What is our Conscience?

[AJ]

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(1.)  What is our conscience?

(2.)  What is the purpose for our conscience?

(3.)  Why do we have a conscience?

(4.)  How does our conscience work?

(5.)  Is our conscience always right...or can it be wrong?

(6.)  How reliable is our conscience?

(7.)  Can we be led astray,... deceived by an evil conscience?

(8)  Where did our conscience come from?



It seems that our conscience can execute judgment - within a person's soul as guilt, shame and estrangement from God (Psa. 32:4; Prov. 20:27).

It seems that it's not an infallible guide to behavior - because it works according to the standards we have adopted. (1 Sam 24:5; 2 Sam. 24:10)

It seems that our conscience sees our own behavior, inner and outer, from an objective viewpoint.



A.... Healthy Conscience

It seems that we can have a "good conscience" (1 Timothy 1:5), and

a "clear conscience" (1 Timothy 3:9). 

The "well-formed conscience" is delicate in the sense of attention to detail.

Heb. 5:14 informs us that spiritually minded people are those who have "exercised their senses to discern both good and evil."



"Healthy conscience" development requires moral instruction in which attention is given not only to "the what" is being taught (i.e., the contents) but to "the how" and actively pursues goodness in all he does.





B.... A Mis-Informed Conscience

In 1 Cor. 8:7, some had a "weak conscience" due to ignorance.  Thus feeling guilty when they should not. Nevertheless, that weak conscience should not be violated (1 Cor. 8:10-13) because to act contrary to one's own conscience is sin (Rom. 14:23)



The church I grew up in, made it clear that no one was to do any work on Sunday.
But, when I was about 16, I saw the pastor's son working in a grocery store on Sunday and it really threw me for a loop.
  That was the beginning for to not take the pastor at his word, but rather begin look into the church's teaching for myself.





In 1 John 1:9 - A "guilty conscience" is relieved only by confession of sin and the acceptance of God's forgiveness.

Our conscience lets one know that they are off course, so they have the chance to do something about it.







C.... A Bad Conscience

In 1 Tim. 4:2-3, there are those with a "seared conscience"  that have lost its sensitivity through repeated disregard of its promptings and through persistent embrace of evil.



Our conscience can be desensitized if we fail to listen to it, even to the extent that we become morally blind, stumbling around in moral darkness as John puts it (1 John 2:11).



A "corrupted conscience" (Titus 1:15) and "an evil conscience" (Hebrews 10:22).

A bad conscience is a bit like an alarm clock  that is set to the wrong time, or a compass that gives the captain of a ship the wrong reading or a maladjusted scale that reads too heavy or too light.



This is common when someone has formed a habit of wrongdoing. After repeating a given activity a number of times one may no longer feel that it is evil; the conscience no longer takes them to task for their conduct.





Summary

Our conscience is not a sufficient guide in itself to living as God intended.

Even Paul, who strived to do good with all his might, confessed that conscience is not his ultimate judge-because it could be mistaken.

"My conscience does not charge me with anything, but I am not for that reason acquitted. The Lord alone is my judge" (1 Cor 4:4).



Therefore:

"Everything in the Scriptures is God's Word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live. The Scriptures train God's servants to do all kinds of good deeds" (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).



Since the normal standard of mankind's judgment come from their conscience - it is essential that it be correct.

If it isn't we will see everything in a distorted way. Christ put it very clearly when he compared our conscience to our eyes:

"The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound your whole body will be filled with light, but if your eye is diseased your whole body will be filled with darkness, and what a darkness it will be!" (Lk 11:34).







Where did our conscience come from?

As I view it, it either came from:

(a.) the dirt / elements of earth, that Adam was formed from, or

(b.) God at the time when He breathed into him the breathe of life.

 

The problem I have is that if our conscience is NOT stable, NOT consistently good and can be altered to the extreme of becoming corrupted and being evil...it just doesn't fit with answer (b).



Therefore, I concluded that there must have been something wrong with the dirt that Adam was made from.   Did it have something to do with a curse of darkness that covered the earth in Gen 1:2?



We are not told that this darkness was a curse or an evil manifestation of something. 

But, Jesus did say that 'men love darkness rather than light'.



Why does mankind love darkness rather than light?

Where did this strong compelling pull, that blinds / draws men away from the light - come from?



Is this the 'serpent' that lies within all of us, intertwined with our carnality and flesh that is enmity against God....and is deserving of judgment and punishment and destruction?



Is this the 'serpent' that entertained Eve entertained and eventually she gave into and then she persuaded her husband to follow her?



At first Eve was clear, 'No, we can't eat of the tree'.

We are not told how much time transpired between the first encounter with the serpent about the tree of knowledge of good and evil and until she finally gave into it.



Is this the carnal man, the 'serpent' - a part of our nature (from all of us) that will end up in the Lake of Fire?

It is all our filthy rags and sins,.... not the true man/woman of the spirit.


Comments are welcomed...
Peace, AJ

[jabcat]

Nothing indepth at this point, but I thank you for asking these questions that are very pertinent to me...and since there's no temptation that's not common to man, I'll assume it's important to many others...  Anyway, very good post, I'll be thinking...thank you for referencing scripture as a guide here wrt to its full counsel..God's blessing.

[jabcat]

I was thinking yesterday about the scripture that says something like "happy is the man that doesn't condemn himself in that which he allows"...also there's the one about "all things are lawful but not all things are expedient".  I've actually tried to do things before with the intent that I wouldn't condemn myself for it, that process of "God really doesn't care [about that particular thing]"...doesn't work for me, because before I'm through doing it, I feel convicted and the need to confess and turn from it..I realize (I think) that my upbringing for one thing, had a lot to do with my thinking a lot of things were wrong...so is my conscience stronger, or weaker, as a result?  I'm not sure...it also seems like the further I've gone in my life as a believer, some things have "become wrong" to me, while other things have ceased to feel wrong as I've grown and matured.  I think you've covered the "philosophical" parts of this well, just some of my personal thoughts and experiences.  God's blessing.

[Loveroftruth]

Good stuff AJ  :thumbsup:

[Redlettervoice]

You left one "conscious" out, AJ ........the one that speaks of an "answer" of a "good conscious"
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

I forgot where it is........Peter I think.

[fire walker]

AJ

Once I started up a thread about what are the "Goads" some translations use the word
" Pricks", When Paul was on the road to Damascus he was stricken down and Christ asked him "  "why do you persecute me, it is hard to kick against the Goads"

It appears to me that the Goads are the conscience, however in that thread we never came to a conclusive answer as to weather kicking against the goads was the same as kicking against conscience.

I tend to see the concience as part of our
soul that either is moved by the mind of flesh or moved contrary to the desires of the flesh by the spirit that Christ is pouring out upon all flesh, of course the natural needs of the flesh are not evil in themselves so most times it seems we are unaware of the one while being lead by the other.

I Know that Jesus taught more on the inportance of the soul to be delivered from sin, one verse especialy reveals this where it says " what does it profit a man to save his body while losing his soul, he placed far more emphases on the inward, the soul than he did on the outward, the flesh because the flesh itself profits nothing.

I trust that the conscience of man has an improtant part, also it appears that there
are different states of conscienceness, even when we sleep we are still conscience of exsistance, we dream and often recall the dreams during our awakened hours of conscience and sometimes we do not recall where we go or what is revealed to us while we sleep, there seems to also be a state of conscience where we get glimpses of the higher things not seen that lays beyond the veil, many people experience these at least a few times and some people many times during their journey through this world, everyone of us has a part in the whole of these things, God has a purpose for everything we pass through in this world
and it appears our conscience serves a purpose in all of this.

Peace,
Fire Walker