An Important Note To Students And Teachers
Typically congregations of the Church of Christ have been so concerned about conformity that they as congregations have not placed much thought into or concern for the conscience of the individual Christian. Typically, leadership in congregations [of all kinds] has focused more on reforming a Christians conscience to conform to the prevailing positions of the congregation. Typically, congregational leadership [of all forms] has not focused on the Christians conscience as being a critical part of his/her salvation response to his/her Lord.
Pauls statements in Romans 14 make it obvious that he wrote to Christians whose consciences were quite different. Some Christians in Rome were vegetarians (Romans 14:2) in their fear that unknowingly they might eat meat sacrificed to idols [eating food sacrificed to a god or to the living God was an act of worship]. Yet, some Christians in their faith in the Creator God ate anything in honor of the Creator (Romans 14:2).
Some Christians observed special religious days as holy days. Yet, some Christians said all days were alike and none were special religious days. See Romans 14:5, 6.
Pauls instructions were easy to give but hard to follow. The Christian who regarded another Christians position as weak was to accept him, but not for the sake of confrontation (Romans 14:1). They were the Lords servants, not servants to each other (Romans 14:4). The Lord understood why each person was doing what he/she didthe Lord understood the persons motive for his/her behavior (Romans 14:6). Even though they came to different conclusions, the Lord could and would make both stand (Romans 14:4). The correct issue was not one Christian being ruled by another Christians conscience. The correct issue was responding to the Lord in a conscience that realized it would be accountable to God (Romans 14:12).
Little puts so much strain and stress on faith in Jesus Christ and thankfulness to God as do Christian consciences that respond to God in ways that are in disagreement with each other. Christians seem to find it much easier to confront each other than to respect each other. We seem to want to be judges of other Christians rather than men and women committed to functioning by faith in Jesus Christ.
This series of lessons examines from scripture the role of the conscience in coming to Jesus Christ, and the role of the conscience in living as a man or woman of faith in Jesus Christ. The foundation of this series is what scripture says about the role of the conscience in individual faithfulness.
The objective is (1) to help Christians better understand the role of the conscience in salvation matters and (2) to consider scriptures declarations about the importance of the conscience.
