“Your personal convictions [on such matters]—exercise [them] as in God’s presence, keeping them to yourself [striving only to know the truth and obey His will]. Blessed (happy, to be envied) is he who has no reason to judge himself for what he approves [who does not convict himself by what he chooses to do]. But the man who has doubts (misgivings, an uneasy conscience) about eating, and then eats [perhaps because of you], stands condemned [before God], because he is not true to his convictions and he does not act from faith. For whatever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin [whatever is done without a conviction of its approval by God is sinful].” (Romans 14:22-23, AMPC)
“Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don’t impose it on others. You’re fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you’re not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe—some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them—then you know that you’re out of line. If the way you live isn’t consistent with what you believe, then it’s wrong.” (MSG)
Wrong. Sin. First, Paul is not talking about losing one’s salvation. He’s talking about how we live and act in our day. What example [witness] do we present? How are we modeling Who we believe? And I also don’t believe that Paul is talking only about eating – this is the example he gives. But the principle applies across all of our words and actions. Our question: did we know we were sinning? Only if you had never read these verses. However, I suspect we intuitively knew. We always know if ‘something’s not right’.
This passage has always been a check for me – am I acting from faith? And, if not, what is the basis of my actions? Is this important? Absolutely! Paul wouldn’t be discussing this if it weren’t. I do believe that if we don’t understand our own WHY, then our why stands on shifting sand. Plus – look at our witness! One of the strongest criticisms Christians are charged with is hypocrisy. Those outside the church see us as speaking one way and acting another. Or they see us as acting/speaking one way in church and another way in the rest of our lives. Some of this is accurate, sadly. We need to be seen as having a basis, a foundation from which we speak and act – our ‘why’ – and be consistent based on our foundation.
When our foundation is the Word, then we do so from an unchanging and strong basis. Do we? Can we confirm our behavior of words and actions from scripture? And are we who we are regardless of where we are and what we face? Do people realize we are Christians? Does our faith … act? James tells us that faith without works is dead (James 2: 14-26). But when our works are in conflict with our faith, our actions don’t mirror our words, then isn’t that a deception?
If we don’t act from/based on our faith… then what are our actions based in?
