Scripture
If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if anyone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience’ sake—the other man’s conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? 1 Corinthians 10:27-30

Observation
Convictions are little rules we apply to ourselves that do more good for us than for God. There may be some wild part of our personality that we need to bring under God’s control and so our conscience applies a principle toward something better. Three cheers for convictions. They can get us out of everything from nail biting to binge drinking.

But convictions can be irritating to others. Some folks are irritated that we don’t have enough of them and others are put out that we even have just one. If we’re not careful, what others can experience from us is not the soft hand of grace but the back hand of the law.

I love how Paul applied his convictions. For him, the hot topic was buying meat with a smiling picture of Zeus on the wrapper. He didn’t want to eat drumsticks snatched off of Hercules altar, so he boycotted temple food. But there were bumper guards for his convictions. He didn’t dig through the garbage at a friend’s barbecue to find out where his T-Bone steak came from. Nor did he push away a hearty bowl of Saturn Stew served up at the neighborhood block party. He had convictions, but he always obeyed first the law of love.

What Paul advocated may sound at first inconsistent, but Paul was perfectly consistent with the law of love.

Application
We need to have convictions “for” good as much as we have convictions “against” wrong. We can be so right that we are absolutely wrong if we ignore the law of love.

Prayer
Father, I pray that you will give me convictions but show me how to round the edges of them without cutting corners so that others experience not rejection by me but love for you. Amen.