A conviction is a secure belief that motivates specific action. In Romans 14:14 Paul said,
“I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.” (Romans 14:14–15, ESV)
Setting aside the specific issue Paul is addressing, notice that he says “I know and am persuaded.” That is what conviction looks like. Your convictions are the firmly held persuasions of your heart that guide you through specific choices in your life. For example,
You might have a personal conviction that regular exercise benefits your health. Because you are persuaded that physical exertion will help you accomplish other life goals, you will make it a habit to workout multiple times a week.
You might have a family conviction that spending time together with your kids is the most effective way to influence their life. Because you are convinced that direct interaction is vital to your children’s development, you will make it a habit to eat meals together as a family.
You might (should) have a spiritual conviction that the Bible is God’s ultimate truth. Because you are persuaded that Scripture is inerrant and inspired, you will make it a habit to read God’s word on a daily basis.
These are all examples of how our convictions—what we really believe about life—impact how we live.
A good friend of mine, Todd Murray, has a very helpful way of explaining that our emotions are essentially responses to our deepest held beliefs. To paraphrase, “We feel what we feel because we believe what we believe.” This exact principle applies to the rest of our lives as well: “We do what we do because we believe what we believe.” In other words, our convictions are what drive the overall direction as well as the specific actions of our life. In particular, there are two areas of our lives that are especially motivated by our convictions.
Convictions motivate our sanctification
Faith is the first responsibility in sanctification, and conviction is the strongest manifestation of faith. This is what makes convictions so important for our spiritual growth.
sanctified convictions begin with the truth
You can be utterly convinced of something that is not true, that will not help you. You need accurate convictions. More specifically, you need to be convinced and persuaded of biblical truth. In the words of Romans 12:2,
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2, ESV)
sanctified convictions require faith
It is not enough to simply be exposed to the truth, genuine convictions require that we actually believe the truth. Faith is the essence of a conviction, which means that faith is required at the inception of a conviction. John 6:40 says,
“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”” (John 6:40, ESV)
It is not enough to look on the Son, you must look on him in a believing way—with faith. So too, if you want to cultivate biblical convictions it is not enough to look at the Bible you must believe it.
sanctified convictions inform the conscience
As you grow in your understanding of the Word along with your faith in its truth, this will also inform your conscience. God gave us a conscience so that we would possess the moral capacity to distinguish between right and wrong. As you come to conclusions about the truth this, in turn, shapes your conscience according to your convictions about the truth. God designed for your conscience to respond to your convictions, which is why you need to develop your convictions from the word of God. Psalm 119:9 describes what this looks like,
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.” (Psalm 119:9, ESV)
sanctified convictions lead to action
True convictions about God’s truth will lead to faith-filled submission. What you believe will motivate what you do, so if you trust what God has said it will drive you to obedience. Notice the convictional link between faith and obedience in John 3:36:
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:36, ESV)
sanctified convictions produce godly habits
Eventually your convictions will mold and shape your habits. It is important to develop the kind of convictions that will drive you to godly habits. You are not going to pattern your life around something that you don’t really believe is important. For instance, if you don’t regularly read your Bible, it is not because you don’t have the time to do so. It is because you don’t really believe that you can’t live without God’s daily influence on your thinking. Our convictions will always drive our habits. We want the patterns of our life to reflect the truth:
“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel… .” (Philippians 1:27, ESV)
Convictions motivate our service
Convictions are also crucial for our service to the Lord, especially when you consider the spirit of our age. In previous generations there were certain cultural norms that could provide some insulation from the effects of having weak convictions. This does not mean that the culture was ever sanctified, but there were certain cultural norms that were a lot closer to biblical truth than what we see today. As a result, like swimmers in the Lazy River at the water park, people could simply float along with the tide of culture and benefit from the wisdom of God’s design (think, for instance, about cultural views on marriage). However, as the world has become more and more antagonistic toward biblical truth, Christians are having to increasingly swim upstream against the cultural tides. To put it succinctly, believers must be willing to be perceived as enemies in order to speak the truth. This was precisely the situation in Galatians 4:16:
“Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16, ESV)
Paul had to stand firm in the truth against Galatian church members who were beginning to see him as the enemy. As MacArthur observes, “Many people appreciate a preacher or teacher only as long as he says what they want to hear.” Paul was experiencing this very thing as he called the Galatians back to a pure understanding of the Gospel. But, even though the Galatians were ready to depart from Paul for preaching the truth, Paul wasn’t departing from the truth. Paul loved the Galatians and showed them gentle love, but he was not willing to compromise truth for them. Why? His ministry convictions motivated him to speak the truth no matter what:
“Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:1–2, ESV)
Paul’s ministry is a reminder that God’s Word is always our line in the sand, but more than that, we will need deep biblical convictions if we are going to draw lines in the sand. To be clear, we are not trying to make enemies or provoke people to reject us because of our immature behavior! The truth Paul was willing to make enemies with was the irrefutable truth of the Gospel, not his own opinions. Paul was willing to deny everything about himself, but he could not compromise the eternal truth of God’s word. This is how convictions work in our hearts and in our ministries.
When faced the realities of life in a culture that desperately wants to suppress the very truth that we have been called to proclaim, we are going to be tempted to compromise God’s truth.
Sometimes a person compromises the truth of God because of a lack of understanding about God’s Word.
Sometimes a person compromises the truth of God because they want to excuse or cover up for personal sin.
Sometimes a person compromises the truth of God because they want to avoid conflict or looking foolish.
Whatever the source of the temptation, you are only going to survive if you develop deep convictions that are rooted in deep truths from specific passages of Scripture.
Conclusion:
The question is, how do you develop deep convictions from God’s Word? There are two primary ingredients in genuine convictions: time and truth. As we have already discussed, biblical convictions require biblical truth. When you are exposed to God’s Word your heart is increasingly persuaded by its precepts as your mind understands its meaning. But this takes time, which is also essential in order to develop lasting convictions. It takes time to understand truth. It takes time to grapple with the meaning of truth. It takes time to see the implications of truth for your life. It takes time to see the truth proven over-and-over again in your daily life. You can come to a conclusion almost instantaneously, but convictions take time in order to be meaningful.
With all of this in mind, here are some very practical and simple suggestions to get you started on a life of deep conviction:
Study to understand… don’t just read your Bible to say that you read it, study it so that you’ll know what it means.
Meditate on implications… go the additional step of considering specific ways biblical truth impacts your life.
Prioritize your life with truth… As you see the demands truth makes on your life prioritize your life around truth.
A life that is thoroughly established by convictions from God’s Word will not easily be swayed to compromise the truth.