Tuning Our Conscience for the Gospel

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

The conscience is our inner sense of right and wrong.

Like our ability to think and feel, it’s a function God gives to every person. Yet like our mental and emotional abilities, our conscience is not infallible, even as born-again Christians. Therefore, we have a personal obligation before God and for the sake of the gospel, church unity, and other people to be aware of our conscience, to take it seriously, to restore it when we’ve violated it, and to train (or retrain) it according to God’s Word. Sometimes this means we need to become more careful with what we do and allow in our lives. Other times we’ll need to become more tolerant instead.

This process of training and retraining our conscience is lifelong.

Yet it’s a process to which we must commit ourselves, since the credibility of the gospel and the growth of the church depends on it. Notice how Paul emphasizes this priority of training his conscience for the purpose of gaining an advantage for the gospel (1 Cor 9:19-23):

Though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.

From these verses, we see that ...

Paul adapted his behavior and mindset based on two factors:

• the nonbelievers he wanted to reach with the gospel
• the believers he wanted to partner with for gospel ministry

Regarding the nonbelievers he wanted to reach, he repeats here “that I may win” six times. The word win means “to gain” and it has an investment nuance, as in making an investment that gains dividends, interest, and financial increase of some kind. So then, Paul was a savvy investor who made necessary adjustments throughout the course of his life depending on the “market” conditions at the time – with the market being souls and not money, of course.

So, if he was ministering to a Jewish person or community at the time, he followed Jewish cultural practices. He did this to avoid offending them so that they might give the gospel a hearing. If he was ministering to people who followed Old Testament (OT) laws, he followed those laws for the same reason, even though he knew that such laws were not required. If he was ministering to a community of people who did not follow the Mosaic law, then he did not implement those practices in his life.

Paul makes an important disclaimer.

He says, “Not being without law toward God, but under law towards Christ).” By saying this, he clarifies that he did not live in a licentious manner by either indulging in sinful practices or condoning such behavior for others. Murder is murder, homosexuality is homosexuality, adultery is adultery, theft is theft, and so on. Yet these are timeless prohibitions, not legal technicalities from the law of Moses. In other words, Paul knew the difference between definite sin before God and adherence to Mosaic legal requirements and cultural or personal sensitivities. Yet even here,

The distinction is not always as obvious as we may assume.

This reality needs to keep us humble in our assessment of one another and the people we meet. Consider the following examples:

• How would you feel if a person from town walked by your vegetable garden and picked some tomatoes for himself? Or how would you feel if a house guest opened your refrigerator and helped himself to some food? Are these examples of stealing? For some cultures it is, but for other cultures it isn’t.
• How would you feel if a family from our church arrived at your home and invited themselves to come in? You might call that rude, or you might even call that trespassing. Yet in some cultures, this is entirely acceptable and normal.
• How would you feel if a nonbeliever (or believer) greeted you with a hug, a kiss on the cheek, or even a kiss on the lips? In some cultural contexts, all of these social expressions would be considered inappropriate or flirtatious. Then, some cultures think nothing of giving a hug, others of kissing on the cheek, and yes some even kissing on the lips.
• How would you feel if a well-meaning host who invited you to their home served you fresh, cooked dogmeat for dinner, or horse meat, or mouse? For many, such food at first glance (and second glance) seems wrong to eat, not to mention disgusting. It contradicts our conscience towards food, but is it wrong? And which is most important, abstaining from dogmeat (while offending your host), or eating some of the meat so that you can share with them the message of the gospel?

Examples like these and more may sound exotic and we may assume that such dilemmas are only for missionaries who travel to remote villages and foreign lands. Yet:

We face such choices on a regular basis in America, too.

This is especially true in a diverse place like NYC. Consider the following examples of conscience dilemmas and differences we face quite commonly.

Now be warned, though some of these examples may seem boring or mundane, meaning little to you, others may touch a nerve that indicates your conscience is tuned very tightly on such points. In those instances, you should ask whether your conscience is carefully tuned to Gods Word, or whether it’s also strongly influenced by cultural factors, past experiences, personal preferences, personal weaknesses, wrong assumptions, wrong teaching, or a wrong understanding of Scripture.

If any of these factors are true about your conscience on such a point, then you will be unable to be flexible like Paul for the gospel. This does not mean that you should immediately change your mind or behavior, but it does mean that you should take a more careful and thorough look at Scripture to see what the Bible says (and doesn’t say) about that subject.

You should also consider reaching out to one of your pastors, or a mature, seasoned believer in your church, to discuss and study that topic together. Doing so will be a maturing and rewarding experience. It will equip you to be more effective for the sake of the gospel and better prepared to work together for the gospel in with harmony and humility towards other believers in your church.

Here’s a list of potential challenges to your conscience:

• Are all kinds of meats acceptable to eat even if it feels inhumane?
• Is it always sinful to be late to an event?
• Are sports like boxing, mixed martial arts, or wrestling always wrong?
• Is it okay to mow your lawn, do laundry, or buy groceries on Sunday?
• Are vaccines good or bad?
• Is it acceptable to buy products from companies and corporations who support ungodly agendas?
• Should a dating Christian couple hold hands?
• Which is better – homeschool, charter school, Christian school, or public school?
• Is it possible to appreciate and respect newer and contemporary styles of music?
• Is it good or bad to invest in stocks or mutual funds that include questionable businesses and companies?
• Is it okay to drink coffee?
• If we drink coffee, should we only buy fair-trade varieties?
• Are there reasonable and responsible uses for alcohol and marijuana?
• Is it okay for Christians to watch secular movies?
• Can women wear makeup or wear pants?
• How few or how many children should a married couple have?
• Is it ever okay to go into debt?
• Is it okay to eat unhealthy food?Top of Form

We have a lot of work to do in training our conscience.

Just being “strict” won’t due and may even cut us off from important gospel opportunities. For instance, you might feel strongly that the answers to some of these questions are clear and obvious, yet if I asked you to support that feeling in your conscience with Scripture, how well could you do? Why do you feel as you do about that issue?

Quite frequently, when we look carefully and honestly at Scripture, we discover that our conscience is informed by a miscellaneous statement or verse from the Bible here or there that we’ve either misunderstood, taken out of context, or failed to reconcile with other related teachings in the Bible that give us a more complete perspective. Still other times we discover that our sensitivities are based upon personal preferences or various cultural influences.

I am not suggesting that we steamroll our conscience.

In a previous lesson, we explained how to train and retrain our conscience according to Scripture. We are obligated before God to take our conscience very seriously as it is today, while also committing to carefully and prayerfully examining Scripture to improve our conscience over time so that it lines up more accurately with the Word of God.

• When we commit to this training and retraining process, we will become more and more like Paul, able to be more flexible for the sake of the gospel, just as a missionary learns to be on the foreign mission field.
• We will also become more adaptable in our ability to work together with other Christians, just as Paul was able to partner (“partake with”) the Corinthian believers for gospel ministry (1 Cor 9:23).

At this point, let me state the obvious, Paul did not bend his beliefs in any way which might alter the gospel message.

He lived flexible for the gospel, not with the gospel.

Consider what he said earlier in this letter to the church at Corinth, when he embraced the foolishness of the gospel message, which is itself an offensive message (1 Cor 1:18).

Despite this fact, he continued to preach the gospel message without altering it in any way, either by dressing it up with secular philosophy and psychology or by putting on a show of impressive supernatural signs and miracles (1 Cor 2:21-24). So, Paul didn’t try to improve the gospel, use sophisticated motivational techniques, or impress anyone with this message. He was committed to the gospel and the bedrock truths of biblical Christianity.

Paul was also firmly but lovingly opposed to clear, sinful behavior.

Consider how he confronted the Corinthian church about their obvious sins of idolizing their favorite preachers, taking each other to court, dividing up in fellowship gatherings based upon financial means, committing and overlooking sexual immorality among its members, women usurping the leadership role God has given to men, and being arrogant and proud about their spiritual gifts – to name a few. These are important matters of right and wrong, not just the conscience. Such behavior undermines the message of the gospel.

As believers, we need to learn the difference between clear matters of right and wrong and matters of the conscience. Why? Because the advance of the gospel and the growth of the church depends on it. This leads me to a very important perspective. We should not use our Christian liberty to insist on our freedom from everyone around us.

We should use (or leverage) our Christian liberty to serve others with the gospel and to serve with others for the gospel.

As we meet people, get to know people, and fellowship with other believers, we need to minimize our personal preferences for the sake of the gospel. The longer our list of “what is right and wrong” may be (rather than we prefer and are comfortable with), the fewer relationships we’ll be able to have for sharing the gospel and serving together for the gospel. This unnecessarily limits what we can do for the gospel and prevents us from serving many people.

Paul, however, viewed himself as a servant (or slave) to as many people as possible.

He was not content to minister only to the few who thought (or felt) like him about everything. And in an age and society that values personal liberty for the purpose of self-expression, self-indulgence, and getting everyone else to serve “me,” this is an important, crucial, countercultural position to take. Rather than leveraging our true freedom in Christ to live as we please, we are not free to be flexible in many ways for the sake of the gospel – while remaining absolutely and uncompromisingly committed to the gospel message and the clear teachings of Scripture.

If you have any questions about what this means for you and your conscience, I encourage you to speak with me or Christian (or ladies, to speak with my wife or Laura). We would be very happy to talk through any “conscience” issue by listening carefully to your perspective and then exploring what the Scripture has to say about it.

As we move forward as a church, we want to be a church that’s dogmatic on the gospel and the clear teachings of Scripture, but flexible in our preferences and practices which may differ here or there based upon differing backgrounds, consciences, cultures, and experiences. We also want to be a church who is committed to training and tuning our consciences to match the Word of God more accurately, one way or another. This approach will enable us to become more and more unified together around the gospel as a church for the benefit of reaching our community with the gospel for Christ.