A Weak Conscience... or Wisdom?

In a recent conversation, I was speaking with a friend about strong versus weak consciences, loving our brothers, and unity. In Paul’s day, it was eating meat sacrificed to idols. Now, we have different issues. Yoga. Tattoos. Entertainment and TV shows. Christian rock. Drinking. Boundaries in dating. Harry Potter.

As Christians, we can disagree on superficial things and still all be going to heaven. It’s not rocket science. As was pointed out to me, and is an important observation, Paul in 1 Corinthians 8 isn’t concerned with who’s right and who’s wrong. His message is not, “Figure out a way to agree,” but “Recognize that you’re different and some have weaker consciences, lay down your rights, and love each other.”

Yet, what I have observed is that sometimes we confuse “weak conscience” issues with conviction. Let me explain.

When I discovered that a brother and sister disagreed with me on some issues on which my conscience was not silent, this challenged me. Recognizing that I often don’t know myself as well as I think I do, this was a call to search my heart. Was this pride rearing its ugly head? I knew from experience how easily I can fall into the trap of taking something different and labeling it “wrong.” Was I the wrong one? Was I being close-minded? After all, these issues aren’t laid out in Scripture.

I am more than willing to change my point of view and obey the call to be humble when the apparent truth, glaring at me with its finger pointed to the ground, having won, demands I relinquish my pride and lay down my arms.

However, looking again at what some may call “weak conscience” issues, I saw my convictions, formed after weeks or months of prayer or years of experience. It’s true that many of the issues we face today aren’t explicitly addressed in Scripture, which means I would never hold to them as tightly or as highly as I hold to our Christian non-negotiables. Nor would I use them as a basis to judge or slander others.

But does that make them wrong?

This I could not reconcile. Something wasn’t adding up. Am I “weak” because I have standards? Because I have prayed and searched and sought and come to the conclusion that not everyone may agree with but that I believe is right, and in accordance with the Word of God?

I looked again through 1 Corinthians 8 and found a key phrase that seemed to answer my question: “Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled” (v. 7). Why are some of their consciences weak? Because they are so accustomed to idols.

The missing piece, then, contrary to what frequently seems to be taught, is that the strong/weak conscience issue is not about Christians pursuing God, searching the Scriptures, and coming to different conclusions, so that on any given issue they fall on two or more different sides. A weak conscience, rather, is part of the residue of worldliness.

This is not to say that new, growing Christians are not Christians or not growing but rather that their minds have not yet been transformed to think maturely (Rom. 12:1-2, Heb. 5:14). They think they know something but do not yet know as they ought to know (1 Cor. 8:2).

The application, then, of 1 Corinthians 8 is to be patient and love in the meantime our brothers and sisters who are more accustomed to idols, so to speak, laying down our freedoms, until they come to a more mature understanding. In other words, more mature believers are not to lord their freedoms over their weaker brother but to be ruled instead by love, which ought to govern their liberty.

What is disappointing today is the increasing tendency to reframe worldliness in terms of “strong conscience” issues. Young people especially seem to use their “strong conscience” as a shield when making questionable life choices and as a substitute for what with a little intentionality could be more mature convictions. We think of the older generations as prudish traditionalists. In contrast, we have seen the light and have “strong” consciences. What bothers our grandparents doesn’t bother us. And we say it proudly. We use our “strong conscience” to defend our rights, to divide, to rebel—quite the opposite of what Paul intended.

The real question, ultimately, is not about areas in which we are “strong” or “weak” but whether our decisions and consciences are informed more by worldliness or more by wisdom. Confusing a weak conscience with noble principles and high standards is itself a reflection of worldliness and backward thinking. While of course we all have room to grow and are probably wrong about at least a few things, calling the wise, principled brother “weak” will be our downfall.

A worthy note is that Paul never gave express permission for the Corinthians to eat food sacrificed to idols. According to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, this was one of the few things from which new (Gentile) believers were to abstain, along with sexual immorality. This was not just a minor divisive issue regarding which Paul drops some lines of counsel; this was a significant, prevalent practice the apostles and elders felt the need to address and consider for new believers with a more secular or worldly background than their Jewish counterparts.

Paul writes that we know an idol is nothing (1 Cor. 8:4). We know the truth and serve God alone. Food sacrificed to idols doesn’t mean something because the idol is real but because of how it affects our brothers and because of the potential it has for leading a person into sin.

A sobering application question for us might be, “What is our food sacrificed to idols?” What practice, even if it’s not inherently sinful, reflects more the world than the wisdom of God, and can cause others to slip on this icy slope and injure themselves on their way to crashing at the bottom?

The good news is that someone with a truly weak conscience is headed, with good counsel, a good church, and the good Word of God, in the right direction. Now, he is indeed “more accustomed to idols,” but Lord willing, as he is transformed by the renewing of his mind, he won’t stay that way.