatians 3:10 and Galatians 3:13 again. How do these verses help you avoid the mindset that your conscientious abstinence from certain liberties does not gain you greater approval from God?

Why do we say that a believer with a weak conscience is susceptible to be a “Pharisee” in the lives of other believers? How can a poor understanding of a weak conscience lead you to poison the Gospel with works-righteousness in someone’s life?

Consider some of the issues where you have a weaker conscience than the other Christians in your life. Spend some time this week praying God’s grace on them, that He will bless and strengthen them, and that they will be able to serve and honor Him in those areas. If you have a stronger conscience, pray in the same way for those who differ with you—may God be glorified in all!

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