C&CW Ep. 23 - Terms: Adiaphora & Conscience

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Coffee & Christian Worldview
Episode 23

Show Notes:

Now we define the terms.

ADIAPHORA
"Things indifferent."
Morally/ethically indifferent.
Those things "neutral"—morally speaking.
Any created thing can and should be used for God's glory. However, it can also be abused and used apart from God's glory. As God intended, or for sinful purposes.
The sin doesn't come from the thing itself—not intrinsically good or bad.
Example: alcohol. Alcohol is not sinful.
But a sinner can use it to be drunk, which is sin.
Jesus used wine in the Lord's Supper, a righteous use.

We cannot make adiaphora a test of holiness.

1 Timothy 4:1–8
"who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God created to be shared in with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth."

Many people use their past as a weapon—many justify banning adiaphora based on their bad experiences.

"We are free to use and enjoy things as long as they do not rule our lives. Many good things can be abused, and it is the abuse that is the sin, not the use. Our tendency is to think that the only proper corrective to an abuse is complete disuse. We start posting rules and regulations governing all kinds of things that God allows His people to use in the liberty of conscience, and we try to take away their liberty in order to protect them from falling into abuses."
—R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess

CONSCIENCE
It's immaterial. Part of the soul, which is the spirit or heart.
Peaple sear their conscience when they put up rules.
Romans 1–2, God appeals to the conscience. God gave us a conscience.
The conscience has to do with how you live your life, based on what God says or something else.

Your conscience is at work when you feel justified or guilty in your actions. Our sense of what is right or wrong. But the conscience is not infallible.

"To understand this statement, we must define the word conscience. The conscience has to do with our moral sense, our mental awareness of right and wrong. . . Our conscience can lie to us. Our conscience can excuse what it ought to accuse, and approve of what it ought to disapprove of. That is one reason why the work of the Holy Spirit is so important in the Christian’s life. The Spirit overrules the corruption of the human conscience and convinces us that our sin is sin."
—R.C. Sproul, Truths We Confess

1 Corinthians 4:4, "For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted. But the one who examines me is the Lord."

The conscience is the subjective ethical sense. The objective moral standard is God's Law. The trick is to get the two to coincide.

Legalistic contexts, where opinions determine right and wrong, people feel guilty when they have not sinned.
Weaker brothers act against their conscience, and do what they believe to be sin—which is sin.

If we want a conscience more in sync with God's Word, then we need to live a life that pleases God. Our conscience won't accuse others of sin, when they have not sinned.
As far as obedience, that's why God gives us the Spirit (Gal. 3:3)

Romans 12:1–2, God wants us transformed by the renewing of our mind. Then our conscience will be renewed.
Then you can become a better pastor, better pastor's wife, better member, better Christian.

You'll know it's not your right or duty to tell people what to do, that the Bible doesn't say anything about.

Then like Paul, you can say: "My conscience is clear; however, it's God who examines me, and God is the ultimate judge of my conscience."

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