Personal Convictions

Two men walk into the church office, and demand to speak with the pastor, once they get into the pastors office and the door is closed, the men began to argue, the pastor has to get kind of loud to get them to be quiet. He then tells one man to explain what the problem is. The man begins, "well pastor, a few days ago I was reading in the Old Testament, and I read where God told Moses that the people were not supposed to eat pork, and some other types of meat. So I prayed about it and realized that I have been sinning all my life, because I ate all that stuff. So I talked to Frank about it, and he told me I was wrong." At this point Frank interrupted and said "Pastor, I tried to tell Sam that we should be drinking a glass of wine every day, to improve our health, and he told me that we are not supposed to touch alcohol at all but,..." The pastor raised his hand and said "Stop right there, I see the problem". He picked up his Bible and read Rm 14:1-6, he highlighted verse 3 "Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him". He went on to explain that sometimes God will give someone a conviction about something, that He does not give to someone else. Maybe He will tell you that you are not to eat something, now there may not be anything wrong with eating that item in of itself, however God in His infinite wisdom decided that He does not want YOU eating it. Just because God tells you not to eat it does not mean it is wrong for anyone else to enjoy it, but if YOU eat it, it is a sin because God told you not to. Do not judge anyone else for eating it, just because you can't, because it is a personal conviction. Notice the word personal.
The pastor went on to read vs. 7 & 8, "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the LORD; and whether we die, we die unto the LORD: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the LORD's". He then explained, that Paul said a lot just to say that no matter what we are God's.
Then he said, that if you read vs 9-12, you will see what that means. First of all in vs 9 we see that Christ died for us, but more importantly He rose again that "He might be LORD both of the dead and living". Vs 10 ask why we judge our brother, because one day we will stand before God and be judged by Him. And as vs 11 tells us, "For it is written As I live, saith the LORD, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. (vs12) So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God". If we have to explain ourselves to God, we should not expect anyone to explain them self to us.
The pastor went on to explain vs. 13-18, starting with that we should never do anything to make our brother stumble and fall into sin. Vs 14 again talks about personal conviction when it says "I know and am persuaded by the LORD Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean." He then said that in vs 15 we are told that if something we do, offends someone then we should not do it, or even talk about it around them. Vs 18 tells us that the man that does as Christ commands him, will be accepted by God, and approved of by man.
We are told in vs 19 & 20, that we are to do whatever we need to, in order to insure peace with those around us. Even though something may not be a sin, if we do it in a way to offend someone else, then it is a sin.
The pastor then looked at the two men, and said "now to make sure you understand all of this I want you to go home and read vs 21-23. Because those verses wrap everything else up into a small package". He decided by the look on the men's face that he would cover these verses real quick, and started by saying, "Remember just because something is not sin, if you offend someone it is. If you have faith, then you will please God, and make yourself happy by not condemning yourself by offending your brother. If you are not sure about something, but you do it anyway then it is sin, because you did not do it in faith, and "whatsoever is not of faith is sin". He then said a prayer with the men, and sent them home to study the chapter. Knowing that he had oversimplified things a bit, because he wanted them to study it, and understand it for them self. Knowing that some of what he said, even though correct did not go word for word with the verse, because he wanted the men to be strengthened by digesting the verse them self, and understanding it for them self, instead of being spoon fed, which offers no meat for growth.