It's inevitable. Whenever someone is talking about obedience to scripture, and it doesn't even have to Torah related, someone else will respond with 'I'm just not convicted about that', or 'The Holy Spirit has told me I don't have to do X'. Both of these responses are not only dangerous to the speakers walk with Elohim but defy scripture, yet they are sadly such common and prevalent responses to many things that we can not simply let them go unaddressed and continue to be considered acceptable ways to shut down a discussion on obedience.
I'm going to start with targeting the idea that conviction is integral to obedience. I start with this one because this is the one out of the two which actually makes the attempt to have scriptural backing. The person who says this will inevitably throw Romans 14 up as if it is a shield and a defense for their desires to dismiss a certain passage of scripture. But is this passage really defending their argument? They usually start with the later half of verse 5, but as scripture should never be removed from context let's start right from verse one.
Romans 14, Now as for a person whose trust is weak, welcome him — but not to get into arguments over opinions. 2 One person has the trust that will allow him to eat anything, while another whose trust is weak eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats anything must not look down on the one who abstains; and the abstainer must not pass judgment on the one who eats anything, because God has accepted him — 4 who are you to pass judgment on someone else’s servant? It is before his own master that he will stand or fall; and the fact is that he will stand, because the Lord is able to make him stand. Now, at first glance through a western mind anything means anything, but that isn't what Paul is actually writing here. We know this because Paul took a vow in Acts 18 and 20 to assure people he had never taught and would never teach against the Law of God and to allow 'anything' to include things like pork and shellfish he would be breaking that vow and proving himself to be a false prophet according to Deuteronomy 13. Additionally we know that Peter warned that Paul can be difficult to understand, that his words are easily twisted for lawlessness, used in defense of disobedience to Elohim's Laws. With this then recognized, after all scripture will interpret scripture, we can then look again to see what is being discussed in this chapter. We can see a key is within the opposing side of 'anything', vegetables only. At the time, in the markets, people were unable to know if biblically clean meats had been sacrificed to idols or not before being sold for consumption. Those weaker in the faith understood the letter of the law regarding this and chose to abstain from all meats in order to not eat meat that was sacrificed to an idol, while those who understood that there is only one God and idols are only wood or stone chose to eat the meat. Both will have to account for their actions before Elohim when they face resurrection, each is obeying as they understand obedience. One, the weaker in faith, is simply going above and beyond the law in how they are obeying. So from there let us then continue.
5 One person considers some days more holy than others, while someone else regards them as being all alike. What is important is for each to be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes a day as special does so to honor the Lord. Also he who eats anything, eats to honor the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; likewise the abstainer abstains to honor the Lord, and he too gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives only in relation to himself, and none of us dies only in relation to himself; 8 for if we live, we live in relation to the Lord; and if we die, we die in relation to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord — 9 indeed, it was for this very reason that the Messiah died and came back to life, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 You then, why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For all of us will stand before God’s judgment seat; 11 since it is written in the Tanakh,
“As I live, says Adonai, every knee will bend before me,
and every tongue will publicly acknowledge God.”[a]
12 So then, every one of us will have to give an account of himself to God.
13 Therefore, let’s stop passing judgment on each other! Instead, make this one judgment — not to put a stumbling block or a snare in a brother’s way. 14 I know — that is, I have been persuaded by the Lord Yeshua the Messiah — that nothing is unclean in itself. But if a person considers something unclean, then for him it is unclean; 15 and if your brother is being upset by the food you eat, your life is no longer one of love. Do not, by your eating habits, destroy someone for whom the Messiah died! 16 Do not let what you know to be good, be spoken of as bad; 17 for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, shalom and joy in the Ruach HaKodesh. 18 Anyone who serves the Messiah in this fashion both pleases God and wins the approval of other people.
This segment again ends with the reminder that each of us will have to account for our obedience and disobedience before Adonai at judgement. Reminding us not to look down on each other as we learn to walk as Y'shua walked or to obey, or how to obey. But it isn't saying that conviction is the end all be all in what constitutes sin, as it sadly is often used to claim. So let's break it down and take a closer look. It starts by saying what days People view as holy or not, not what days Elohim views has Holy. This is a big difference. In the modern mind it's like taking a holiday for Thanksgiving and some not doing so because Thanksgiving isn't a biblical holiday. But it doesn't change that Elohim's Holy Days, as found in Leviticus 23, remain Holy no matter how people view them. Our stance on them is ultimately irrelevant and doesn't negate what Adonai has declared. Then it brings the food back into this, showing us again that this is about going above and beyond the Law of God, not dismissing it. That those who feel, for example, that certain things are work on the Sabbath need to not do those things, while another may not view that as work. For another modern example, there's an elder woman who finds her shalom in gardening, feeling it brings her closer to God. So she gardens, pulling weeds and tending her plants on a Sabbath, while another believer sees gardening as a chore, work to be avoided on the Sabbath. Both are obeying the Shabbat by not working and spending time with God but it can look slightly different, neither is in sin. But if a third who say gardening as a chore did it anyways on the Sabbath, grumbling all the while at the weeds, they are indeed sinning by working on the Sabbath.
19 So then, let us pursue the things that make for shalom and mutual upbuilding. 20 Don’t tear down God’s work for the sake of food. True enough, all things are clean; but it is wrong for anybody by his eating to cause someone to fall away. 21 What is good is not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 22 The belief you hold about such things, keep between yourself and God. Happy the person who is free of self-condemnation when he approves of something! 23 But the doubter comes under condemnation if he eats, because his action is not based on trust. And anything not based on trust is a sin. We are then called to not cause others to stumble based on our view of the details. The woman who views weeding as a good thing shouldn't weed when the woman who despises it is over on a Shabbat, so that she doesn't cause her sister in the Messiah to stumble and see this as a sin. This whole passage then is summed up by saying that if we are convicted above and beyond the Law of Elohim then those things do become sins for us, but the Law of God does not change from sin to not sin if it is broke based on conviction. To draw the opposite conclusion would be to contradict 1 John 3:4, and we know scripture can not contradict scripture. Everyone who keeps sinning is violating Torah — indeed, sin is violation of Torah.
Now let's look at conviction being used as a defense from a logical angle. While the ultimate conviction comes from Adonai we can all agree that there is a general level of understanding of right and wrong in most people. We call this our conscious. With this we can see that even unbelievers will recognize there is something inherently wrong with stealing, murder, and the like. And the unbeliever who dies in this state will be judged based on the very Law of God that they broke so frequently during their lives. But what of the sociopath who lacks what we know as a conscious? They don't have that inner voice telling them right from wrong on any level, as they then excused to murder and steal? Of course not! We don't accept this as a defense against such actions and let them roam free if they are a danger, and Adonai doesn't either. If they do not repent, striving to live life as God commands and to follow him then they are held to the same standard as any other unbeliever. Their lack of conviction to obey him is irrelevant.
This isn't to say conviction isn't important however, it certainly plays it's role! Be it, like already addressed, an issue of going above and beyond the Torah, the Law of Elohim, or more importantly playing a role in our repentance. Being personally convicted can be incredibly powerful in bringing us to the foot of the cross, in bringing us to see how we need Y'shua and that we are sinners lost without his grace. We see many cases of this through scripture and I'm sure most of you have had those moments yourself when we weep over our iniquities and beg for forgiveness, fueling us to turn from our sins and to follow God as he has forgiven us. Obeying him out of our love for him and gratefulness for his mercy and forgiveness.
And what is it that leads us to this ultimate of convictions but the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh. As believers we are called to follow the Ruach in what we do, how we live. Such verses as Romans 8:14, All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons, and Galatians 5:25, Since it is through the Spirit that we have Life, let it also be through the Spirit that we order our lives day by day, tell us this. But where and how does the Ruach lead us? Ezekiel 36:27 tells us that role of the Ruach is to guide us in obedience to God's Law, saying, I will put my Spirit inside you and cause you to live by my laws, respect my rulings and obey them. Thus, if a spirit is telling us to do something contrary to those laws, to dismiss one of those ruling, then it can not be the Ruach at all. I am then sorry to tell you that if you have ever felt that 'the Holy Spirit says I don't have to obey whatever-it-is' that it isn't the Holy Spirit at all you're listening to. It may be your own spirit, your own wicked heart as Jeremiah 17:9 references; I know I've fallen into that trap many, many times! Or it may be an evil spirit leading you astray.
1 John 4 gives us a sort of guide book to the Ruach as well. Used with Ezekiel 36:27 we can then understand how the Ruach operates, on some level, and are then able to test the spirits to know if something is of God or not. It makes it clear that the spirits may not be spiritual as we often associate them to, but also purely physical voices around us such as false teachers. It also shows us the flags, markers, to watch for to know how to test the spirits we are each listening to. It says, Dear friends, don’t trust every spirit. On the contrary, test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 Here is how you recognize the Spirit of God: every spirit which acknowledges that Yeshua the Messiah came as a human being is from God, 3 and every spirit which does not acknowledge Yeshua is not from God — in fact, this is the spirit of the Anti-Messiah. You have heard that he is coming. Well, he’s here now, in the world already!
4 You, children, are from God and have overcome the false prophets, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore, they speak from the world’s viewpoint; and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God doesn’t listen to us. This is how we distinguish the Spirit of truth from the spirit of error.
7 Beloved friends, let us love one another; because love is from God; and everyone who loves has God as his Father and knows God. 8 Those who do not love, do not know God; because God is love. 9 Here is how God showed his love among us: God sent his only Son into the world, so that through him we might have life. 10 Here is what love is: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the kapparah for our sins.
11 Beloved friends, if this is how God loved us, we likewise ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains united with us, and our love for him has been brought to its goal in us. 13 Here is how we know that we remain united with him and he with us: he has given to us from his own Spirit. 14 Moreover, we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as Deliverer of the world. 15 If someone acknowledges that Yeshua is the Son of God, God remains united with him, and he with God. 16 Also we have come to know and trust the love that God has for us. God is love; and those who remain in this love remain united with God, and God remains united with them.
17 Here is how love has been brought to maturity with us: as the Messiah is, so are we in the world. This gives us confidence for the Day of Judgment. 18 There is no fear in love. On the contrary, love that has achieved its goal gets rid of fear, because fear has to do with punishment; the person who keeps fearing has not been brought to maturity in regard to love.
19 We ourselves love now because he loved us first. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar. For if a person does not love his brother, whom he has seen, then he cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 Yes, this is the command we have from him: whoever loves God must love his brother too.
So the markers then are that it leads us to obey scripture, as we know from Ezekiel, it leads us to Y'shua having been physically on earth and is of Elohim, a person with the Ruach will show God's love, it leads us to testify that Y'shua is the Son of Elohim, echad, united, as Elohim, and that Y'shua was sent to be our atonement for us, and it leads us to show love for God and for our brothers.
Let's focus on that last statement for a moment because it ties a very neat bow right back to the passage in Ezekiel telling us that the Ruach will lead us in obedience. To love Adonai and each other is said by Y'shua to be the two greatest commandments, the two in which all other commandments and instructions hang off of. These two largest of the commandments classify every single other command given by God in scripture, in both the Tanakh and the New Testament. Many can easily recognize how 'the ten commandments' fit into this statement, either dividing it as the first four affect God, the last six to man, or five and five. Few in Christendom today, sadly, recognize that every single command in scripture fits into one of these two but they do. To further see how I'd encourage you to read Categorizing the Laws of Adonai. And thus by this statement closing the chapter it shows us right back to the first point I have given on the role of the Ruach, it essentially is repeating Ezekiel 36:27 but within the words of the Messiah!
And so, in closing, I hope you can then see that conviction nor 'spiritual leading' are defenses against obedience to what scripture instructs of us. After all, All Scripture is God-breathed and is valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults and training in right living; 17 thus anyone who belongs to God may be fully equipped for every good work. 1 Timothy 3:16-17. And as all scripture is God's Word every instruction given to Israel, to Believers, is to be obeyed no matter who penned it or how many times it is said in his Word. In obeying these instructions we are then fully equipped for His work, in our lives and in the lives of others.
I will leave you with two brief passages. John 14:23-26 says, Yeshua answered him, “If someone loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Someone who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words — and the word you are hearing is not my own but that of the Father who sent me. 25 “I have told you these things while I am still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Ruach HaKodesh, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything; that is, he will remind you of everything I have said to you. And Ecclesiastes 12:13, Here is the final conclusion, now that you have heard everything: fear God, and keep his mitzvot; this is what being human is all about.
