22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23 But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
V22 is directed to the strong believer. The point here is fairly simple. If you are a strong believer, if you have a complete understanding of your liberty in Christ - then thank God for your liberty and rejoice in it....privately, between you and God. You don't need to flaunt it to anyone else. You don't need to shout your liberty from the rooftops. You don't need to prove anything to anyone. Thank God for your freedom in Him. Set your liberty aside, and just enjoy your freedom with the Lord. When you do that, you can be thankful with a clear conscience because you know you have not done anything to cause a weaker brother to stumble.
V23 is directed to the weak believer. If you think something is wrong, don't do it. Don't do it. If you do it anyway, you will violate your conscience. The very conscience God gave you to sound the warning bells to alert you of sin in your life. And you don't want to do anything to dull that. Don't try to copy the strong until you are personally convinced that it is right.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 15:1-4
3 comments:
Very clear and decisive. :)
If I could make a request right now, please pray for my mother-in-law, Betty. She is 79 years old and in the hospital with congestive heart failure and pneumonia. She's not doing very well. Please pray for her and for the family. It's hard to know how to pray because her health has been dramatically decreasing over the past year or so and in some ways it would seem a blessing for her to go, although of course no one wants to lose her. I do not know her personal conviction, but she has been a long-time faithful member of the local Anglican church, so my hope is that she will be waiting for us in Heaven when we get there. Thank you for your prayers.
Praying, Miriam.
Excellent reminder, Tammy!
Praying, Miriam!
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