A Good Conscience.-

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 3, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 35.

A Good Conscience.—

“Conscience,” says Skeat, “is consciousness of good or bad.” Whewell says: “As science means knowledge, conscience etymologically means self-knowledge; but the English word implies a moral standard of action in the mind, as well as a consciousness of our own actions. . . . Conscience is the reason, employed about questions of right and wrong, and accompanied with the sentiments of approbation and condemnation.” Another authority (The Standard), says that “conscience has been regarded as the simple intuition or the immediate perception of right and wrong. . . . In its ordinary use the word covers everything in man’s nature that has to do with the direction and decision of moral conduct.”

The Scripture Use.—

While the word is used ordinarily with considerable latitude of meaning, the original term is akin to the definitions given above. “The inward faculty of moral judgment” is a definition that corresponds with the use of the word in John 8:9, “Being convicted by their own conscience.” May it not be said that conscience and will combined is that which God in mercy implanted in man after he fell? When man sinned, he yielded wholly to Satan; every power of his being, every member of his body, and faculty of his soul, became a slave of sin. Man was in harmony with sin, afraid of God, and fled from his presence. God in mercy placed within man enmity to sin and Satan (Gen. 3:15), with power to choose whom he would serve (Deut. 30:19). It is this in man which leads him to long for righteousness and holiness; to which God by his Spirit through his word constantly appeals.

Perverted.—

But, like all other good gifts of God, conscience may be perverted and may become evil. We read in the word of God of a “weak conscience” (1 Cor. 8:7, 12), “a good conscience” (1 Tim. 1:5), “a pure conscience” (1 Tim. 3:9), a “seared” conscience (1 Tim. 4:2), a “defiled conscience” (Titus 1:15), “an evil conscience” (Heb. 10:22). It matters, therefore, what kind of conscience we have. In a normal state, every one possesses a good conscience. If he always heeds its voice, it will keep acute, tender, responsive. If it be heeded a part of the time, and a part of the time neglected, it becomes a weak and vacillating conscience. If it be wholly unheeded, if its warnings and admonitions be trampled underfoot, it becomes hardened and seared, so that right or wrong makes but little impression upon it.

A Matter of Education.—

Conscience, therefore, is a matter of education. It is not an independent quantity, one which holds its throne and seat of authority uncorrupted. It is of itself a judge, which may be purchased, bribed, cajoled, corrupted, if the will of the man consent. It is like a clock or pair of balances.

We are guided continually by our clock, or watch, but we would consider it presumptuous and foolish to run year after year without comparing our timepiece with some standard authority. He is not an up-to-date druggist who will not from time to time test and adjust his balances. So conscience, in order to do us good service, must be a good conscience, as tested and educated by the standard.

What Is the Standard?—

Concerning this there should be no question among Christians. Primarily it is the law of the eternal God, as manifest in the teachings and life of Jesus Christ, and developed in the Gospel of his word. This law is perfect, and therefore eternal, unchangeable, infallible. (See Ps. 19:7; 111:7, 8; 119:138, 142; Matt. 5:17–19; Luke 16:17.) It is ever the same thing. It speaks the same thing to all generations of men. It condemns all; “for all have sinned,” transgressed its precepts (Rom. 7:7). It points out the well-known fact that man has corrupted his ways before God. His conscience has become weak and defiled, and in many cases “seared as with a hot iron.” Following the teachings of perverted consciences men have set up all manner of gods, and have worshiped self in every form. They have also devised all manner of evil against their fellows, because the consciences of their fellows were not like their consciences. In this they have recognized the need of an infallible guide, a perfect standard, but have selfishly made the mistake of setting themselves up as the standard, and condemning all those who will not submit. All persecution of the past resulted from evil

and corrupted consciences, based on selfish and perverted standards. But conscience can not be compelled from without. It can not be forced by fetter or fagot, by chain-gang or stake. It is a tribunal above all earthly tribunals, but subject to God.

How Obtained.—

A good conscience may be obtained and kept only in God’s appointed way, and that is through Christ Jesus. So we read: “How much more shall the blood of Christ . . . purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” In this text we have given the means of cleansing and restoring, the evil cleansed away, and the purpose for which the cleansing was done. It is the blood of Christ, his precious life given for us, in himself and in his word, that cleanses the conscience. It cleanses from dead works, that is, the works of sin wrought apart from God and his life. It cleanses the conscience, and gives life, in order that the living God may be served; for it is only by a conscience agreeing with God that he can be served acceptably. The results of such a change of conscience is illustrated in our picture. When Paul went to Ephesus, he found all classes. Many of the Jews and Greeks believed, but others were hardened. Here Paul wrought many miracles. Some of Satan’s agents among the Jews endeavored to discredit Paul’s work by imitating it, but the evil spirit overcame them, and God’s truth was vindicated, unwillingly, by the powers of darkness. Fear of God came upon many. Conscience was aroused. Evil deeds were confessed. Books of divination, in which were written the mummeries of the heathen religion, by which consciences had hitherto been educated, were brought together, piled up, and burned, to the amount of fifty thousand pieces of silver, “so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.” See Acts 19:8–20. Here was a true change of conscience—a change wrought by the power of the Gospel of Christ’s life through his word. It needed no compulsion, no force of law, to change customs, overthrow the rule of the pagan religion, and prohibit the worship of the false gods. Had all this been attempted, it would not have changed the consciences of the Ephesians. But when the word of God entered, when the Spirit of God quickened the conscience, it was purified from the evil, purged from its works of sin unto death, and made alive unto God. It then became God’s monitor to the soul. He spoke through it, and the idolatry was put away, and the things which held them to sin were burned. Temporal and money value was not counted, eternal riches were at stake, and the sacrifice of the goods of the gods was made. What a blessed holocaust it was!

How Continued.—

How may the good conscience be held? This instruction is conveyed in 1 Tim. 1:19, “Holding faith, and a good conscience.” By holding faith, we hold the good conscience. As the purging of the conscience from dead works, the “heart sprinkled from an evil conscience,” came through faith, even so the maintaining of the good conscience comes through faith. “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him; rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught.” Col. 2:6, 7. But faith comes by the word of God. (Rom. 10:17). The study, the reception, the application of the word of God to the heart and life of the individual, is the only means whereby a good conscience may be maintained. This is what Paul taught the Ephesians, who burned their heathen books when they accepted of Christianity. In his parting words to the elders he utters these words, which Christians ought to remember forever: “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.” Acts 20:32. God’s word alone received, eaten, digested, appropriated, assimilated, is all that will preserve a good conscience.

The Voice of God.—

Conscience has not inappropriately been called the voice of God in the soul; but it is so only when it speaks God’s word, tells God’s truth, brings God’s message. Once God’s voice was heard from heaven declaring his will. He wrote that voice with his own finger upon tables of the enduring rock. That law, expressed in the ten precepts, is the one Voice of God by which all other pretended voices of God are to be compared. It is the one Government Standard by which all other standards are to be gauged. It is only when our conscience speaks in harmony with this Standard that we are to recognize its authority. “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8:20. Do not trust to conscience, unless back of it is a wholly obedient heart. “Unto the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” Titus 1:15, 16. There are many voices calling; there are many deceptions of the enemy; and every heart which is not attuned to the heavenly music of God’s sacred law—his Voice to man—will be deceived. His word is true. Your conscience is true if it is in harmony with that word. Let that word decide the matter, whatever the feeling or the education. Let that word mold your conscience, not your conscience endeavor to mold the word, and thus shape your conduct to certain ruin. The law “is good;” let the conscience be made good by being brought through God’s means into harmony with its sacred precepts.

For Thyself.—

While we should be careful not to offend the conscience of the weak (and we know not who may be weak), we should remember that we are not to regulate others’ consciences. By no overt act of ours, knowingly, should we place a stumbling-block in the way of our brother. But we should never demand that he should live according to our conscience. By attempting this, rivers of blood have been shed, some of it flowing from the heart of the Son of God. Paul was conscientious when he persecuted Christians; but his conscience was evil. Jesus said that those who killed his followers would think that in that they were doing God service (John 16:2); but it is because they know not God or Christ. Let conscience be to you what God designed it to be. Keep it there by faithful study of, and submission to, his word. Keep it open to receive instruction by frequent prayer. Keep it tender by quick response to the calls of duty. So and only so shall conscience be to you a safe prompter and monitor of God, pointing you ever to God’s word.