Your Conscience: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

What kind of conscience do you have??

Everyone has a conscience. Since we have a conscience, we make moral decisions, unlike animals which operate on instinct. So, we are able to choose to follow our instinctive animal nature, or pursue the nature of God.

The conscience has two primary functions:

• Provide moral guidance; and
• Evaluate moral behavior.

The trouble with the conscience is that it may not function properly!

A good conscience is able to identify things that are morally good as morally good, and likewise, morally bad things as bad. For example, when Joseph was seduced by his boss’s wife, he refused her, remarking that such a thing would be a sin against God (Genesis 39:7-9). His good conscience identified sin as sin, and that was good.

Years later, after King David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, he was confronted by Nathan, a prophet of God. In his guilt, David confessed his sin against God (2 Samuel 12:1-15). David expressed the effect of his guilty conscience in the 32nd Psalm:

When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groanings all day long.

—Psalm 32:3

This was an example of a good conscience that had been violated. Yet, his good conscience did its job by making David feel guilt for his sin until he had properly addressed his sin.

Solomon described the hearts of sinners. They devise evil plans, yet speak about their evil as if it is a normal or good thing. Their consciences interchange good and evil, so, an example of a bad conscience. (Proverbs 1) As a result, their consciences do not alert them to sin and stop them from sinning. Also, after committing sin, their consciences do not cause guilt feelings.

In Scripture a good conscience may be described with the words pure, clean, blameless, or perfect (i.e. mature, complete), but never clear, at least, not in the Greek text of the New Testament.

However, some translators interpret the text and use clear conscience in passages such as 1 Timothy 3:9 and 2 Timothy 1:3 where the Greek adjective is pure; or Acts 23:1, Hebrews 13:18, 1 Peter 3:16 & 21 where the Greek adjective is good; or Acts 24:16 where the Greek adjective is blameless.

Why all the fuss? Why suggest in the title that a clear conscience is ugly?

[Pardon the connection to the old spaghetti western.]

A clear conscience is unpredictable, and therefore, unreliable. When a person has done what is morally right and the conscience is clear, everything is fine. There are no guilt feelings, nor should there be.

However, moral decisions and moral behavior are good or bad. There are no such things as clear moral decisions or clear moral behavior. In reality, a clear conscience does not provide moral guidance before deciding or acting. It only renders a “Not Guilty” verdict after acting. For that reason, a person could commit a sin, yet feel no guilt because of a clear conscience. Sin without guilt feelings from a clear conscience is indeed ugly, and actually a bad conscience in disguise.

A clear conscience promises guilt-free living, but not godly living. If we sin, we need a good conscience to pierce our hearts with guilt so that we are driven to God confessing our sin.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

—1 John 1:9

Yet, a clear conscience will confess no sin!

What kind of conscience do you have?

Mark Stinnett

October 30, 2022

((( Us ))) . . . & . . . >>>>>> Them

God hates division.

Yet, there is one kind of division that is more subtle and, in comparison, seems mild, perhaps even tolerable. Two or more people stand in agreement, but look down on those who do not agree with them. Everyone still meets together, worships together, works and eats together, but there exists an attitude of superiority on the part of some. Christians judge other Christians.

That was the kind of division that the Apostle Paul addressed in the church at Rome. (See Romans 14.) The issue was about eating meat that was unclean.

I don’t think we have judgmental attitudes in our day when it comes to food. However, Paul’s teaching can be applied broadly whenever an “Us & Them” attitude develops over matters of conscience. Consider Paul’s teaching and think about areas in which it might apply in your life or in your congregation.

Paul addressed the meat issue in verse two:

One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only.

The one “who is weak” is not an immature Christian or someone about to turn away from Christ. The weakness refers to his conscience that causes guilt feelings if he eats the meat. However, others in the same congregation felt that they had the liberty to eat meat; no guilt.

For illustration purposes I'll use the terms carnivore and vegetarian, though they do not fit precisely. So, the carnivores looked down on the vegetarians thinking that they should just ‘get over’ their objection and join them in eating meat. However the vegetarians could not eat the unclean meat as a matter of conscience. Of course, the vegetarians, because of their strict moral belief, judged the carnivores, thinking the carnivores should give up meat to be righteous. Paul instructed:

The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.

An “Us & Them” atmosphere had developed in the church at Rome. It was a mild kind of division, but it was division and it was destructive.

Division diverts all attention to the problem. It causes a church to stagnate and lose effectiveness. Often outsiders know there are problems.

How did Paul resolve the problem in Rome?

He acknowledged that eating the meat was OK (v. 14). (Those silly vegetarians now know what is correct.) Problem solved, right? Wrong!

Knowledge was not the issue, but rather a moral conviction, i.e. the conscience. So in verse 21 Paul instructed:

It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles.

Paul instructed Christians that they must not violate their conscience. To do so is sin (v. 23). So, there is a responsibility for every Christian to insure that he does not cause a fellow Christian to stumble by violating his conscience.

Our elders need to be watching out for early signs of division. As a preacher, I want to keep us alert as a congregation so that we can each guard against division. Do you know where division starts???

Paul answered that question succinctly in a companion passage that also deals with division: 

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
—1 Corinthians 8:1 (NASB95)

Mark Stinnett

November 15, 2020

Don't Violate Your Conscience!

(The Conscience, Part 4)

The conscience is one of the most important aspects of your being. It is of such great importance that the Apostle Paul taught Christians that they should never violate their conscience.

Paul was addressing an issue in the church in Rome concerning the eating of certain foods. (See Romans 14.) He writes about one person who ‘has faith’ that he can eat all things. Yet another person who is ‘weak in faith’ eats only vegetables. Paul is addressing not only an issue of eating certain things, but more broadly, the convictions of the heart, that is, the conscience.

One Christian ‘has faith’ (i.e. confidence) that he can eat all things, so his conscience is not bothered by what he eats. He feels no guilt for eating anything.

On the other hand, another Christian feels that there are moral restrictions on what he can eat. (For example, a Christian with a Jewish background might feel guilty for eating pork, an unclean food according to the Law of Moses.) Though it is not morally wrong under the new covenant, his conscience has been trained to avoid pork out of a moral response to the Law of Moses. So, to eat the pork would violate his conscience and make him feel guilty.

The key to understanding and dealing with the conscience is found at the end of the chapter:

The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.
—Romans 14:22–23 (NASB95)

The phrase, “Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves” is another way of saying, “happy is he who does not have an evil conscience.” Someone with an evil conscience labels morally bad things as good. His evil conscience approves of evil actions. So, his conscience is clear, though he has done wrong.

Still addressing the food issue, Paul writes that “he who doubts is condemned if he eats.” The doubt is his conscience warning him to stop. In his conscience, he believes it is morally wrong to eat food which he considers to be restricted. So, to doubt his own conviction is to go against his conscience. Or, as Paul puts it, his eating is “not from faith.” Stated succinctly, he doesn’t believe that he should eat the food he perceives to be restricted, but he eats it anyway. That is “not of faith.” It IS a violation of his conscience. So, to violate his conscience is to sin.

The odd thing in all of this is that Paul actually resolved the moral issue. He said that in reality, there were no longer restrictions on food as there had been in the Law of Moses. So, technically, the person who still felt guilty about eating certain foods was not guilty...of eating unclean food. Yet, if he ate, he was guilty of violating his conscience.

This might seem a little confusing until we focus on the heart of the matter: the conscience.

The conscience functions in two ways:

• Moral guide (before we act); and
• Judge and jury (after we act).

Paul simply taught that whenever a person goes against his moral guide (conscience) he sins, even if his moral guide is more restrictive than God’s standard. God does not want us to get into the habit of violating the moral standard embedded in our mind. So, don’t violate your conscience; that is sin. 

Train your conscience with God’s word, and follow it...ALWAYS!!

Mark Stinnett

November 3, 2019

What is the Value of a Clear Conscience?

(The Conscience, Part 3)

You may be familiar with the old west humor where the gunslinger bellies up to the saloon bar after a gunfight and growls loudly, “Well, he needed a good killin’.” It is a somewhat humorous way of justifying the death of the other gunman lying in the street.

Whatever you may think of my silly illustration, focus on the word ‘justify.’ To justify something is to make it ‘right.’ Now, look a little closer. Why would anyone need to make something right?

I’m sure you see it. More accurately, justification is making something that is perceived to be wrong to appear to be right. The gunslinger justified murder by claiming that the other man needed (deserved) death.

It is likely that we have all tried to justify something, though not as serious as murder!

Have you ever lied, but felt like it was the right thing to do in your specific circumstances? You don’t generally lie. But on that occasion, it seemed necessary.

You might have justified your lie by telling yourself that it was for a good reason. If you had told the truth, a friend would have suffered in some way. Or, perhaps your lie saved you a significant amount of money. After all, that organization is well off (or corrupt or undeserving or abusive…) and they would never miss the small amount that you kept from them.

Whenever we justify a wrong we must understand that it is still wrong. The proof of our wrongdoing is our perceived need to justify ourselves. In other words, if it was not perceived to be wrong, then why would we feel the need to explain (justify) ourselves?

Why do you think it is so important for people to justify themselves?

The human conscience is a built in judge and jury that deals with moral issues. Whenever the conscience disapproves of an action it assigns guilt. In the case of lying, the conscience knows that lying is wrong. So, it acts as a jury and renders a ’guilty’ verdict. (We try to avoid guilt.)

Solomon made this observation:

People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry, but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; he will give all the goods of his house.
--Proverbs 6:30–31 (ESV)

The simple point is that people may be understanding or even find it easy to justify a moral wrong, but it is still wrong.

Justification is made to soothe the guilty conscience. It does not take away the wrong, but it explains the wrong so that can be said, “My conscience is clear.” The guilt has been removed by justification, but in reality, only the guilt feelings are removed. Yet, as with the hungry thief, true guilt remains. So, self-justification masks guilt by renaming wrong as right. For that reason, a clear conscience is worthless.

Some modern translations of the Bible refer to a clear conscience. However, in every one of those cases the Greek text describes the conscience as: good, clean, pure, blameless or perfect (complete), never clear.

A clear conscience is an unreliable moral judge. It could result from following a good conscience or justifying an evil conscience.

God is not interested in you having a clear conscience without first obtaining a clean conscience. He does not want you to justify your guilty conscience, but follow a pure conscience. 

Is your conscience clear or is it clean?

Mark Stinnett

October 28, 2019

How Important is Your Conscience?

(The Conscience, Part 2)

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, 
  whose sin is covered. 
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, 
  and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 
For when I kept silent, 
  my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; 
  my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. 
I acknowledged my sin to you, 
  and I did not cover my iniquity; 
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” 
  and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. 
—Psalm 32:1–5 (ESV)

King David had sinned and his conscience had convicted him of sin and caused guilt feelings. That is very thing the conscience is supposed to do; our built-in judge and jury of morality.

Vitally Important
The conscience is a vitally important aspect of our humanity. The presence of the conscience is one way in which man is distinguished from animals and all other things on the earth.

Animals operate solely by their instinctive nature. Dogs, for example, behave in a way that is unique to dogs. Trainers and breeders depend on the consistency of the nature of dogs in general, but also the uniqueness of the different breeds of dogs. They capitalize on the fact that dogs cannot choose to change their nature.

Because animals operate solely by instinct, we do not accuse them of sin. So, if a dog digs up your tulip bulbs, you might become angry and even discipline the dog, but the dog feels no guilt and you do not read scripture to the dog to point out his moral obligation.

So it is with all other kinds of animals. The simple reason is that animals do not possess a conscience and are not subject to a moral standard. Unlike mankind, they were not made in the image of God and are not expected to operate beyond their instinctive nature.

In great contrast, mankind was created in God’s image and can actually choose to rise above his instinctive fleshly nature to embrace the nature of God, or godliness (i.e. God-like-ness).

Powerful
The human conscience is also a powerful aspect of our humanity. King David’s guilty conscience caused physical and emotional misery. Yet, He found relief when he confessed his sin to God. Guilt is meant to drive us to God.

God designed man this way so that he would choose to embrace the nature of God. After all, good and evil are defined by the nature of God.

Now, there are three ways to find peace from the misery of a guilty conscience.

First, the conscience can be seared. The way people sear their conscience is to play the hypocrite. In other words, simply continue to do wrong in spite of the guilt feelings produced by the conscience. Over time, the conscience loses its moral sensitivity and no longer identify right as right and wrong as wrong. The Apostle Paul described the seared conscience in 1 Timothy 4.

Second, the guilty conscience can be justified. The person knows that his action was morally wrong, but he believes that he had good reason to do the wrong. He ‘justifies’ his action making it seem right. The end result is a clear conscience which is basically indifferent to right and wrong.

King David dealt with his guilty conscience the right way by confessing his sin to God. Even though he had violated his conscience, the powerful guilt feelings led him to confess his sin. The result was a cleansing of his conscience beginning with God’s forgiveness.

A seared conscience will sin again.
A clear conscience is morally indifferent and will sin again.
A clean/pure conscience possesses true peace and will guard you against sin.

Mark Stinnett
October 20, 2019

What is the Conscience?

(The Conscience, Part 1)

Every person has, at one time or another, violated his/her conscience. In other words, he/she has thought something, said something or done something believed to be morally wrong.

The conscience is that mysterious part of the human being that evaluates moral right and wrong. Regardless of how the conscience has been trained, it functions as an internal judge and jury. When choices are made that are perceived to be right, the conscience approves. Yet, when choices are made that are perceived to be wrong, the conscience disapproves. The conscience judges choices, but also thoughts, speech and behavior associated with choices.

It is important to understand that the conscience is concerned with morality. So, if a person shoplifts, his conscience acts as a witness and renders a verdict: “Shoplifting is morally wrong; you are guilty.” In contrast, if a store worker shelves an item incorrectly, it is a mistake, but not a moral wrong. So, his mind may acknowledge the mistake and even regret the mistake, but the conscience does not activate a sense of moral guilt.

The Bible tells us about a good conscience and a bad conscience.

A good conscience works correctly. It identifies good things as good and bad things as bad. It judges decisions and behaviors properly. In the Bible a good conscience is also called a clean, pure or blameless conscience.

In contrast, a bad conscience does not work properly. A bad conscience might consider something that is morally wrong and identify it as good or right. In a similar way a bad conscience might consider something that is morally good or right and identify it as wrong. A bad conscience is also called an evil conscience.

As an example of a bad conscience…

I had a friend in junior high who invited me to go to the elementary wing of our school during lunchtime so we could ‘push the little kids around.’ My friend said it would be fun. My friend’s conscience was bad; it approved of bullying. (I went a different way that day. )

A stark description of an evil/bad conscience is found in the Bible in Proverbs 1:8-19.

So, what about a ‘clear’ conscience? In reality, a clear conscience is most often a bad conscience because it is morally indifferent. When a clear conscience responds to something that is morally wrong, it does not call it wrong (or right).

The clear conscience is worthless in guarding the soul. The voice of the clear conscience says, “I don’t see anything wrong with that” or “I didn’t violate my conscience; I feel no guilt.”

For example: A boys punches another boy in the nose. He then justifies himself saying, “He deserved it.” There is a subtle admission that it was not right to fight, but that he felt justified by the circumstances. So, he feels no guilt; his conscience is ‘clear.’

The conscience operates at two key moments:

• Before you decide/speak/act its role is to evaluate by giving you approval to continue or by warning you to stop. It guards your soul against sin.
• After you speak/act its role is to evaluate by approving or causing guilt feelings.

A good conscience is good because it conforms to the standard that is defined by the character of God which has been revealed in Scripture. The Bible teaches us to follow our conscience. 

Make sure yours is a good conscience.

Mark Stinnett
October 13, 2019

A Spiritual Assassin

As far as I know, I have only seen assassins on TV and in movies. In general, they do not value human life; they have no conscience. (Hold that thought.)

One of the most prominent themes in the first nine chapters of the Book of Proverbs is the father’s admonition for his son to obtain wisdom. One of the primary purposes of wisdom is to keep the son from the strange or foreign woman. She is strange or foreign because she is not the woman he married, or more to the point, she does not belong in his bed. She is an adulteress.

Near the end of the book of Proverbs a simple but riveting statement is made about the adulterous woman:

     This is the way of an adulterous woman: 
     She eats and wipes her mouth, 
     And says, "I have done no wrong."
     --Proverbs 30:20

Men, the adulterous woman is not a myth. She is not an ancient peril limited to the day of Solomon. She is not inconsequential. She is alive and well today and will destroy you.

Our society is becoming less and less sensitive toward sexual sin. Immoral sexual relationships are paraded in the media as normal. The conscience of our nation has been deadened so that there is no real understanding of sexual sin.

The greatest danger of the adulterous woman is the absence of a conscience. Her ability to discern right and wrong does not exist. As a result she behaves more like an animal, doing whatever it is that she instinctively desires.

She will play the role of ‘true love’ only to destroy a man afterward. What a man thinks he is doing in secret, she will expose openly if it suits her. She may or may not benefit; she does not care.

She does not care for any man; she does not care for herself. She has reduced herself to animal behavior, perhaps even, an animal mind.

She commits sin.
She goes to dinner.
She wipes her mouth as if nothing has happened.
Sex without love,
         without affection,
            without feeling,
               without conscience;
       she calmly and coldly says, “I have done nothing wrong.”

Men, open your eyes to this spiritual assassin!
She does not love; she destroys.
She destroys lives!
She destroys souls!
Avoid her at all costs.