More Musing on Matters of Conscience

November 16, 2007

Joe,

Here are some thoughts on the points you raised the other day from 1 Corinthians 8. I’ll just go point by point in response to the five points that you made:

1. Yes, it is a tough one! And as you said, an important one to talk about. Matters like home-schooling vs. public schooling, birth control, and such things (does yard work fit in here? Or the value of movies?) can cause serious problems when one camp thinks they have the exclusive hold onto the truth, and take an attitude toward the other camp that ‘they are wrong and need to become more like me.’

2. I’m not so sure I agree with you about this point. I’m not saying I disagree, but I’m just not sure. You mention that though Paul is speaking particularly to the strong, knowledgeable ones in this passage, that he is also implicitly speaking to the weak ones and helping them see their weakness. While it does seem plausible, I still see Paul addressing the strong with second person pronouns (you, your), and referring to the weak as they or them, meaning he’s not addressing them directly at this point.

Last night Erin gave an example of how Paul could be speaking about the weak in third person, but still to them. She said that if she were talking to Carol and saying, ‘Oh, it’s great how your husband buys you so many gifts,’ that even though she is not addressing you directly, implicitly she is giving you a nudge telling you to buy her some more gifts. Perhaps Paul is doing a similar thing here with the weak, not addressing them directly but hoping that they get the message underneath the message.

But I would suggest that in Erin’s hypothetical scenario, she is probably sinning by not just speaking to you directly if she has a concern about your lack of gifts. In a healthy relationship, concerns are brought to the person rather than being communicated in a manner like the analogy above. So I’m not so sure that one of Paul’s motives here is to help the weak see their weakness. I think if he had wanted to say something to the weak, he would have come right out and said it. You know Paul wasn’t hesitant to confront something when it needed to be confronted. But maybe I’m wrong about this.

3. I think that knowing our audience is an important element in discerning through these matters. To use the example of alcohol that you mentioned, I don’t think it’s necessary to abstain totally, like in the privacy of your home, because there is no audience that may be caused to stumble in the privacy of your home. If you’re inclined to have a beer at home with dinner, I say go for it. But I think it would be potentially harmful to by a beer at a ball game or something, because perhaps someone I know from the church would see me and they may be caused to stumble. I would say also that being a leader in the Church puts a greater responsibility to exercise caution in these types of matters. Those who serve publicly in ministry are more visible, and therefore are watched much more closely by the flock than the typical sheep is.

This brings up a point that I’d like to return to in a future post, the fact that there is a sense in which we ought to be concerned with how others will react to a particular choice we make. But for now I’ll just touch on the last point.

4. There is a very fine line between ‘encouraging’ someone to get more informed and encouraging someone to violate their conscience. Given what Paul says in this chapter and in other places, it seems to me that we ought to be very careful when informing others. I agree that it can be healthy and appropriate. As I said in my initial post, I have been helped by some of our conversations about these things. But I think that the reality which Paul speaks of here regarding not causing others to stumble is one that we have not given adequate attention to. There is a real fine line between ‘encouraging’ someone to plant some shrubs in their yard (to use a totally random example!), and pushing someone in a way that might violate their conscience in an area of Christian liberty. Our ‘informing’ often turns into ‘persuading’, and I think that can be very harmful.

Well, I’ve probably rambled on long enough. I do hope to make at least one more post on this topic, and I’m sure you’ll give me some more to think about!

Seeking Him with you,

Larry

Posted by Larry | Filed Under Scripture Meditation, Seeking Him 

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