As pre-teen schoolboys in an English boarding school back in the 1950’s, we were marched off every Sunday morning to the local church. It was in those formative years, therefore, that I picked up the basics of Christian practice – the traditions, rituals, format of service, and the day we met on. They became habit for me.
So has my Christian practice since been based on habit too, simply going through the same motions I grew up with, and being quite content with that? Or did those habits then become part of my conscience too – to the point it would be wrong in my mind if I didn’t follow the practices I grew up with?
In which case, how would I deal with changes in my church, like changes in format, doctrine, tradition, ritual, and even the day we meet on? Habits are hard to change, but they can be changed – but what if those changes become a conscience issue too? Maybe not a conscience issue for others, but definitely a conscience issue for me; so now what do I do?
Well, Paul wrote in Romans 14:23, that “If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning” (New Living Translation) – so following one’s conscience is crucial, isn’t it? Whether my conscience was formed by habit, or not, is not the issue. The issue is, I have a conscience telling me I’m disobeying God if I go along with the changes. So now what do I do?
And what does everyone else do in dealing with me too? Paul says that when a person is “fully convinced in his own mind” that what he’s doing or believing is right in God’s sight, verse 5, and he’s doing them “to the Lord, giving thanks to him,” verse 6, it means “God has accepted him,” verse 3. But that means we could be stuck as fellow Christians with different and even totally opposite views, so how on earth can we keep the peace between us, or even relate to each other at all?
Paul’s answer is simple: respect. And he says it in several ways too, like not “passing judgment on each other” (verses 1 and 13), not “looking down” on each other (verses 3 and 10), not “putting any stumbling block or obstacle in our brother’s way” (verse 13), and not “distressing” a fellow Christian by pushing what we believe as “good” and what he believes as “evil” (verse 16), because if that’s what we’re doing we’re “no longer acting in love” (verse 15), and we could even be “destroying the work of God” in a fellow Christian’s life too (verse 20).
Respect – both ways, of course – means these tricky differences between us can build our love for each other, making us a wonderful example in a world where differences can be so destructive.
Buck To Basics 