We talked yesterday about the internal consequences of pride. Pride has a wider effect than the corruption of our hearts, though. It can cause us to harm other Christians, which is exactly what happened in Corinth.
Read 1 Corinthians 8:7-13.
7 However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. 8 It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do.
9 But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. 10 For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? 11 So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed. 12 And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. 13 So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.
1 Corinthians 8 (NLT)
Paul uses the word syneidesis, which we translate as “conscience,” three times in just seven verses. As our English translation implies, Paul’s talking about the part of our brain that distinguishes between right and wrong. He repeats the word three times to emphasize his point—violating your conscience as a Christian is a sin. If we think something’s wrong and do it, we sinned against God.
Some of the Corinthians evidently knew what we read yesterday—that idols aren’t real gods. They took their freedom in Christ as a free ticket to dine at the pagan temples with their friends. Some people in the church thought their practices were wrong, but, since they saw their friends doing it, they felt pressured to join in.
Those who were eating meat sacrificed to idols didn’t see the harm they were causing to other Christians. Paul says that to lead another Christian to act against his or her conscience is to lead them into sin.
In their pride, the Corinthians thought they, as free people in Christ, could do whatever they wanted with no consequences. But they were actually pushing people to go against their conscience, which—for those people—were sins.
This is part of the gray areas we talked about in the sermon. There are things—such as media intake, alcohol consumption, or the price of our newest outfit—that might not trip our conscience. But it does trigger someone else’s.
Think about what those gray areas might be for you. Take TV for example.
What shows are you okay with watching? Does your enthusiasm for a show pressure other Christians to watch it?
As people who risk living an others-centered life, our goal should be to live in such a way that other Christians can look on and follow suit with a clear conscience. That might mean giving up drinking in public or buying less expensive jewelry or keeping off political Facebook threads. It might mean sacrificing for the sake of other Christians.
What could you do to consider other Christians’ consciences the next time you sit down to do something with a friend?
Text your response to the above prompting questions to your group and/or share it as a comment below
This was something I was taught a lot in highschool and something I talked to bumble last week. I was often taught actions speak louder than words and the way you interact with people and the way you carry yourself play a huge of how people can see Christ in you. Also speech as well is important of not talking about good things and nothing crude.
I think there are a lot of things that we can do to be considerate of other Christian’s consciences. I think it is even more magnified when you are leading a ministry or are in some leadership capacity within the church. With that in mind, I always try to be even more responsible and careful in how I speak or act when I am around other Christians as I do not want other Christians to believe that there is one way I may act at church versus how I act in the “world”. It is important for Christians like us to realize that we are always potentially witnesses to those around us and so we must always try to represent God in everything that we do.