If You Love Me...

Have been studying about conviction recently in chapter nine of The Pursuit of Holiness.  Our convictions come from what we believe to be right and wrong and should be grounded in the Scriptures.  Knowing the ten commandments is only the beginning of where our convictions should come from (and most Christians do not have the 10 Commandments memorized).  How do you know if you can or can not eat meat?  Would God rather you defend yourself and your family with deadly force, or should we turn the other cheek?  Are "dishonest scales" okay because everybody is doing it?  What about dating?  Shouldn't we have arranged marriages?

You might have a lot of convictions about certain things in your life.  Why do some Christians drink a glass of wine with dinner and other Christians shudder when they are offered a Coke?  If your convictions are not based upon clear commands in Scripture or a "gray" area that is not exactly clear but better safe than sorry, then your convictions are just opinions.  Paul was clear that all things were permissible to him (although not all is beneficial).  I think that Paul would sit down to a steak dinner with peas and mashed potatoes and a glass of wine as long as he was certain that he would not be mastered by any of it (I Corinthians 6:12).  However, if he had a problem with longing for steak to a point that he needed it, for him it would certainly be sin to eat that steak because he was being mastered by it.  And if he was a recovering alcoholic, it would certainly be sin for him to drink that glass of wine because it could easily master him again.

Paul would also put away the wine and steak when dinning with a brother who was convinced that steak and wine were sinful.  Perhaps Paul could have quoted Jesus or His disciples saying that wine was okay and even good for you, but he would be leading his invited guests to sin.  Any conviction that you go against is sin.  And nobody should ever lead anybody to go against their convictions.

Certainly convictions are extremely important if we are going to live a life dedicated to obeying our Lord.  Our convictions need to be based on Biblical teaching and not on opinions of others or even our own opinions.  In order to have Biblical based convictions we need to be in the Word and studying the Word.  We need to hide the Word in our hearts in order to not sin (Psalm 119:11).  The next step is living according to our convictions.  Doing this will put sin to death, which is the title of chapter 9 of The Pursuit of Holiness.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29968788@N00/ / CC BY 2.0

Philippian Jailor

I listened to RC Sproul one time on a completely unrelated subject and he mentioned something about the Philippian Jailer  that I had not thought of, but which makes perfect sense.

The story in Acts 16 was about Paul and Silas in prison in Philippi because they healed a possessed woman who really was annoying and the profiters of her got angry and had them arrested.  Whilst in prison, Paul and Silas were singing and praying and suddenly there was a "violent earthquake" and all the doors opened and all the chains of the prisoners were loosened.  The jailer runs into the prison to see all the doors open, chains everywhere, probably broken walls and that's when he starts to think.

The jailer was given charge over these prisoners, all of them.  Odds are, he would be killed when the boss man finds out that all of them are gone.  So, he draws his sword and looks at it and determines that it would be easier to die by his own sword than to face an angry man who would kill him anyway.  Well, Paul and Silas call out and let him know that they are all there.  He famously cries "what must I do to be saved?".  Then Paul begins to share the gospel.  The jailer and his family all get saved because of this, but I want to focus on what he cried out.

What RC Sproul said and what I have come to think is that this Philippian jailer was not asking how to be saved, but rather, how to be saved.  Fact is, the jailer was about to face the death penalty.  I think he had but one thing on his mind, and that was his own life.  He sees Paul and Silas, possibly the other prisoners and thinks to himself that these people are going to start making demands.  Therefore, he says to them, "what must I do to be saved?".  Not from Hell and eternal damnation, but from a cruel and painful death by enraged prisoners, and if not by them, by the man he works for.  Paul, seeing a preaching opportunity, calms him and begins telling him about how his life could really be saved, not from death, but from Hell and eternal damnation.

This story can actually made into a sermon about preaching the gospel when opportunity knocks.  Something to think about.