What is our conscience? It is defined as “the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action: to follow the dictates of conscience the complex of ethical and moral principles that controls or inhibits the actions or thoughts of an individual.” Many believe that our conscience should be used as our guide for our actions. However, your conscience is only as good as the programming it contains. If you are saved, you have the Holy Spirit to help you, but so often Christians edit their conscience by picking and choosing the verses they think apply to them. You edit your conscience just like you edit a book. You pull out what you don’t like, and make presentable what you do. Others edit by saying certain verses in the Bible are not relevant to our culture. They have become their own God by designing their own rules to follow. They have edited their conscience.
God intends for our conscience to be a good conscience. That would be a conscience that is guided by the word of God. When we fill our hearts with the truth of God’s word, there is an opportunity for right thinking. If we don’t follow what we have read and been taught, the Holy Spirit will reveal to our conscience where we are going wrong, and our conscience will feel the conviction and steer us correctly.
I Timothy 1:5-16 “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;”
A Christian should have a strong desire to please God. Their gratitude for all He has done for them should elicit a desire to obey in all areas of their life.
II Corinthians 1:12 “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.”
Another way we can edit our conscience is by harboring sin in our lives. When we continually choose a habit, whether it be gossip, watching a program that is immoral, giving in to gluttony, listening to music that speaks of immorality, or whatever, we are on the path of editing our conscience. There will come a point where we have convinced ourselves that what we are doing is ok. We have edited the truth of God’s word so that we can enjoy the pleasure of sin.
Telling yourself that “it’s not so bad,” should be a clue to you that you are in the process of editing your conscience to suit yourself. We are to examine everything we do against the word of God. Are we perfect people? No, but we are to be on the road to perfection. That is the process of sanctification. Not being perfect should never be an excuse to sin. I think one of the greatest ways we edit our conscience is by dumbing down what sin is. We convince ourselves that there are little and big sins and that the “little” sins are no big deal. However, every sin is a big deal to God.
If we want a trustworthy conscience, we must determine we will not make excuses for sin. When your conscience brings a question about a situation to your mind, don’t do it. James 1:6 addresses the lesson of doubting if what we are doing is right. Simply put, if you doubt, don’t do it until you can pray and have assurance it is ok with God. When pleasing God is our desire, we will build a strong, stable, and sensitive spiritual radar in our conscience, and when the radar goes off, we will listen and obey. The only way to do this is to study, pray, and obey. Then, when we are tempted, we will not yield to what is comfortable on the outside. We will not yield to the pleasure or fear of being excluded or teased about our decision, but we will yield to the inward comfort of knowing we are doing what is right in God’s eyes.
James 1:6 “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavered is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”
Excellent!!!