5 Some judge one day to be better than another, while others
judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. 6
Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat,
eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who
abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.
14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is
unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.
22 The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before
God. Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what
they approve. 23 But those who have doubts are condemned if they eat,
because they do not act from faith;
for whatever does not proceed from faith
is sin.
Paul
talks about two issues: observing the day (e.g. calling some days particularly
holy); and clean and unclean food. In the first, he does not say what he
considers right. In the second, he does. But in both cases, he mainly says that
people should do whatever they think
is right.
Honor
the day. Do not honor the day. Abstain from certain foods. Eat all foods. If
you have doubts, do not do it. If you don’t, feel free to go ahead (as long as
you do not harm your brother or sister).
It
is a remarkable ethic, putting a remarkable responsibility on each of us to
determine what we believe is right and to do it. I presume that Paul would say
some things are intrinsically right or wrong. But in this passage, Paul is all
about the Christian conscience.
Fr.
Harvey
No comments:
Post a Comment