Every pastor knows how difficult some converts become. In fact there is a phrase for this - "the zeal of a convert." Sometimes it’s hard to live with.

The Corinthian Christians had written to the Apostle Paul concerning their controversies about a number of things. In their puritanical zeal, some church members, for example, were very disturbed because other church people did not hesitate to buy and eat the meat of animals which had been slaughtered for sacrifice on the altars of pagan gods. Was this not condoning the idolatry of heathen? Shouldn’t true Christians shun the slightest contact with the rites of non-Christian religions?

The trouble with religious scruples is that they seem so easily to make us judgmental and even censorious. In other words when we are most anxious not to off…