In Acts 10, God confronted Peter with a vision of all sorts of creatures and told him to eat. Peter was horrified and responded, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”
God had a big lesson for Peter. This man knew Jewish law forbid certain foods. However, their law also forbid them to intermarry with or be involved in the religions of the nations around them. Instead, they were to take the good news of the glory of God to others.
Through the years, their attitude toward these neighbor nations had become the same as their attitude toward forbidden food — they were unclean, and all contact was forbidden. Peter even said, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation.”
God used this vision to show Peter that his thinking about clean and unclean needed to change before he could share the Gospel with the Gentiles. Peter learned his lesson. He said, “But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.”
As I read this, I wondered how much of that type of transfer happens in the church? God tells us that gambling is a sin. We stop all gambling, but then some refuse to play a card game with their children because that too is a sin. God tells us that sex outside marriage is a sin, but some think sex within marriage is also dirty or unclean and refuse to enjoy it with their spouse. God teaches us that drunkenness is sin, but some refuse to lift a toast to the bride at a wedding.
There are two sides to this. Romans 14:14 says, I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
What about the person whose conscience is bothered by doing something that I consider not sinful? God says for them it is unclean. Perhaps they are not sure where to draw the line, so instead of trying to figure out what might be okay and what is sinful, they refuse to involve themselves in any part of it. For example, all games are sinful, all sex is sinful, or all drinking is sinful.
While I must respect a tender conscience, I know this “all ... is sin” attitude can lead to legalism. This is that attitude that assumes, “because I feel guilty about doing this, then you too are guilty if you do it.”
How can a person whose tender conscience forbids something deal with those who are not bothered by doing the same thing? An older woman was visiting us. When our young granddaughter asked if she wanted to play a game, she said yes. Our granddaughter brought a deck of cards. This woman gently said, “Oh, I don’t do well with cards. Can you find another game that we can play?”
She later shared with me that her family history included gambling via card playing which led to great strife and loss. To her, it was a sin, but she didn’t dump that on others.
Our freedom in Christ is precious, but so are the souls around us. Before I flaunt the freedom I have, I need to be cautious about those with tender conscience. On the other hand, before I am quick to judge others in activities that my conscience forbids, I need to remember that God restricts me for good reason.
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