What Is Your Conscience?

1 Corinthians 8:7; 1 Timothy 1:5, 19; Titus 1:15

If you’re like most Christians, you know you have a conscience but you don’t really know what it is and what to do about it. Through this study I hope to change that, and I have two primary reasons for bringing this subject into focus.

I have two reasons for this study.

First, I hope to help us navigate the upcoming weeks in a wholesome way as we take steps towards gathering back together. As members of Faith Baptist Church, each family unit (and perhaps each member of each family) will have a slightly different view on what to do. Some will prefer a very cautious, very slow approach. Others will prefer a more rapid, aggressive strategy. Altogether, it’s reasonable to assume that we’ll each have slightly different views about what’s ideal. The reason for this has a lot to do with our conscience.

Second, I hope to help us become more mature and complete in our personal beliefs as Christians and in our perspective and treatment of other Christians as well. If we can develop a clearer, more biblical understanding about what our conscience is and how to handle it, we’ll be better prepared not only for the challenges of the weeks ahead, but also for the remainder of our lives here on Earth. As a result, we’ll be more faithful and confident Christians and we’ll also enjoy healthier, more uplifting relationships with the other believers in our lives, especially as a church.

The word conscience appears 30 times and in 9 of the 27 books in the New Testament (NT).[1] Paul refers to it a lot, but Luke, Peter, and the writer of Hebrews do as well. Interestingly enough, no equivalent word appears in the Old Testament (OT), though the concept is there sometimes. For our study today and upcoming Wednesdays, we’ll focus on the NT teaching about this concept.

The conscience is our inner “sense” of right and wrong.

The word conscience means is related to another word that means “sharing knowledge.” That word describes what happens when two or more people swap and share information about something so that they both know the same thing and have the same perspective.

The word conscience is like that but it doesn’t involve another person. It refers to “self-awareness” or “self-consciousness.” More specifically, it refers to our personal awareness of whether what we are about to do or have done is either right or wrong. Put in a simpler way, it’s our inner “sense” of what’s right and wrong. It’s what a “think” and “feel” is right and wrong, though this doesn’t necessarily mean that what we “think” is right and wrong is actually that way.

Perhaps it’s possible to illustrate this concept with the familiar example of “shoulder angels,” those two imaginary people that show up when a cartoon character is making a decision. This is not what actually happens, but it illustrates the idea.

Your conscience is that dynamic that happens inside of you when you are about to make a decision or have already made a decision that says, “That’s okay to do,” or, “You shouldn’t have done that.” It either gives you the sense that you’re free to do or enjoy a certain thing, or it gives you the sense of misgiving, reluctance, or guilt for doing something that may be wrong.

Our conscience isn’t automatically accurate.

The thing about your conscience is that it isn’t automatically accurate. In other words, just because you have the sense that something is okay to do or that it is wrong to do doesn’t mean that it is inherently right or wrong in God’s sight. Instead, it means that you “have the sense” that it is either right or wrong in God’s sight. You might not be entirely sure whether something is right or wrong (though you may have strong feelings about the matter), but you still “have a sense” one way or the other.

Our conscience governs our choices.

So, there are two things I would like to point out about our conscience here. First, it governs our choices by telling us what is right and wrong. For that reason, we should take it very seriously. If in our conscience, we believe (or “have a sense”) that something is right or wrong, we should go with our sense. After all, if you believe something is right you should do it, and if you believe something is wrong you shouldn’t do it.

Our conscience can be trained (or improved).

Second, we should do what we can to tune our conscience to be more closely aligned with what is clearly right and wrong in God’s sight. Perhaps you remember my opening illustration from last Wednesday night about the $100 bill stuck in a bush by the sidewalk. What should you do in the moment that you spot it?

• Some of us would snap it up, put it in our pockets, and thank God for his blessing!
• Others would leave it there, hoping whoever lost it would retrieve it later on.
• Others would wait around for a few minutes to see if anyone came back to claim it before taking it for ourselves.
• Others would ring the doorbells of the nearest homes to see if anyone nearby had lost it.
• Others would call the local police to report the money as lost.
• Or maybe there’s a sixth or seventh alternative!

The decisions we make in this moment will not always be the same, but we will make our decision based upon what we “sense” is right or what is best. We’ll weigh out various truths and principles we know about stealing, God’s providence, loving out neighbor, and being a good steward. Some of us will think about a lot of Bible verses and principles, whereas others of us will only have one vague principle or nothing at all that comes to mind. We may even fall back on the old adage, “Finders keeps, losers weepers.”

My point is that for some things, we face a clear dichotomy between what is right and wrong. Don’t murder. Don’t steal. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t use vulgar language, etc. Yet other things aren’t so clear, like when to wear a face mask and what kind to wear during a pandemic. The list of challenging decisions is long and includes things like:

• Should I eat halal food or not?
• Should I mow the lawn or do laundry on Sunday?
• What style of music is appropriate and not?
• Is a tattoo always wrong?
• Should a dating couple hold hands?
• Is it okay to celebrate holidays like Christmas?
• Is it okay to use some scientific technologies to bring about a pregnancy in marriage?
• Is it good to use instruments in a church worship service?
• What sort of movie or musical is acceptable to watch and not?

Though we may all “feel” or “sense” that the answer to these questions are crystal clear and beyond all doubt, the reality is that they aren’t so clear. To help us navigate these challenging decisions, we must (a) rely upon our conscience when the moment comes along, but (b) take the time to inform and train our conscience to be more accurately aligned to God’s Word so that when the need to make various choices comes our way, we can make a good choice with peace and confidence, not with guilt or misgiving. That’s what Paul is getting at when he said to the Christians at Rome: “Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom 14:22-23).

Our consciences don’t always agree with each other.

Now, consider what Paul said to the Christians at Corinth. In the preceding verses, Paul made a clear case from Scripture that it’s acceptable for us to eat meat, even if it’s been offered to an idol or prayed over in a non-Christian way beforehand. Yet he also had this to say: “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” (1 Cor 8:7). This clarification reminds us that some believers have a serious misgiving about eating meat that’s been offered to an idol beforehand.

If that’s the case for you, for instance, then you shouldn’t lunge ahead and eat that meat anyway. You should first make sure that you really understand what Scripture teaches about idols, meat, and so on so that you’ve done more than just hear some information and then act differently. You want to be sure that your conscience agrees first and that it’s truly informed and persuaded by what the Word of God teaches. Then you’ll  be able to do more than just do something you couldn’t do before, but you’ll be able to do it an enjoy it to the glory of God.

Why are we sometimes uncertain about the things we do or don’t do?

Why aren’t we sure whether something is truthfully acceptable before God or not? Titus 1:15 helps us begin to get our minds around that question. In this verse, Paul said this to a pastoral leader, “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.” According to Paul here, it’s possible that the sinful experiences of our past can overshadow our choices in the present. When this happens, we should take our conscience seriously and change our behavior only when our conscience, our inner moral compass given by God, has been properly returned to the Scripture.

I know the true story of a man who had been a high-ranking member in the Chicago mafia decades ago. Thankfully, he turned from his wicked lifestyle and believed on Jesus as his God and Savior. To God’s glory, he went on to become a faithful deacon at his church and a faithful witness for the gospel.

One day he entered a person’s home with his pastor as they walked door to door to speak about Jesus. One person let them into their home and settled down to hear what they had to say. As this man’s pastor explained mankind’s need for a Savior, this deacon saw something in the room that unsettled him so deeply that he began to shake. Very quickly, he tugged on his pastor’s shirt sleeve. When his pastor ignored him to keep on witnessing, this man decided to bolt out of the house, causing a rather awkward situation.

As a result, the friendly neighbor ended the conversation and said goodbye to the pastor. When the pastor reunited with his deacon out by the curb, he asked, “Why did you make such a scene in there? That person might have believed on Jesus?” The deacon replied, “Did you see it in the room?” “See what?” said the pastor, “I didn’t see anything that would be a reason to do what you did.” “The cards,” said the deacon, “the deck of cards laying on the table? Didn’t you see them?” “Oh yes,” said the pastor, “I did notice them, but they weren’t any problem. They won’t hurt anyone and there’s nothing wrong with them.”

You see, there was actually no problem with the cards. And unless there were inappropriate pictures on the cards, there wasn’t anything wrong with playing some harmless table games with them, either. However, this faithful deacon had many engrained memories of using cards as part of his mafia activities years before, and just seeing those cards brought those feelings and memories flooding back into his mind – so he had to get away.

In one sense, this man was the “weaker brother.” At the same time, he and the pastor made the right decision to get away because it is not good for us to do things that we feel wrong about when we’re doing them. The only other solution was for this deacon to take the time to study the Scripture that would enable him to “forget those things which were behind” (Phil 3:13) and recognize that those cards were not inherently wrong in themselves. They were nothing more than paper with ink on them and could be used for either good or bad purposes.

We have more to learn about the conscience in upcoming lessons, but we’ll end this lesson today by looking at two verses in 1 Timothy, a letter Paul wrote to another pastoral leader. These statements teach us why it’s important to take our conscience seriously.

1 Tim 1:5 says, “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith.” A “good conscience” refers to a conscience that is:

• clear before God because you only do those things that you’re aware are good and right in the sight of God (and because you don’t do things which make you feel guilty or have misgivings about).
• increasingly tuned to be in close sync and harmony with the truth of God’s Word because you continue to study the Bible to shape and mold your conscience to reflect his divine perspective. In some ways, this will mean that you become more “careful” to avoid certain behaviors and situations in your life which you formerly believed were okay, while in other ways it will mean that you become more permissive and gracious about things that you discovered, based upon Scripture, were not wrong after all.

1 Tim 1:19 goes on to say, “Having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck.” This indicates that if we neglect our conscience by either (a) doing things we “feel” are wrong or (b) failing to tune our conscience mor accurately to the Word of God, we may end up losing our testimony as a Christian so that others will wonder if we were ever a true believer in the first place. This is a very serious warning to take to heart.

In future lessons, we’ll be learning things like the following:

• How can we hurt our conscience?
• How can we improve our conscience?
• How should we relate to believers whose consciences differ from ours?
• How should we respond to believers with certain differences of conscience related to cultural preferences?

As you can tell, these are some important questions and I’m looking forward to exploring them together in the light of God’s Word. I hope you continue to join us for this study series!

As we go through this series, I would like to recommend a book on this subject. It’s called “Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ.” I actually went to school with one of it’s authors, Andy Naselli, who was a couple of years ahead of me in college. It’s an excellent resource that I am utilizing in this study, along with other resources, and I’m sure that you would benefit from getting a copy for yourself if you’re able.

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[1] Acts 2:31; 24:16; Rom 2:15; 9:1; 13:5; 1 Cor 8:7; 8:10, 12; 10:25, 27, 28-29; 2 Cor 1:12; 4:2; 5:11; 1 Tim 1:5, 19; 3:9; 4:2; 2 Tim 1:3; Tit 1:15; Heb 9:9, 14; 10:2, 22; 13:18; 1 Pet 2:19; 3:16, 21.