Who Should You Vote For?
Who should you vote for? How much should you spend on dinner? What should you wear to work? Can you read Harry Potter? Should you dress up for Halloween? Can you listen to Taylor Swift?
Even right now, you might feel your blood start to boil as really strong opinions rise up in you. The goal of today’s blog is not to debate these topics—instead, I want to talk about conscience. Because all of these questions—from who to vote for to trick-or-treating—are a matter of conscience. In light of the political season, and in light of the reality that faithful Christians often disagree about these big questions, it’s an especially important topic.
As we consider the conscience, let’s read Romans 14:19–23, which says:
"So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another. Do not tear down God’s work because of food. Everything is clean, but it is wrong to make someone fall by what he eats. It is a good thing not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin."
In context, Paul is talking here about eating meat, and at the time, there was a lot of debate about whether you could eat meat sacrificed to idols.
There’s much more that could be said about these verses, but for now, they offer three important reminders for this highly charged political season. When prayerfully considering how to act, we must read the Bible, serve others, and obey our conscience.
Read the Bible
As we consider difficult decisions of the conscience, first, go to God’s Word. Every word of God proves true (Proverbs 30:5), and the Bible is how we know what is right and wrong. The Bible helps us grow in godliness, increasing our knowledge of God and showing us how to be obedient to God’s Word. So, read it! Let your conscience be calibrated by the Word of God. If you’re unsure about a particular question, search Scripture and see what it has to say about that topic. Ask believers around you how they interpret Scripture. The more we’re in the Word, the more the Bible saturates our decision-making, teaching us right and wrong.
We need God’s Word to guide us, to shape us, and to calibrate our consciences. Read the Bible, devour it, search it, and study it.
Serve Others
Secondly, as you make conscience-oriented decisions, consider how you can love and serve those around you. As Paul mentions in Romans 14, there may be things that you willingly give up for the sake of another. Paul says that it’s okay to eat meat in these verses, but not when it hurts another believer. He warns the strong in Christ to be mindful of how their decisions affect the weak. He teaches that we must be careful not to hurt others by flaunting our freedom in Christ.
So what does this look like? Here’s an example. For a few years my husband and I lived in a Muslim country. During that time, even though it was a hundred degrees, I never wore shorts because it would have hurt our mission of sharing the gospel with Muslims. They wouldn’t wouldn’t want to learn more about God from me. We made the decision to serve others with our decisions, even though my conscience on this issue was clean and I felt free in Christ to wear shorts. We laid aside our “rights” to serve others. Similarly, there might be times when you feel free in Christ to do, watch, or listen to something, but because you love others around you, you abstain from it. That’s one way you can love your neighbor, and thereby, to love God.
Obey Your Conscience
Finally, obey your conscience. This point is one that we don’t talk about a lot in culture, and it’s a tricky topic, because sometimes our conscience can be wrong. As already stated, we need to calibrate our conscience with God’s Word—this means not assuming our thoughts are always right, even if we believe them strongly. But at the same time, Paul says that whatever is not done in faith is sin (verse 23). So how do we reconcile these two truths?
D.A. Carson put it like this: we need to obey our conscience. He says, “Paul judges it dangerous for Christians to defy their consciences because if they get in the habit of ignoring the voice of conscience, they may ignore that voice even when the conscience is well informed and properly warning them of something evil” (Crowley, 2016). Martin Luther said something similar when making the decision to go against the church, that “to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.”
We don’t want to silence our conscience. Nor do we want to wound or callous our conscience. Instead, we want to train and calibrate our conscience with the truths of God’s Word, and then follow it. So if you think it’s a sin for you to do something, don’t do it—whether that’s reading Harry Potter or listening to Taylor Swift or spending money at the movie theater. Instead, let God’s Word inform your conscience. Be gracious and sensitive to others as you obey your conscience, all for the glory of God.
Sources:
Crowley, JD and Andrew Naselli. Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and How to Love Those Who Differ. Crossway: Wheaton, Illinois, 2016.
12 principles on how to disagree with other Christians - 9marks : 9Marks. Accessed October 15, 2024. https://www.9marks.org/article/romans-14/.
