Personal Conviction vs. Command: Mastering Christian Liberty

In this post, we’re diving into several hot topics surrounding Christian conviction, holidays, and gray-area practices. I’ll share my perspective on whether Christians should celebrate Halloween, while exploring how we navigate everyday gray areas—from enjoying a glass of wine in or an occasional cigar to setting personal lifestyle boundaries.

More importantly, we’ll answer a critical question: How do we hold fast to our personal convictions without turning them into universal rules for everyone else?

I’m incredibly excited for this post, as it’s been largely discussed everywhere I turn, so let’s dive in.

Note: I am not a pastor, and this post reflects my own personal opinions and observations. As always, I strongly encourage you to do your own study into Scripture, praying for wisdom and discernment as you read God’s Word for yourself.

The Confusion of Conviction vs Biblical Law

On a recent episode of Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey, she argued that Christians should refrain from engaging with fear-inducing themes (Law & Order was one example she gave for this type of content). She suggested that to intentionally consume dark, scary, or content that caused anxiety—especially around holidays like Halloween—would counter the Biblical mandate to guard our heart and minds. She posed the question of how often the Bible tells us “do not fear,” concluding that because God commands us not to fear, intentionally consuming media that makes us scared is a direct violation or contradiction of that command.

Now, I feel the need to mention this because I keep seeing this viewpoint come up among other Christians who are involved in the sanitized-faith movement, and it’s become such a large issue that I’ve actually started outlining a book regarding this very thing. I believe this idea is doing far more harm than good because it teaches Christians that feeling fear or anxiety is sinful, and that’s something I personally disagree heavily with.

To say someone is going against God’s command when they watch, read, or partake in something that makes them feel anxious or scared is a bold assertion. Even worse is to try and use Scripture out of context as your backing. It’s completely fine to hold a personal boundary and opinion, but we must call it what it is: a personal preference. When we weaponize isolated verses to make others feel guilted, shamed, or branded as spiritually compromised or “lukewarm” for not sharing our exact boundaries, we trade Christian liberty for legalism.

Another argument often stems around alcohol consumption on all levels, smoking, or tattoos. For generations, these gray areas have been used as spiritual measuring sticks within modern church culture, used to judge and condemn. But when you examine Scripture more closely, something pretty interesting begins to emerge:

Alcohol & Smoking:

The Bible explicitly warns against drunkenness, addiction, and losing self-control (Ephesians 5:18, Proverbs 20:1). Not to mention, Jesus’ very first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding (John 2). So Scripture seems to condemn a loss of self-control, not alcohol itself. And while smoking isn’t directly mentioned in Scripture, biblical principles regarding wisdom, addiction, and honoring our bodies as temples (1 Corinthians 6:12–19) certainly come into play. But there is a massive difference between pointing out practical health risks for people out of love or holding a personal conviction and declaring someone spiritually condemned for enjoying a cigar or having a glass of wine in celebration. Scripture condemns a loss of self-control and destructive addiction, not simple occasional enjoyment in celebration or gathering. Again, we’re required to use discernment.

Tattoos:

I’ve heard many legalistic arguments that pull Leviticus 19:28 entirely out of context—a passage specifically addressing ancient pagan mourning practices and ritual blood-cutting—while ignoring that believers today live under the New Covenant, where physical body markings carry no inherent moral weight. Again, I’m not a pastor and these are merely my personal opinions and interpretations, but I will say that such legalistic ideas have pushed people out of churches. Again, I’m not a pastor, and these are merely my personal opinions and study, but it’s undeniable that this kind of legalism actively drives people away from God’s house.

A close friend of mine was once shamed and condemned by older women in her childhood church simply for having tattoos of flowers. They gossiped behind her back, went out of their way to make her feel unwelcome, and even claimed she was going to hell over ink on her skin. She hasn’t stepped foot in a church since. While I’ve talked about church hurt before and how you shouldn’t let people’s actions turn you away from God, I can easily acknowledge how hard it would be to continue attending a place full of so much hypocrisy and unrighteous judgement.

Even if someone sincerely holds a personal theological conviction against tattoos, treating a fellow human being with gossip, hostility, and condemnation is never the Christian response. If you disagree with someone’s choices in gray areas, the biblical way forward is conversation grounded in kindness, humility, and genuine relationship—not self-righteous judgment

The Balance Between Christian Liberty and Legalism

Of course I’ll acknowledge that there’s a classic trap on both sides of this conversation. On one hand, people who strongly promote Christian liberty can easily slide into careless, undisciplined living. On the other hand, those who hyper-fixate on strict boundaries can easily end up living with legalistic faith that is defined entirely by what they’re against rather than who they’re for.

So, how do we avoid such a trap? I think we start by moving away from reacting and instead go into the Bible with prayer and reflection, asking for discernment and wisdom, and asking an obvious question: Does God’s Word explicitly forbid this? Of course, if the answer is yes, then whatever the topic is regarding should be off the table. But that doesn’t include taking Scripture and using it out of its context to persuade people into your beliefs.

But when you find yourself stuck in a weird gray area, it’s important to ask another question: How might this activity/thing impact my witness as a Christian? Does this choice negatively impact the people around me or create stumbling blocks? Does it bring me closer to Christ, or does it distract me from Him? When it comes to certain topics, such as Halloween, the same questions apply. If you’re trick-or-treating, are you wearing costumes that glorify violence, dark occultism, or immodesty? Are you using the night to connect with neighbors, practice hospitality, and bring light into your community?

Part of being a Christian is being able to use discernment in different situations for your own life while giving others the grace to do the same in theirs. Your personal conviction is not universal law, and what the Holy Spirit prompts you to avoid isn’t automatically a boundary God requires everyone else to hold. I do believe the Holy Spirit convicts us each on different things, depending on how easily we may stumble, our personal backgrounds, or the specific vulnerabilities in our own hearts. But again, it’s different for every person.

A person recovering from alcoholism needs a strict boundary against a single glass of wine, whereas another believer can enjoy it with gratitude without ever straying into drunkenness. In the exact same way, someone who struggles with fear, intrusive thoughts, or nightmares might need to avoid dark, suspenseful media, while another person can view that same story through a completely different lens. We are all impacted differently, and that’s okay.

The Context Behind “Do Not Fear” in the Bible

Now, here’s the important part—reading God’s Word in context. When we pull verses out of their historical, cultural, and literary frameworks, we can easily make the Bible say almost anything we want it to say, and people do all the time. Scripture is often used out of context to manipulate, guilt, shame, and control others. It’s sickening.

This is where the sanitized-faith movement gets off track when talking about movies, shows, and spooky themes. When we take short phrases like “do not fear” or “think about pure things” and use them as strict rules against entertainment, we miss the whole point of what God was actually saying.

“Do not fear” is mentioned a lot in the Bible, but when you look at where it appears, a consistent pattern suddenly emerges. God speaks “do not fear” into moments of real-life crisis, impossible circumstances, or divine encounters. He says it to comfort people facing real enemies, unknown futures, or overwhelming situations—not to make human emotions illegal or say you should never experience them.

Feeling fear, anxiety, or distress is a natural human biological response, and it doesn’t mean you’re failing spiritually or sinning. I want to make one thing incredibly clear in this post: your emotions themselves are not sins; it’s how you process them and what you allow them to drive you toward that matters. Experiencing fear can either push you toward panic and self-reliance, or it can serve as a prompt to anchor yourself in God.

Why Sanitized Faith Harms Believers & Contradicts the Bible

When we teach that Christians should only engage with things that are calm, happy, and light, we raise believers who don’t know how to navigate the brokenness of the real world. And, when we do this, we’re trying to live a life that is in complete contradiction to the Bible—how many times have you read something in the Bible that made you anxious, nervous, or maybe even afraid? The Bible is full of true stories of evil people doing evil things, and so is the world today.

Scripture never sanitizes the human experience to make us feel comfortable, and I am so tired of Christians trying to act like that’s the command God gives us. The Bible gives us dark, unsettling accounts of betrayal, murder, war, and spiritual warfare because it refuses to pretend that evil isn’t real or to ignore the truth of this world.

Far from being a sign of sin, experiencing fear and tension is often the exact place where our faith is tested and strengthened!

Imagine if we never encounter moments that make us feel vulnerable, startled, or uncomfortable… then our trust in God remains purely theoretical. True faith isn’t living in a bubble where nothing ever threatens our peace or causes us to feel emotions other than joy; it’s built and strengthened in the valley. I know because I’ve lived it, as have thousands of other Christians. Throughout Scripture, it’s precisely when God’s people faced overwhelming fear—whether Israel standing terrified at the edge of the Red Sea or Jesus experiencing deep emotional distress in the Garden of Gethsemane—that they were drawn into intimate reliance on the Father. That real, lasting trust and faith were built.

The Ridiculousness of Equating Fear with Sin

Honestly, when you step back and look at it, the idea that feeling fear or anxiety is inherently sinful is almost absurd… just because something makes you feel fear or anxiety doesn’t mean it’s bad. Experiencing fear and anxiety is simply part of being human in a fallen world.

Think about everyday life. People (me, especially) feel anxiety when meeting someone new, walking into an unfamiliar room, speaking in public, or trying something for the very first time. Does that physical and emotional reaction make you disobedient to God? Absolutely not. It makes you a human being with a functioning nervous system.

Experiencing an emotion is not the same as committing a sin.

Your conviction is meant to guard your walk, not dictate someone else’s capacity for engagement in the world.

Answering The Critical Question

So how do we hold fast to our personal convictions without turning them into universal rules for everyone else? I’m glad you asked.

It starts with humility—admitting that the Holy Spirit is fully capable of guiding other believers without our help. When God prompts you to step away from a specific genre, turn off a certain show, or establish a boundary in your household, that guardrail is meant to guard your walk and honor your conscience. The moment you start projecting that personal conviction onto everyone around you as a standard of righteousness, you stop practicing Spirit-led discernment and start building legalism.

Holding your boundaries with grace means recognizing that unity in Christ doesn’t require uniform behavior in gray areas. We can stand firm on what Scripture explicitly commands while giving our brothers and sisters the freedom to exercise their conscience differently. Your personal conviction and guardrails are there to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, not to serve as a measuring tape for someone else’s faith.