The Heart of Conviction

Our pastor is preaching through Ephesians, and I’ve been reminded of how valuable it is to be part of a diverse body of believers. And by diverse, I primarily mean that we don’t all look, talk, act, or live the exact same way. We have differences, in Christ. It’s a beautiful thing when lived out well, and we all mature because of it.

But I think in the church, we can be confused about what conviction is, and it can be hurtful and even divisive at times. Often, we hold a “conviction” and believe it is right and should be held by others, too. We might not realize that conviction will yield different paths of application, and that’s okay and even good.

Conviction: What is it?

John 16:8  – “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;  concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;  concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

Jude 1:14-15 – “It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Hebrews 11:1 – “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 – “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.”

What’s fascinating to note is that there are four different meanings of the Greek word used here. In John, Jesus was speaking of the conviction that the Holy Spirit would do once He ascended into heaven. The sort of convicting the Holy Spirit does in the life of the believer is to reprove us by convincing us of the truth of our sin. This is what leads us to repentance, or is what we push down and quench.

In Jude, the word is not merely used to convince someone of a wrong done, but “the purpose of the coming of the Lord will not be to convince men in that sense, though it is undoubtedly true that the wicked will see that their lives have been wrong; but it will be to pronounce a sentence on them as the result of the evidence of their guilt.”[1]

In Hebrews, it “Implies not merely the charge of the basis of which one is convicted, but also the manifestation of the truth of that charge, the results to be reaped from that charge, and the acknowledgement, if not outwardly, yet inwardly, of its truth on the part of the accused.”[2] In other words, our convinced-ness of something we believe is real but cannot see, will yield a certain kind of fruit.

And lastly, in 1 Thessalonians, the word conviction means “perfect certitude.” In other words, when Paul was speaking to the Thessalonians, he was affirming that when they heard the gospel, they were fully convinced that it was the truth.

In all of these definitions, the common thread is that a person is convinced of something real and true. In three out of the four definitions, the real and true thing is sin in their heart. The other in Hebrews speaks to the realities of life in Christ that we cannot see. We are convinced that all of His Word is true, all of the future things spoken of in the Word are true, all of the promises, instructions, warnings, invitations are true.

So when we speak of “having a conviction of _________” what do we mean? This is where it can get dicey.

Growing in Conviction

I believe the Holy Spirit does illumine a particular area of the Word at different points in the believer’s life. Maybe we’ve previously been ignorant of or even purposely violated something in Scripture. When this happens, and the Holy Spirit does a work in our heart, it leads to conviction, which leads to repentance. Remember, a key part of repentance is turning away from a former manner of living and walking in a new way. The path will change.

I think there are two key things to keep in mind about this process. One is that the Holy Spirit is the one who brings about change, and second, the path of repentance will look different for different people. Let me give you a personal example.

When I was pregnant with our first child, I checked out a number of books from the library about nursing babies, sleep schedules, etc. Each book was chock full of opinions by each author. I became anxious as I read, not knowing which method or philosophy was best. Somewhere in there, the Lord convicted me of two things: anxiety and not turning to Him first. I bypassed the wisdom of God and went straight to “conventional wisdom,” or wisdom of man. I didn’t talk to Him about it at all, that I can remember.

I agreed with the Lord that I sinned, and part of my repentance included returning the library books and doing a word study in Scripture about nursing. I was astounded by what I found! The Lord has things to say about nursing! My prayer and study led me to make decisions in faith, which led to a peace-filled heart. It wasn’t necessarily about the specific application, but the way it was done. The Lord was most concerned about my heart. He was concerned that I sought Him and not man. That I sought Him rather than allowed anxious thoughts to multiply.

You could say that I developed a personal application of convicted truth about the matter.

Here’s the thing about personal convictions. They’re just that. Personal. The Holy Spirit convicted me of sin. I did the study and the prayer. The Lord led me down this path. I believe it would be wrong if I were to take my personal application of that Holy Spirit conviction and declare it as “right,” and believe that others who don’t do it are sinful because I can make a case from Scripture. Trust me, I was tempted. And I’ve been tempted since.

To be clear, I am not talking about specific commands that are given to everyone. Sin is sin, and universally, I can (and should) say to you, “Do not be anxious!” and “don’t turn to worldly wisdom!” If you don’t repent of these things, it is wrong (Php 4:6 , 1 Cor. 3:19).

But what we must be careful about is taking our faithful responses that flow from our own repentance of specific sin, anxiety for example, and seeking to equate repentance from anxiety with exactly what our specific actions were that flowed from the Spirit-wrought repentance in our own hearts and lives.  To do so is to attempt to coerce our faith into the heart of another, or worse, to believe that our own specific faithful actions are the only possible faithful actions, and that any actions that differ from my own must therefore be borne of something other than faith.

Humility in Conviction

Proverbs 14:33 says, “Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding, but it makes itself known even in the midst of fools.”

I’m struck by the manifold wisdom of this verse. First of all, it says that wisdom “rests” in the heart of a man of understanding. “Rest” has multiple meanings, but in this verse, it means “to come upon, or abide.”[3]

You could say that wisdom lands and takes root in the heart of one who has understanding. It finds a home there. It produces rest because it comes from God. We don’t derive wisdom, but rather, it’s given to us. A wise person doesn’t feel a need to flaunt what he has because he knows that it didn’t come from within himself.

We’re told elsewhere that a man of understanding is slow to anger (Pr. 17:27) and slow to speak (Pr. 11:12). If wisdom is “the right use or exercise of knowledge,” then a wise person doesn’t feel a need to boast about what he knows, or to grow impatient or even angry when others don’t share his convictions.

I love what Matthew Henry says about this. “Modesty is the badge of wisdom. He that is truly wise hides his treasure, so as not to boast of it (Mt. 13:44), though he does not hide his talent, so as not to trade with it. His wisdom rests in his heart; he digests what he knows, and has it ready to him, but does not unseasonably talk of it and make a noise with it.”

When a wise person has been convicted of something, he can live it out quietly because he knows first-hand that the Lord who began a good work in himself, and is still at work carrying it out until completion in his life, is faithful to do the same in the lives of his brothers and sisters. He knows that he is not yet done surrendering his whole heart himself.

The wise understand that the Lord is most concerned about the heart. Our Lord wants our whole heart, and the process of surrender is extremely valuable to Him.

Humility

But I’d like to propose another thought. I don’t know if this is how the Lord works, but I think it may be. What if one reason the Lord has brought conviction on you and me, which has led each of us down a particular path, is because of our personal sins and weaknesses?

I home school our children. And I’m not going to lie, it is hard. You will not find picture perfect images on my Instagram profile because that’s not my life. Are there joys? Yes. But right now, in this season of life, it’s mostly hard and unenjoyable. There are many puddles of tears that I find myself in.

Do you know why it’s so hard? It’s because I’m a woman whose sin is still being worked out of me. And, my kids are not yet believers. In other words, there’s a whole lot of sin in this house. I am not a perfectly patient, gentle, kind woman. I am not “gifted” to home school. In fact, I think that in part because of my need to grow in the areas of patience, kindness, and gentleness toward my children, the Lord led us to home school. It’s a tool for my sanctification just as much as it is for my children’s.

We all need to be grown up in similar ways and in different ways. I don’t know why the Lord leads some in one direction and me in this direction. But the Lord does, and I can trust that He will turn each of our hearts in the way He desires.

When I have this perspective, it’s humbling. It makes me much slower to pass judgment on someone who does things differently than I do. Trust me, I am a strongly opinionated, passionate person. I think there are many things in life that are important and worth spending time praying about, learning and studying about, and forming an opinion on. But I don’t talk that often about the specific practices I’ve adopted out of conviction.

It’s not that they aren’t important to me. It’s just that, very slowly through the years, the Lord has been helping me to understand that if my conviction is born of love for Jesus, then the particular path He is taking me down will also further enable me to love others well (Mark 12:29-31).

There’s a time and a place and a way to talk about things I have opinions about. But I’ve learned that often times, it gets in the way. Not always, but often. And the reason is because there’s something in me that’s trying to take on a role that’s not mine to take on. I’m acutely aware of it even as I write.

My hope and my desire is that what people overwhelmingly think of when they think of me is not the issue I’m passionate about, but the God-Man I’m passionate about. Jesus is who I love and who I want others to love. And so, I want to the best I can to relate to others in such a way that, rather than causing division or angst, causes others to look to Him.  Causes others to want Him. Causes others to drink in His Word and talk to Him.

And so, it pushes me to prayer. It compels me to take what I think I might see in another, and to bring it before the Lord. He is their Father, too! Who better to take any concern I may have, than to Him? It’s often there that He gently reveals a critical, self-righteous spirit in my own heart, and it’s humbling.

I long for us to be ones who lay down our lives, ones who seek to develop higher-order convictions about the nature of humility, interpersonal interactions, prayer, and what gracious love looks like toward others in the body of Christ.  Ones who develop more convictions and then do the further work of struggling through how they ALL fit together in love toward each other.

I think if we do, we’ll find the profound resonance and deep-unto-deep Spirit fellowship we long to share with one another. And this is pleasing to the Lord.

 

[1],2 https://biblehub.com/commentaries/jude/1-15.htm

[3] https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/Dictionary/viewTopic.cfm?topic=IT0007390