What is “conviction”? A firmly held belief or opinion. You might have your beliefs due to religion or parental influence or peer pressure or social media or some mentor or personal study on a topic.Examples might be what you won’t watch on TV. Dating rules on sexual behavior. Is Jesus the only way to salvation. Divorce is not an option. What you will eat and what. you won’t eat. Keeping your promises. Cheating or lying. Not committing adultery on your mate. Giving your employer all your effort. Sticking to your budget. Not hanging out with people who are cursing and using sex talk. Abortion is not an option.

The best Bible example of conviction is Daniel when he refused to eat the king’s food. He and his 3 friends had a great opportunity after being carried into exile in Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in 606 BC in the first deportation of captives to Babylon. He must have still been in his teens. Daniel 1:³ Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, ⁴ youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. ⁵ The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king.” Daniel had the opportunity to have a relatively good life in Babylon, working in the king’s palace. But he had to eat the king’s food and wine for 3 years. Daniel’s conscience would not allow him to eat that food. Why did he refuse? (AI) “Daniel refused to eat the king’s food because he believed it would “defile” him, likely due to the food being offered to pagan gods as part of Babylonian religious rituals, potentially including unclean animals according to Jewish dietary laws, and thus considered a violation of his faith and loyalty to God; he wanted to remain pure and dedicated to his own religious practices.” Do you realize what he might be giving up? He might have angered the king and been sent to do harsh slavery jobs, or even killed for insubordination.  

But he never hesitated on his decision to refuse the food. Conviction is something that you already have made up. your mind that you will or won’t do. You are tempted sexually and have an opportunity to act on that. You have to have firmly made your mind ahead of time that you will not give in. If you wait till the moment you are tempted to decide, you might be a lot more likely to give in and commit fornication or adultery. The same with all those other examples. Someone could be trying to get you to violate your conscience or sin. Maybe your friends or peers are trying to influence you or pressure you to drink or cheat. If you are convicted in your beliefs it will be a lot easier to say “no. If you have to “think about it” you are more likely to give in.

Once you have a firm belief or opinion on something, you should never violate your conscience. From gotquestions.org “The conscience is defined as that part of the human psyche that induces mental anguish and feelings of guilt when we violate it and feelings of pleasure and well-being when our actions, thoughts and words are in conformity to our value systems. The Greek word translated “conscience” in all New Testament references is suneidēsis, meaning “moral awareness” or “moral consciousness.” The conscience reacts when one’s actions, thoughts, and words conform to, or are contrary to, a standard of right and wrong.” God gave humans something that animals don’t have. We can reason out right and wrong and then we will feel guilty if we do what we believe is wrong. That is a gift from God. Paul told the Romans that they should follow their consciences on eating or not eating meats. Paul said it was okay to eat meats, but if anyone still believed it was wrong to eat then he said that person should follow his/her conscience and not eat. Romans 14:²³ But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” From gotquestions.org “Another reference to conscience in the New Testament is to a conscience that is “seared” or rendered insensitive as though it had been cauterized with a hot iron (1 Timothy 4:1-2). Such a conscience is hardened and calloused, no longer feeling anything. A person with a seared conscience no longer listens to its promptings, and he can sin with abandon, delude himself into thinking all is well with his soul, and treat others insensitively and without compassion.”

God took care of Daniel when he refused the king’s food. Daniel 1:⁹ And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, ¹⁰ and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.” I don’t know how God gave Daniel favor with that man, but He did. That man was afraid of what the king would do to him if Daniel’s not eating caused him to look worse than the youths who did eat. He could have been killed for allowing Daniel to not eat the food. But he gave Daniel that 10 day test of not eating the king’s food, probably eating vegetables only. A big risk on his part. If you are firm in your convictions, God will help you to keep them and to have a good outcome in situations you find yourself in. Daniel 1:¹⁵ At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s food. ¹⁶ So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.”

This led Daniel to receive a position of prominence in Babylon serving under Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 1:¹⁷ As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. ¹⁸ At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. ¹⁹ And the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. ²⁰ And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. ²¹ And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.” Cyrus and the Persians conquered Babylon in 539 BC and allowed the Jews to return to the holy land to rebuild the temple in 536 BC, so that means that Daniel lived the entire 70 years in Babylon, probably dying around the age of 90.

Several years ago my school was in the middle of being challenged on. certain doctrinal teachings. It caused them to come up with a “statement of faith” of the school’s basic beliefs. They came up with a nice basic set of beliefs that all teachers had to affirm. Doctrines like belief in the Deity of Jesus and that salvation is only through Jesus. Even that set of beliefs has been challenged with the new gender and homosexual issues. They had to add the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman. They had to add that gender is either male or female, just as God stated in Genesis 1:27 which reads, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Sometimes we change our beliefs on a subject and that is okay. We should always be learning and open to changing our beliefs. Maybe the person who thinks it is wrong to eat meats could be shown what Paul said and change his mind. But if they don’t, then be careful not to cause that person to eat meats and violate his/her conscience, thus causing a “weak” brother to sin. Don’t influence him to do something that violates his/her conscience. Maybe you were raised to believe that certain religious practices like instrumental music were sinful, but over time you changed your mind. Now you can enjoy sitting in a worship service and being edified with instrumental worship. Preachers and church leaders have filled our minds with traditional, often sectarian doctrines, and it is hard to change. We often thing that something is wrong just b/c that’s what our preachers told us was wrong. Be like the Bereans. Acts 17:¹¹ Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” I do a lot of teaching on eschatology and my beliefs go against traditional teachings but I believe my views are logical and consistent. But I know it is hard to go against what the church and Christianity have mostly taught for the past 2,000 years (with some noticeable exceptions like the late 1800’s with several Biblical scholars who held my beliefs). I just hope that people would be open and let the Spirit lead them in studying truth and to not be afraid to go against traditonal beliefs. I do realize that I could be wrong in my teachings, but I am convinced that I am not and therefore I will continue to teach my beliefs with conviction. I believe the study of eschatology is important and vitally needed today.

So what are your beliefs that you firmly hold, that you would risk everything to follow? Are you firmly committed to being faithful to your mate? The Holy Spirit is constantly, through the Word and providential ways, convicting us of sin. John 16:⁷ Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” Does your conscience still prick you when you commit a sin that you know that the Spirt has told you is wrong? Does your conscience still prick you when you fail to do something that you know that the Spirit would want you to do? James 4:¹⁷ So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” Were you once strongly convicted in your beliefs but now you are doing bad things that you never would have done years ago? The world puts so much pressure on our convictions. Is your faith strong enough to resist that pressure?

Maybe, like my school did, it is time for you to write down what you firmly believe in. Make a list, a “statement of faith” to live by. Read it often to remind yourself of what you believe. It might help you to say “no” when tempted to violate your conscience.