<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="65001"%> Pursuing the Truth Ministries

The Role of the Conscience

Introduction

Have you ever regretted something that you did? Do you regret something that you consistently do and something inside of you tells you that you shouldn’t do it? What about those things that are not specifically identified in the Bible? How do you know that such acts are acceptable or unacceptable by God? How would you know right from wrong apart from a specific written law or command?

The answer is in part our conscience. Our conscience is indeed our guide and by it we are convicted by the wrong that we do and guided to the righteous way of God. However, since the conscience is a human component it is therefore corrupted. This means that we cannot always rely on merely our conscience.

This study will look at the role of the conscience in the life of a Christian and how the conscience is an invaluable guiding force if it is conditioned with the Way of God.

The Conscience

(1 Corinthians 8:4-12) -- {4}Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. {5}For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), {6}yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. {7}However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. {8}But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. {9}But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. {10}For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? {11}And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? {12}But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.

There are a few things that Paul reveals to us here about the conscience.

The conscience can guide us in regards to right and wrong
The conscience can be corrupted and therefore cause us to do wrong if we depend on it
Conscience is related to knowledge (an external standard)

The conscience defined

The New Bible Dictionary: That faculty of the mind, or inborn sense of right and wrong, by which we judge of the moral character of human conduct. It is common to all men. Like all our other faculties, it has been perverted by the Fall

The conscience is a human component for judgment of our deeds and thoughts. It is the thing that convicts us when we do wrong and guides us as we move forward in life.

There is no word for conscience in the Old Testament. The idea was most likely attributed to the problems in the Corinthian church. The word is mostly seen in Paul’s letters.
In OT and Greek philosophy, judgment of actions was normally referred to the state or to the law.
In Greek philosophy the conscience was linked to knowledge and reflection on past deeds. The results or judgments from these reflections would determine if the conscience was bad or good.
In Greek the conscience was thought of as “the pain suffered by man as man when by his actions begun or completed he ‘transgresses the moral limits of his nature’” In other words, we feel emotional pain when we go beyond what we consider good and into the realm of bad.
The idea of a conscience is seen in the fall of Adam and Eve, though the actual word is not used (See Genesis 3:8). Even thought they (Eve actually) justified their actions, they knew deep inside that what they did was wrong. Note also that the conscience was ultimately formed from knowledge of God’s word (his commandment to them) and their relationship to God.
In the New Testament, the idea of conscience must be considered in regards to God, righteousness, and holiness. This is because the conscience cannot by itself lead us. The conscience is conditioned by us. We program our conscience to judge a certain way. Humans of themselves would not have a conscience that is acceptable to God. Instead, the Holy Way must enter our conscience and condition us.
In the NT the conscience is negatively the means of judgment and positively it is the tool for guidance.
See Acts 23:1, 24:16. Paul uses the word conscience to describe the pain suffered when we do wrong. Haven’t you felt that uneasiness after you have done something or a sense of acceptability after doing something? In the former case you were convicted by your conscience, which is operating in a righteous way. In the latter way, your conscience is a witness to your right doing.
The conscience can become weak and defiled. See 1 Corinthians 8:4-12. Our conscience become weak based on what we do. For example we can desensitize ourselves to something. We can justify a sin so long that the sin is no longer considered sin by our conscience. We have programmed it to be blind or insensitive to that sin and therefore we silence it on that issue.

We can also defile someone else’s conscience by our actions. We can allow our freedom based on knowledge to cause someone else to ultimately stumble who do not have the same knowledge and therefore liberty. We cause that person to breach the boundary of his or her conscience by accepting what we do even though within themselves it is not good. This person can take that same activity of disregarding the conscience into other areas of life where the conscience is completely ignored or worse, reprogrammed.
See also 1 Timothy 4:2 for a reference to a destroyed conscience
Our conscience must be instructed or conditioned to the Way of God.

Therefore, we see the importance of training our conscience by the way of God. God has the external standard for us to live by and we have to make the effort to program ourselves with His way and not our own. Our conscience should “judge” or discern based on righteousness and not merely what we tell it from our own human nature and sinful ways.
You could think of the conscience as a black box that processes all of our thoughts and actions. Ideas or intentions go in and a judgment comes out. The processing of those intentions or even actions are done by the conscience. Therefore, the conscience will pass judgment, so to speak depending on how it has been conditioned.
Your conscience can be developed for anything: Diet, health, school. People can come to a point where eating certain foods is a sin. That is, they would feel guilty if they would eat a donut for example. Not that eating a donut is a sin, but to them it is considered detrimental to their health and he or she has therefore conditioned themselves to consider eating anything unhealthy as wrong and the conscience would convict if something is eaten that is unhealthy.
Romans 2:14-15 shows the importance of the conscience for those who did not have the law. How would they know within themselves what was right or wrong? It would be their conscience because without the law they would do those things required by the law. This also gives us insight on the purpose of the law.

This however is not merely the human conscience that miraculously knows the right Way. Here we see the act of the Holy Spirit conditioning the human heart. However, we humans can teach ourselves to ignore the Holy Spirit and therefore condition our conscience the way we want.
We should be careful to not judge others. I heard Joel Osteen say that we are all at different levels in our Christian development. He said, for example, that one might condemn a woman because of her revealing clothes. We could ostracize her and otherwise make her feel uncomfortable or even guilty. However, we don’t know what God is doing in her life. We also don’t know how far God might have brought her. Perhaps there was a time when she would have wore something much more revealing.
Conscience also is instrumental in forgiveness. We always want to seek justice, but sometimes the Holy Spirit guides us onto a path of forgiveness instead of retribution. Our conscience will continue to convict us if we don’t forgive.

Conclusion

What is your conscience telling you today? What issues came up in your mind as you heard these things? Perhaps that is your conscience? Perhaps there are some things in your life that you have to deal with.

No we cannot change overnight, however it is important to get on the road of change, which begins with repentance. What do you want to repent of? To repent means to decide to change. You have made a commitment to walk on a new path and a new way of life.

Your conscience will guide you, but only as it pertains to your efforts to condition it with the way of God. So build your relationship with Christ. Know the word of God. Know the Way of God and practice it. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Allow your Godly conditioned conscience to help guide you in the things that you cannot see and do not know. Amen.

Easton, M. (1996, c1897). Easton's Bible dictionary. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996). New Bible dictionary (3rd ed. /). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.