Keep Your Convictions to Yourself

Conviction. It’s the modern-day Christian buzzword for “I’m judging you for not having the same opinion as me on [insert subject here]. How do I know? I’m chronically online, and it was recently October, which means the Christians declaring Halloween is satanic and full of demon spawn that will curse you and submit you to participate in demonic rituals and witchcraft unwillingly were out in full force. They’re only outdone by the ones claiming Christmas is pagan, and, thus, Christians shouldn’t celebrate it.

This isn’t specifically about those problems, but because we can objectively prove that these claims aren’t true, I’m going to use them as the majority of my examples as I cover the redress for those confronted by any idea, or group of people, claimed as sin when it should be claimed as conviction. My personal Bible titles this section of Romans as “The Law of Liberty,” which, despite my general disdain toward section titles, is apropos. I shall refer to it with other words of Paul from 1 Corinthians 6:12 and 10:23: “’Everything is permissible,’ but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible,’ but not everything builds up. ‘Everything is permissible for me,’ but I will not be mastered by anything.’” This is the mindset of the Christians under held up by the work of Christ on the cross and freed from the law of sin and death to live under grace, which abounds exceedingly.

Commands to Those in the Faith

These statements leave a lot of room for arguing in the Body of believers, which is precisely why Paul tells the Romans to “Welcome anyone who is weak in faith, but don’t argue about disputed matters” (Romans 14:1). There are two commands here: the first is for those strong in the faith, the wise, seasoned, enduring-the-race Christians, and that is to welcome those who struggle with a faith that is not yet mature. Contextually, Paul is dealing with folks who struggle with the freedom to eat non-Kosher and previously unclean foods per Mosaic law in the freedom of Christ. Some continued to eat Kosher, some did not, and that created a schism over which they likely argued incessantly. For Christians today, that means accepting, and allowing the restrictions of, the believer who might be unable to, in good faith toward the Lord, watch certain TV shows and movies, listen to certain genres of music, and celebrate certain holidays without trying to convince them they are allowed to do those things.

Arguments take two people, which is where the second command of this verse comes in. Those Christians who are weak in faith and convicted by these things that are permissible need to keep silent about those convictions. A Christian weak in faith has no business attempting to convince a seasoned Christian that listening to secular music is un-Christian behavior because it causes that weaker-in-faith Christian to struggle.

And, perhaps, this comes off harsh, but, admittedly, I am a bit vexed at those weaker in faith speaking without decency and out of order (1 Corinthians 14:40). My corner of the internet has been overwhelmed with those of the weaker persuasion attempting to convince everyone that they know what’s right. The ex-witches demonizing Halloween are only the loudest group right now, so it must be said they don’t know what they’re talking about, and they need to be silent. (I should point out here that my issue is not with their conviction on Halloween but on their speaking so loudly—and so wrongly—about its origins as satanic, which people like Inspiring Philosophy have routinely debunked.)

But as my friend, Robin, says, the internet gives a platform to those who should never have one. These people are not checked by a local body of believers or a wise mentor; they say what they want and then declare they can only be judged by God while He’s actively judging them through wiser believers confronting their own unrighteous judgments.

Fully Convinced In Your Own Mind

This is where Romans 14 continues, “One who eats must not look down on one who does not eat, and one who does not eat must not judge one who does, because God has accepted him. Who are you to judge another’s household servant? Before his own Lord he stands or falls. And he will stand, because the Lord is able to make him stand” (3-4). When kept as conviction and not peddled as judgment, the command is to let be what is. I, as one not convicted by Halloween, cannot say the one who is convicted by it is a lesser Christian or unwise or whatever words I could use to demean them. Or, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians, I shouldn’t be parroting “everything is permissible” at them. In the same way, the one convicted cannot say that I am sinning when I go trick-or-treating because God has accepted me, and it is not detrimental to me becoming like Christ.

If you’re reading closely, you’re probably thinking to yourself about now, “well, gosh, Nathaniel, it sure seems like you’re parroting ‘everything is permissible’ at them right now and also judging another servant of the Lord.” I thought that myself for a moment because sometimes I do things in anger that are not righteous—and the unrighteous anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God (James 1:20). “One person judges one day to be more important than another day. Someone else judges every day to be the same. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:5). This reassured me of the truth. If the conviction escapes the mind to be words spoken in judgment, it’s no longer a case of live and let live; then it becomes a case of biblical accuracy that must be tried before God, the Bible, and wise, mature Christians.

The rest of Romans 14 covers the practicalities of these matters, and I’m going to summarize them to save some words. The key to behaving toward other Christians in an appropriate manner to Romans 14 is to keep matters of conviction between you and God. If you’re convicted about Halloween, quietly stay at home and do something that doesn’t convict you. If you’re not convicted about Halloween, quietly go out and trick-or-treat, but don’t go proselytizing that you did it and that it's crazy some people don’t do it because you never know who might struggle with that. After all, if you struggle with alcoholism, you’d not like it very much if someone who doesn’t walked into church Sunday morning bragging about how they were able to have a few drinks with some friends while watching the baseball game on Saturday.

Have Character Above Reproach

Walk according to love; love your neighbor as yourself. Do not condemn yourself by publicly approving something that hurts another; love them enough to let their convictions live between them and God—so long as they also keep their own convictions there. Have faith that God has made them acceptable to Himself whether they practice or don’t, whether they drink or don’t, just as He has made you acceptable to Himself regardless of your own convictions because of the work of Christ. If you doubt God has made something acceptable or edifying or whatever, that is conviction, and you should not do it because, for you, it is sin because it is not from faith, by which we live.

One final matter of practicality for the weaker Christians: don’t put yourself in a place where mature believers are looking down on you because of your immaturity and youth in the faith. The call for the mature believer is to not set a stumbling block in front of another but to set an example for all in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity (1 Timothy 4:12). But the neat thing about the Bible, about God, and about His commands is that they’re not different for the old or new believer; He does not qualify or restrict His ordinances based on how long you’ve been reborn—with the exception that you can only be obedient to the extent of your knowledge (James 4:17). So the call for the immature believer remains the same: don’t set a stumbling block in front of another Christian and be an example for all in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity.

You never know when speaking out about your convictions as if they’re law might create doubt in the mind of someone else, and, all of a sudden, they have to look out for something they’ve never struggled with before. And you’re responsible for putting them in a place where not being obedient to that new conviction is sin to them when, before, it wasn’t. You also never know when your faith and purity could be an example to someone who has been a believer much longer than you but has always struggled with obedience in a certain area. Your speech, seasoned with salt, might be the greater seasoning for an already seasoned believer.