Minding Your Thoughts
A Biblical Overview of Obtaining and Maintaining a Biblical Thought Life
Romans 14:5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Today’s verse spotlights matters of Christian liberty and of personal conscious. Verse six gives even more light: He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
If for your own conscience sake you cannot regard a day, do not regard it. If in your mind you are at freedom to regard a day, then do so. But know this, just because you are fully persuaded in your mind doesn’t mean everyone else is fully persuaded the same way in their mind. Sharing information, preaching, reading the Bible, learning about history all help to make anyone’s mind persuaded about ways to please our Father in Heaven. As taught in Scripture, it is our Father’s desire to be of the same mind. Part of having that same mind is to realize sometimes our minds are different, and should be, on some things.
Consider this, let us say that a person comes to receive Christ after being involved in the practice of using illegal drugs. Another has no such history. These two men decide to eat lunch together, one suggests a lunch place the other says, “No, I can’t go into that restaurant.” They have a disagreement as to where to eat. The first man cannot go there because of a drug related history issue. The second man has not that history. One is free in his mind, one is hindered. One regards the place as acceptable, one regards the place as a danger, or maybe the right word is “trigger,” because of his past. Both love God and both care for each other, but both also see things differently. They are both persuaded in their minds. The one with no trouble about the place should yield to the one that has trouble with the place. This, of course, is an oversimplification, but similar situations take place all the time.
We live in a very interesting time of human history. It seems that the prevailing thought is that everyone should do their own thing as long as they do it like everyone else. In business, among young people, and in churches there is pressure to conform to whatever everyone else thinks you should be (regardless of what the Bible teaches). As we learned a few days ago, believers are to be of the same mind, and part of that sameness of mind is the right of individual liberty (I Corinthians 10:29, Galatians 5:13). We are not to judge one another (Romans 14:4) or even compare ourselves with each other (II Corinthians 10:12). So, make up your mind, persuade yourself what is right to do, and if need be, walk through blood up to your earlobes to do, or not do, that thing all the while defending the right of every other child of God to do the same in their life.
May the Lord Bless and be pleased with your thought life today.
Dr. William T. Howe
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