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Forward: My Conscience is My Guide

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My Conscience is My Guide

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“I must follow my conscience. It is my guide.” It’s an oft-repeated phrase that can sometimes be a cliché. People say it when they are determined to do what’s good, but it can also be used incorrectly and end up causing harm, insult, division and antagonism.

What is this thing called “conscience”?

A sense of conscience is one of the most significant separators between the man and the animal world. The word comes from two Latin words scire (to know) and con (with or together). The Greek word for conscience suneidesis is found more than 30 times in the New Testament and literally means “the self that knows with [or observes] itself.” So a conscience is an awareness of what you are.

Conscience is formed as a result of the interaction of factors such as cultural and family values, traditions, education background, religion, upbringing, the influence of friends and peers, personal experience, etc. Consciences vary from culture to culture and age to age.

Paul writes about the gentiles: “When Gentiles who do not have the Law, do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.” (Romans 2:14-15 NASB).

The content of one’s conscience boils down to what authority one consciously or unconsciously recognizes, whether it be friends, home, personal opinion or society. Conscience is not infallible and by itself it is not the source of right and wrong.

What one as a Christian needs to ask is whether the voice of conscience that speaks to us is of God and His truth. Will it hold us to the highest ethical standards? Will it result in good outcomes? Often people who act on conscience have hitched themselves with a flawed authority that results in less than desirable outcomes.

A proper conscience will help you make the changes necessary to be a true practicing Christian. One cannot truly repent and come to conversion without a conscience that will restrain one from sinful behavior. Hebrews says, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:14-15, emphasis added).

With a clean conscience formed by Christ we can reach what God intends that we become. Our lives (consciousness) should be governed by Christ—“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

With this support we can truly move forward in all aspects of our lives. A conscience formed in this way is truly a guide by which to live.  

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Comments

  • Norbert Z

    @Ivan

    When it comes to a matter of conscience, I have to ponder about all those who stoned Stephen (Acts 7, 22:20). They would have also been familiar with numerous scriptures and obedience to the law, it's not as if they were thinking, "Lets be disobedient, break the law and stone him!" It would of been much more like John 16:2, "They shall put you out of the synagogues: yes, the time comes, that whoever kills you will think that he does God service."

    In my view there is a fine line between obedience and "I was just following orders".(Nuremberg)

  • Ivan Veller

    @Norbert

    Re: "Prov 29:18...there are many popular ideas...that are at war with the truth. These ideas like to create a golden calf out of the second half of that proverb...."

    The beautiful proverb "blessed is he who keeps the law" (Pr. 29:18b, ESV 2007 throughout) finds its analogues in numerous verses including: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness" (Mat. 5:6),"Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes" (Lk. 12:43), "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them" (Jn. 13:17). "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast" (Jam. 1:12), "the one who looks into the perfect law...of liberty, and perseveres, being...a doer who acts [in accordance with the law], he will be blessed in his doing" (Jam. 1:25), "blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written (Rev. 1:3b), "Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life" (Rev. 22:14a), and "Blessed is the one who keeps the words...of this book" (Rev. 22:7b).

    Christ warns us, not against obedience to the law, but of “break[ing] the commandment of God for the sake of [our] tradition” (Mat. 15:3b), and of “neglect[ing] the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness” (Mat. 23:23b).

    Obedience is the antithesis of idolatry. Christ said, “‘If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love’” (Jn. 15:10a). The implicit inverse corollary is sobering. “For rebellion is as…idolatry” (1 Sam. 15:23).

    If we do “not submit to God’s law,” we “cannot please God” (Rom. 8:7-8).

    For our "worship" to be "acceptable...[and] spiritual," it must be "holy" in conformity with "the will of God" (Rom. 12:1-2). "[T]he will of God" is that we do not live in a "lawless" manner (1 Pet. 4:2-3) but instead "obey...God" (1 Pet. 4:17b) by "be[ing] holy in all [o]ur conduct" (1 Pet. 1:15b)---living lawfully in obedience to his "holy…righteous and good" law (Rom. 7:12) which God personally writes into the hearts and minds of New Covenant Christians (Heb. 8:10 ESV). We will be “judged under the law of liberty” (Jam. 2:12), "judged...according to what [we have] done" (Rev. 20:12). Our eternal salvation is contingent upon obedience---Christ is "the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him" (Heb. 5:9, ESV 2007).

    As David prayed: “Open my mind and let me discover the wonders of your Law” (Ps. 119:18 CEV).

  • suewilliams

    Norbert Z.
    Thanks so much for what you said. I totally agree. We should stay very close to the Bible, our lifeline to the truth. It is so easy to get off the path. I fear that our society in America has much to answer. We have made the mistake of not learning a lesson from Germany. We distanced ourselves and comforted ourselves with the lies that we are somehow better people. That it cannot happen to us. Pride goes before a fall. Yet is the sin of abortion a better sin than what was done in Germany?
    When life becomes so cheap is euthanization of the unwanted very far? The lies that do the most damage are the ones we tell ourselves. Is the US far from its own Nuremberg trial?

  • Norbert Z

    suewilliams

    Myself, being a little bit familiar with the culture of Axis powers that evolved into WWII , being the son of German soldier under the Nazi Government. People should not forget one thing governments of this world, even today (Yes we can!), UNDERSTAND. Prov 29:18 "Where there is no vision, the people perish:"

    Peer pressure doesn't end in high school, there are many popular ideas working in conjunction TODAY that are at war with the truth. These ideas like to create a golden calf out of the second half of that proverb that is so subtle where most people don't see it for what it is. It would be very hard to believe that a "you too" are today's Nazis (Rm 8:7,Jm 2:10).

    Some people are faced with a very real war going on in their conscience when confronting themselves.

  • suewilliams

    There is a video on Netflix, "Nietzsche and the Nazis".. A philosopher trying to understand why the Nazis did what they did. While it is very long and film was not the best of quality, it was well worth listening. It is in the form of a lecture, I recommend it because of the light it brought to me.
    Here we have a people that were a diligent people,a religious people, praying to what they believed was God. Following their conscience but their reality was different than ours. They believed that the needs (rights) of the many was more important than the need of the few…or the one.
    In the America we have been taught (up to now) that the individual was important. But the Nazis believe was the exact opposite. It was this belief that brought them to the point of killing the weak. They killed anyone that was outside of what they defined as the perfect (blond Arian) human. Their argument was that farmers did the same with their cows, sheep, and etc. It was all done in the interest of making the herd stronger. The good of the many outweighed the needs of the one.
    There is a myth that we all know what is right and what is wrong, that we are all born with a conscience that was somehow preset with understanding that could guide us when everything else fails. But viewing this video brought home to me the error of this beief. The the Bible states so clearly "their is a way that seems right to a man but the end is death". How badly we all are in need of God to teach us the path to right, and how to avoid the path to wrong.

  • Norbert Z

    DVDBach,

    In my view, when a person's conscience does indeed conflict with God's will and they wish to seek a peaceable resolution with their Creator, then there's Jas 4:8-10,

    "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you 'double-minded'. Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into despair. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you."

  • DVDBach

    So what does a Christian do when what he or she thinks God wants conflicts with his or her conscience?

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