I. The Conscience Before Trusting Christ
The Bible teaches that God has placed basic principles of
His Law in every person's conscience (Romans 2:14,15, pg. 950).
This operates whether or not the person ever reads the Bible or
even has been told anything about God.
However, by the constant ignoring of that conscience, the internal
voice can be dulled to the point that when evil is done the conscience
responds very little or not at all. A conscience in this condition
is referred to as a "seared conscience" in I Timothy
4:2 (pg. 1002).
II. The Conscience After Trusting Christ
The Bible also speaks of three different types of conscience
that the true Christian may have.
This conscience is essentially an uninstructed conscience --
lacking in a knowledge of the Bible to the point where it is overly
sensitive and calls some activities "sins" which are
not wrong according to the teachings of the Bible (I Corinthians
8:1-13, pgs. 967,968).
In the situation discussed in I Corinthians 8:1-13, the Apostle
Paul was answering the question of whether or not a true Christian
should eat meat that had first been offered to idols and then
sold in the market place.
On the one hand, some Christians were saying, "What difference
does it make? Idols are only pieces of wood and stone!" (I
Corinthians 8:4-6, pgs. 967,968).
While others had consciences that were bothered by eating the
meat. THESE WERE THE PEOPLE WITH THE WEAK CONSCIENCES (I Corinthians
8:7, pg. 968). Because they were bothered by something that God's
Word had not forbidden in either principle or commandment, they
had "weak consciences."
Those Christians with weak consciences today oftentimes label
certain activities as wrong when the Bible does not condemn them
at all. This causes them to pull back further and further from
those very people God wishes them to get close to -- showing the
world His love. Whenever the Church's culture rather than God's
Word shapes our behavior, we will dilute the impact we can have
on those around us.
An increased knowledge of the Bible has the power to strengthen
a weak conscience (I Corinthians 8:7, pg. 968) so that the individual
can begin seeing activities in the light of the Bible's teachings
rather than the light of some man-made standard or cultural taboo.
However, as a point of warning, a person with a weak conscience
can defile his conscience much easier than someone else, since
to the person with a weak conscience there are more activities
that their conscience will label as "wrong." Therefore,
others with stronger consciences need to walk carefully so as
not to encourage the person with the weak conscience to go against
his conscience (I Corinthians 8:9-12, pg. 968) before their conscience
has been strengthened through increased knowledge of the Bible.
Anytime we go against our conscience, the Bible says that our
conscience has been "defiled."
Nevertheless, the person with the weak conscience also must guard
against judging others for doing things that his conscience has
told him is wrong.
Of course in this discussion, we are not talking about those activities
that Bible has clearly indicated as being wrong (i.e. lying murder,
sexual impurity, etc.) We are speaking of those gray areas in
which there is no clear teaching in either commandment or principle
in the Bible.
As you can see, God will sometimes work in different people's
consciences in different ways concerning gray areas of activities.
Depending upon the person's background and inherent weaknesses,
an individual's conscience might even bother them about attending
a baseball game. Possibly this person has found baseball a consuming
passion so strong that its focus can even replace God's rightful
#1 place in his/her life. In this case, that person then should
NOT go to a game nor should they condemn another Christian whose
conscience does not bother them when they go to a baseball game.
And in even some situations the person with the freedom to go
to a game will not go to a baseball game if going to that game
would cause the other weaker conscience Christian to go against
his or her own conscience.
This is a conscience which has not been heeded (I Corinthians
8:7, pg. 968; Titus 1:15, pg. 1007). Whenever a person goes against
his or her own conscience, it becomes defiled.
This conscience knows of no offense against God or another
human being that has not been addressed and taken care of (II
Timothy 1:3, pg. 1004; I Timothy 1:5, pg. 1001; Acts 24:16, pg.
944).
III. The Effects Of A Defiled (Guilty) Conscience
When we have an offense before God which we have not acknowledged,
we don't have the boldness before Him necessary to ask for what
we need for our spiritual growth. Our desire for closeness with
Him in prayer through meeting with other Christians or through
studying the Bible becomes less and less (I John 3:21,22, pg.
1029; Psalm 32:1-5, pg. 472).
When we carry a guilty conscience, we are limited in our ability
to talk to others about God, since we realize they can point a
finger at us in areas we have not made right (I Peter 3:16, pg.
1024; I Peter 2:12, pg. 1023).
Finally, if we continue to carry a guilty conscience, our spiritual
life will become a "shipwreck" from the lack of closeness
with God and other Christians (I Timothy 1:18,19, pg. 1001).
IV. Maintaining A Pure Conscience
The Apostle Paul expresses the importance of maintaining a
pure conscience in Acts 24:16 (pg. 944) when he says:
Not that Paul would never offend God or man through sin (I
John 1:9, pg. 1028), but rather that he wanted to always be able
to look God "in the eye" and every person "in the
eye" knowing that there was nothing between them that had
not been confessed and made right.
WARNING: The Bible and NOT our conscience is the final
guide for living life God's way. I Corinthians 4:3,4 (pg. 965)
tells us that it is possible for our conscience to indicate to
us that nothing is wrong and still there is. Remember that our
conscience is limited by the knowledge of the Bible we possess.
Therefore, the Bible is our final guide not only how we might
feel about a matter.