Tag Archives: convinced

Sunday October 2, 2022 Romans Week 69 Romans 13:15- “”

Posted on by
Reply

Sunday – October 2, 2022

Problems viewing?

Word On Worship – Sunday – October 2, 2022

Romans 14:1
“Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.”

We all have our convictions. Sometimes others may wonder about them, and sometimes our convictions may be detrimental to others. Personal convictions are very important to the apostle Paul. Three chapters are devoted to this subject in 1 Corinthians (chapters 8-10) and nearly two chapters to this same subject in Romans (14:1-15:13). Although the term “conviction” is found only in Romans 14:22, the expression “personal convictions” best describes the areas of difference among Christians which threaten the unity of the church.

In Romans and 1 Corinthians, convictions are beliefs which govern our behavior. Paul urges us to be “fully convinced in his own mind” (14:5) concerning our convictions. Convictions here are not as much a decision concerning what is true as a decision about what we should or should not do. Paul never would have said such a thing if he had been talking about the clear moral commands or essential doctrines of Scripture. Can you imagine him saying, “Some say that we are justified by grace through faith alone, whereas others say that we must add our good works; each person must be fully convinced in his own mind”? Convictions, therefore, are conclusions we reach when there are no hard and fast answers, no moral absolutes. Almost always, these convictions are inferential—the extension of certain beliefs we hold to be true and pertinent to a given circumstance or choice.

Christian convictions are necessary because of the grace of God. Opposed to the principle of grace is that of works or legalism. Legalism has a rule for every occasion. In the time of our Lord, Judaism had distorted the Old Testament Law so that the Law became nothing but an intricate system of rules. No decisions had to be made about what was right or wrong; for virtually any situation, there was a rule. Grace is different. Righteousness is not a matter of external rules nor even of external compliance to them. Grace starts with the heart and then motivates men to obey God. Grace gives men choices to make out of a desire to please God.

As believers in Jesus Christ, we are to be in the building business—not in the demolition business. Judging others and demanding the right to exercise our liberty, regardless of its affect on others, tears others down. In the same way, judging our brother in the matter of his personal convictions is wrong. It condemns the one God has justified and refuses to receive the one God has accepted. It sows the seeds doubts around the survival and sanctification of a brother whose ultimate standing has been accomplished and assured by God. May each of us give serious thought to our convictions. May we each be fully convinced in our own minds. And may the practice or setting aside of our Christian liberties be done as to the Lord.

 

Sunday – March 12, 2017 Genesis 31:17-55 “Between a Rock & Hard Place”

Posted on by
Reply

Sunday – March 12, 2017 – Read the Word on Worship

Sunday – March 12, 2017 Genesis 31:1-51 “Between a Rock & Hard Place” from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

Problems viewing?

Word On Worship – Sunday – March 12, 2017 Download / Print

Genesis 31:42
“If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night.”

Ethics is the difference between legality and morality. We live in a day when Christians and non-Christians alike think that whatever is legal is legitimate Christian activity. We, like Jacob, have our own pole-peeling and wheeling and dealing, which we think God is obliged to bless. No wonder the world is legalizing homosexual marriage and the right to government paid abortion. To them, legality is morality so if it isn’t illegal, it is moral.

Laban had lived in close association with Jacob for twenty years, and he was convinced of Jacob’s lack of integrity. Laban believed that Jacob stole his goods and that Jacob had underhandedly gotten possession of his flocks. Does this sound like a man who was convinced that Jacob was a godly man? And yet Jacob seems to be convinced of his own integrity. He is certain that God is on his side because of his uprightness. How could Jacob have been so mistaken? I have come to believe that the answer is that Jacob was a legalist. Jacob prided himself on being a man who kept the letter of the law. Never, to his knowledge at least, had he ever broken his word. He had made a deal with Laban, and he had always lived up to it. Oh, he had peeled those poles all right, but that was not a breach of their agreement.

But here is the heart of the error of legalism, for legalism equates morality with legality. It believes that righteousness and the keeping of the law are one and the same thing. A man may have no system of ethics whatever, but so long as he does not break the law, he feels morally pure. He feels confident of the approval and blessing of God. Legalism is sinful because men love to set human standards which, if they are kept, produce a man’s righteousness. Christian liberty views the standard for our thoughts and actions to be our Lord Himself, for it is to His image that we are being conformed (Romans 8:29).

The Bible does draw lines, clear lines at times. There are absolutes, and there are rules. But in addition to these, perhaps I should say above all these, is another standard of conduct which we shall call ethics or convictions. Many Christians seem to have too few of these, and yet this is what sets a true Christian apart in the eyes of the world. How many of us are viewed by the world as Jacob was by Laban? How many of us have convictions that cause us to avoid certain practices, even if they are legal? Christian ethics should be so high that legalistic rules are never necessary, at least for those who are righteous.