And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
Paul at his trial before Felix declared it his constant ruling purpose to live without wrong toward God and toward people. It means deliberately exercising oneself to keep conscience clear before God and others, so that afterward one knows one has wounded no one and exerted no harmful influence. Keeping it requires steady self-discipline and faithfulness to duty, with conscience kept true to what is right, calling sin by its right name and standing for right even at great cost. Merely following conscience is not enough, for conscience is safe only when God controls the being, with sanctified intellect and living faith grasping the divine will. A conscience thus kept clear brings inward peace that quickens the intellect, directs the will, and blesses those around with growing serenity.
Paul's Trial at Caesarea
Acts 24:16 belongs to the account of Paul's trial at Caesarea, where his accusers brought charges against him before Felix. It was spoken after Felix beckoned Paul to defend himself in answer to his accusers. In that defense Paul first denied that he had caused disturbance or profaned the sanctuary. He then confessed that in the way called heresy he worshiped the God of his fathers, without swerving from the law and the prophets and holding the resurrection of the dead in conformity with the Scriptures. After that confession he declared that living without wrong toward God and toward people was the ruling purpose of his life.
That purpose was pursued amid repeated accusations and efforts by his enemies to have him killed. Even in that danger he was denied neither the right to answer his accusers nor an impartial hearing. His claim that he had not wronged the Jews and that their accusations were unproved reflects the innocence of one seeking to keep a clear conscience before God and people.
Meaning of Clear Conscience
Paul made it his lifelong and constant purpose to keep a conscience clear before God and other people. His defense rested on having acted without the wrongdoing alleged against him, presented alongside his faith in the resurrection and his belief in what is written in the law and the prophets.
A clear conscience toward God and other people is a goal to be practiced deliberately by exercising oneself. Applied to social gatherings, this means conducting oneself so that afterward one knows one has not wounded or injured anyone or exerted a harmful influence.
Merely following the dictates of conscience is not enough; one must know that one has a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. To keep such a conscience one must constantly press on in the narrow way, cultivating capabilities and wisely employing powers, and with sanctified intellect and living faith grasp the meaning of the divine will. Abraham did this when at the command of a God whom he scarcely knew he left his country and his father's house to go into a land he did not know, with his heart disposed to obey. Conscience is a safe guide only when God has control of the being.
The verse means living with one's own conscience clear in the matter at hand before God and before men, including the church and fellow men. It means being responsible to God for every act rather than to man, righting with the Lord whatever mistakes one sees and knows, while filling the gospel ministry according to one's best understanding. It allows differing from brethren and allowing them to think differently while claiming the same right to think for oneself, and calls for being large-hearted and charitable and bearing with one another until God shows what is right. It does not mean claiming to be without fault, for a person can hold a clear conscience and still confess faultiness before God, trusting that the Saviour's perfect righteousness covers imperfections and that Christ as altogether light will lighten darkness and show all the way.
A clear conscience toward God and other people requires steady self-discipline and faithfulness to duty. The conscience must remain true to what is right, so that a person is honest, calls sin by its right name, and stands for the right even at great cost. Such a conscience requires a transformed character, for a man who will do or say anything to gain his end cannot have it, and nothing but the power of God can save him. Self must die and Christ must take possession of the soul temple, for day by day eternal destiny is decided. When men reject the light God has given and abuse and trample conscience, recklessly stating falsehood for truth while yielding to Satan until confused and double-minded, they are in fearful danger and their future eternal welfare is imperiled.
Claiming a conscience void of offense toward God and men does not prove a person is right. When controversy and division come into the church, with constant differences of opinion and apostasies, all parties claim to be right and to have such a conscience. Headstrong, self-esteemed, ambitious people make this claim while refusing to be instructed by those who have long borne the burden of the work and have been guided by the Lord. Light is sent to dispel their darkness, but they are too proud of heart to accept it and choose darkness, despising counsel that does not coincide with their views and plans and favor their wrong traits of character. The work of the Spirit that would bring them right is rejected because it does not please them and flatter their self-righteousness, so the light God gives is no light to them and they wander in darkness. To distrust the judgment of those God has taught and used, and to place oneself beyond the means God has ordained to correct wrongs and set His church in order, is the special working of the enemy to hold souls in error in strong delusions that cannot be broken.
Keeping Conscience Without Offense
Keeping a clear conscience before God is a duty to be pursued, and it is the underlying principle of Christian conduct that the world does not understand. God never lays this requirement upon anyone without giving power to meet it, never asks for one step in advance of Himself but leads the way, so that following Him keeps from going astray and perfects Christian character in those who are stewards of His grace. Keeping the soul in a condition that can be examined with satisfaction, with nothing offending God or others, is tested by associations, whether they draw the mind to God and heavenly things, increase reverence for parents, and foster pure aspirations and love for truth and right, and by whether the imagination is healthful to the soul. It requires growth in spiritual power over the past year and refusal of low gratification and self-indulgence, for such indulgence leaves a scar on the soul and corrupts the noble powers of the mind, so that even when repentance comes and Jesus washes away the sin the soul remains crippled and bears the loss through all time.
A conscience that offends neither God nor people comes by steady advancement in His strength in gaining preparation for His kingdom through transformation of character, giving proof by faithfulness in service while ever pressing forward with the city whose Builder and Maker is God in view and learning the language of Canaan in order to enter the city He has prepared. A conscience free from offense is a concern God tests in His people, for trials reveal whether heart and conscience are steadfast and whether the Spirit bears witness that they are God's children. Standing before God with a heart cleansed from every idol and a conscience void of offense means loving God supremely and neighbor as self in self-denial and purity of heart, which alone receives treasures of immortal value in heaven. With such a conscience one is prepared for anything, so that life or death, trials or sufferings will not uproot faith but will make strong to do and to suffer, and to fail of this and lose heaven is to lose everything.
A conscience free from offense toward God and others is to be diligently preserved, marking a life faithfully devoted to God and lived in righteousness with sustained care, so that those who live this way may face death with the prospect of a faithful end. Knowing the Master's will and doing it and seeking to do just right gives a clear conscience toward God and people, calling for exerting an influence for good upon all associates, gathering with Christ rather than scattering abroad, and working righteousness so the servant is approved when the Master comes to reckon. A conscience clear toward God and men is a wonderful acquirement coming from God as the storehouse of all power, from whom love for God and fellow men flows. It lays upon parents and teachers of youth an inexcusable responsibility for influence, home discipline, and education, requiring them firmly to hold principle, to reverence God's holy Word, and to reveal a pure, noble, heavenly life while training children in right ideas, leaving no place for low, cheap, common talk in the family. When the heart is pure rich treasures of wisdom flow from within because the inward parts are God's holy temple, while any entrance of corrupt principles shows itself in words and actions that separate from God and extinguish moral and spiritual power.
Keeping a conscience clear before God and others takes struggle and steadfast loyalty, as Daniel's three companions showed by refusing to worship the great image set up by Nebuchadnezzar in the plains of Dura because their principles forbade honoring an idol and paying homage to a rival of the God of heaven, knowing they owed God every faculty they possessed, even under threat of death. Their loyalty was joined with generous sympathy toward all, shown when they prayed for wisdom and God used Daniel's interpretation of the king's dream to save their lives and the lives of the king's advisers. By trusting God whether or not He delivered them they publicly showed that God alone deserved worship and made His power known, holding a lofty aspiration to prove entirely loyal even at the cost of life.
Peace, Power, and Confidence
A conscience clear before God brings inward peace that quickens and invigorates the intellect, rightly directs and controls the will, and makes the meditations of the mind pleasing because they are sanctified. That serenity blesses those around, and as heavenly peace is increasingly experienced it grows and becomes natural. Perfect peace is an attribute of heaven, and it awakens moral energies to greater activity rather than making them dormant.
Making every move to honor and glorify God gives a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men, including children and students in school. It means aiming in everything to win them to Christ and the church, walking in humility of mind, and having the peace of Christ abiding in the soul. A conscience free from offense before God supports humble yet confident prayer and testimony, to be expressed openly and without shame. There is no hiding of the face and no speaking in a feeble voice, but a looking toward the heavenly sanctuary where Christ presents prayers to the Father joined with His merit and spotless righteousness, approached humbly and with holy boldness.
The verse is to be taken as a lesson with every word studied attentively. Keeping a clear conscience toward God and toward people comes through upright principles and pure feelings that are cultivated and practiced, which forms a character like God's. Joined to a heart of tender sympathy for people, especially to win them to Christ, this carries the attributes Christ had. Those who live this way are filled with His Spirit and are given a store of persuasive power and simple eloquence for winning souls.
Striving to live with a conscience void of offense toward God and man shows the sanctifying power of sacred truth in heart and life and character. It belongs with assurance that God for His dear Son's sake has forgiven sins, with having made peace with God and placed all upon the altar. It belongs also with often pleading with God for friends and neighbors, as the preparation that makes soul-winning service profitable.
Faithfulness in Daily Life
A clear conscience toward God and others requires weighing the influence of one's conduct on others. Conduct is to be regulated by the Bible so that it injures no one and draws no mind away from God into vanity and folly. Each person is accountable to God for the impressions made, and those whose example touches others bear the greater responsibility to order life by the Bible, including knowing the Master's will and exerting an influence for good.
Recreation itself must leave the conscience clear toward God and toward others. Christian gatherings are therefore to be conducted with prayer and with talk of Christ and sacred things, and with such behavior that on returning home there is the consciousness of not having wounded or injured associates in any way nor exerted a harmful influence over them. This deliberate practice of returning with assurance of having harmed no one and spread no evil influence is the applied test of the clear conscience in social life. It stands in marked contrast to worldly gatherings for pleasure, which replace prayer and sacred things with silly laughter and trifling talk, aim only at a general high time, and begin in folly and end in vanity.
A conscience free from offense is kept by bringing every word and act into accord with God's will. This includes remembering that self and money belong to God, keeping baptismal vows to work for Him, refusing selfish spending, and using all that can be spared to advance His work, sustain missions, and proclaim the gospel. It means denying self rather than letting God's cause suffer, and using money for God's glory instead of self-pleasing, so that account can be rendered with a conscience clear toward God and people and in the judgment there is knowledge of having done a faithful part according to ability.
A worker in the church is to seek earnestly through prayer a conscience free from offense before God rather than using office to become unapproachable and wielding position as arbitrary power. The place to occupy is meekness and lowliness of mind and humility, serving others with comfort, counsel, and consolation. Then when one in trouble comes for help, the worker can say let us pray, and kneel with that soul and become one with him.
Faithfulness that preserves a clear conscience is also seen in giving up harmful indulgences such as tea and coffee when believed harmful, leaving the conscience clear in that respect. It is seen in acting with a clear conscience in heaven's sight by allowing no burdens to be bound upon oneself, taking a meek, humble, childlike course, and refusing to compromise liberty for anyone's fellowship. It was likewise seen when believers acted on faith that Christ would come on the tenth day of the seventh month, so that even amid sorrow over disappointment there were rejoicing, confidence of abundant blessing, trust that all would work for good and God's glory, and cheerful admission of mistake about the nature of the expected event while still believing that on that day the great High Priest accomplished all the type justified expecting.
Paul at his trial before Felix declared it his constant ruling purpose to live without wrong toward God and toward people. It means deliberately exercising oneself to keep conscience clear before God and others, so that afterward one knows one has wounded no one and exerted no harmful influence. Keeping it requires steady self-discipline and faithfulness to duty, with conscience kept true to what is right, calling sin by its right name and standing for right even at great cost. Merely following conscience is not enough, for conscience is safe only when God controls the being, with sanctified intellect and living faith grasping the divine will. A conscience thus kept clear brings inward peace that quickens the intellect, directs the will, and blesses those around with growing serenity.
Paul's Trial at Caesarea
Acts 24:16 belongs to the account of Paul's trial at Caesarea, where his accusers brought charges against him before Felix. It was spoken after Felix beckoned Paul to defend himself in answer to his accusers. In that defense Paul first denied that he had caused disturbance or profaned the sanctuary. He then confessed that in the way called heresy he worshiped the God of his fathers, without swerving from the law and the prophets and holding the resurrection of the dead in conformity with the Scriptures. After that confession he declared that living without wrong toward God and toward people was the ruling purpose of his life.
That purpose was pursued amid repeated accusations and efforts by his enemies to have him killed. Even in that danger he was denied neither the right to answer his accusers nor an impartial hearing. His claim that he had not wronged the Jews and that their accusations were unproved reflects the innocence of one seeking to keep a clear conscience before God and people.
Meaning of Clear Conscience
Paul made it his lifelong and constant purpose to keep a conscience clear before God and other people. His defense rested on having acted without the wrongdoing alleged against him, presented alongside his faith in the resurrection and his belief in what is written in the law and the prophets.
A clear conscience toward God and other people is a goal to be practiced deliberately by exercising oneself. Applied to social gatherings, this means conducting oneself so that afterward one knows one has not wounded or injured anyone or exerted a harmful influence.
Merely following the dictates of conscience is not enough; one must know that one has a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. To keep such a conscience one must constantly press on in the narrow way, cultivating capabilities and wisely employing powers, and with sanctified intellect and living faith grasp the meaning of the divine will. Abraham did this when at the command of a God whom he scarcely knew he left his country and his father's house to go into a land he did not know, with his heart disposed to obey. Conscience is a safe guide only when God has control of the being.
The verse means living with one's own conscience clear in the matter at hand before God and before men, including the church and fellow men. It means being responsible to God for every act rather than to man, righting with the Lord whatever mistakes one sees and knows, while filling the gospel ministry according to one's best understanding. It allows differing from brethren and allowing them to think differently while claiming the same right to think for oneself, and calls for being large-hearted and charitable and bearing with one another until God shows what is right. It does not mean claiming to be without fault, for a person can hold a clear conscience and still confess faultiness before God, trusting that the Saviour's perfect righteousness covers imperfections and that Christ as altogether light will lighten darkness and show all the way.
A clear conscience toward God and other people requires steady self-discipline and faithfulness to duty. The conscience must remain true to what is right, so that a person is honest, calls sin by its right name, and stands for the right even at great cost. Such a conscience requires a transformed character, for a man who will do or say anything to gain his end cannot have it, and nothing but the power of God can save him. Self must die and Christ must take possession of the soul temple, for day by day eternal destiny is decided. When men reject the light God has given and abuse and trample conscience, recklessly stating falsehood for truth while yielding to Satan until confused and double-minded, they are in fearful danger and their future eternal welfare is imperiled.
Claiming a conscience void of offense toward God and men does not prove a person is right. When controversy and division come into the church, with constant differences of opinion and apostasies, all parties claim to be right and to have such a conscience. Headstrong, self-esteemed, ambitious people make this claim while refusing to be instructed by those who have long borne the burden of the work and have been guided by the Lord. Light is sent to dispel their darkness, but they are too proud of heart to accept it and choose darkness, despising counsel that does not coincide with their views and plans and favor their wrong traits of character. The work of the Spirit that would bring them right is rejected because it does not please them and flatter their self-righteousness, so the light God gives is no light to them and they wander in darkness. To distrust the judgment of those God has taught and used, and to place oneself beyond the means God has ordained to correct wrongs and set His church in order, is the special working of the enemy to hold souls in error in strong delusions that cannot be broken.
Keeping Conscience Without Offense
Keeping a clear conscience before God is a duty to be pursued, and it is the underlying principle of Christian conduct that the world does not understand. God never lays this requirement upon anyone without giving power to meet it, never asks for one step in advance of Himself but leads the way, so that following Him keeps from going astray and perfects Christian character in those who are stewards of His grace. Keeping the soul in a condition that can be examined with satisfaction, with nothing offending God or others, is tested by associations, whether they draw the mind to God and heavenly things, increase reverence for parents, and foster pure aspirations and love for truth and right, and by whether the imagination is healthful to the soul. It requires growth in spiritual power over the past year and refusal of low gratification and self-indulgence, for such indulgence leaves a scar on the soul and corrupts the noble powers of the mind, so that even when repentance comes and Jesus washes away the sin the soul remains crippled and bears the loss through all time.
A conscience that offends neither God nor people comes by steady advancement in His strength in gaining preparation for His kingdom through transformation of character, giving proof by faithfulness in service while ever pressing forward with the city whose Builder and Maker is God in view and learning the language of Canaan in order to enter the city He has prepared. A conscience free from offense is a concern God tests in His people, for trials reveal whether heart and conscience are steadfast and whether the Spirit bears witness that they are God's children. Standing before God with a heart cleansed from every idol and a conscience void of offense means loving God supremely and neighbor as self in self-denial and purity of heart, which alone receives treasures of immortal value in heaven. With such a conscience one is prepared for anything, so that life or death, trials or sufferings will not uproot faith but will make strong to do and to suffer, and to fail of this and lose heaven is to lose everything.
A conscience free from offense toward God and others is to be diligently preserved, marking a life faithfully devoted to God and lived in righteousness with sustained care, so that those who live this way may face death with the prospect of a faithful end. Knowing the Master's will and doing it and seeking to do just right gives a clear conscience toward God and people, calling for exerting an influence for good upon all associates, gathering with Christ rather than scattering abroad, and working righteousness so the servant is approved when the Master comes to reckon. A conscience clear toward God and men is a wonderful acquirement coming from God as the storehouse of all power, from whom love for God and fellow men flows. It lays upon parents and teachers of youth an inexcusable responsibility for influence, home discipline, and education, requiring them firmly to hold principle, to reverence God's holy Word, and to reveal a pure, noble, heavenly life while training children in right ideas, leaving no place for low, cheap, common talk in the family. When the heart is pure rich treasures of wisdom flow from within because the inward parts are God's holy temple, while any entrance of corrupt principles shows itself in words and actions that separate from God and extinguish moral and spiritual power.
Keeping a conscience clear before God and others takes struggle and steadfast loyalty, as Daniel's three companions showed by refusing to worship the great image set up by Nebuchadnezzar in the plains of Dura because their principles forbade honoring an idol and paying homage to a rival of the God of heaven, knowing they owed God every faculty they possessed, even under threat of death. Their loyalty was joined with generous sympathy toward all, shown when they prayed for wisdom and God used Daniel's interpretation of the king's dream to save their lives and the lives of the king's advisers. By trusting God whether or not He delivered them they publicly showed that God alone deserved worship and made His power known, holding a lofty aspiration to prove entirely loyal even at the cost of life.
Peace, Power, and Confidence
A conscience clear before God brings inward peace that quickens and invigorates the intellect, rightly directs and controls the will, and makes the meditations of the mind pleasing because they are sanctified. That serenity blesses those around, and as heavenly peace is increasingly experienced it grows and becomes natural. Perfect peace is an attribute of heaven, and it awakens moral energies to greater activity rather than making them dormant.
Making every move to honor and glorify God gives a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men, including children and students in school. It means aiming in everything to win them to Christ and the church, walking in humility of mind, and having the peace of Christ abiding in the soul. A conscience free from offense before God supports humble yet confident prayer and testimony, to be expressed openly and without shame. There is no hiding of the face and no speaking in a feeble voice, but a looking toward the heavenly sanctuary where Christ presents prayers to the Father joined with His merit and spotless righteousness, approached humbly and with holy boldness.
The verse is to be taken as a lesson with every word studied attentively. Keeping a clear conscience toward God and toward people comes through upright principles and pure feelings that are cultivated and practiced, which forms a character like God's. Joined to a heart of tender sympathy for people, especially to win them to Christ, this carries the attributes Christ had. Those who live this way are filled with His Spirit and are given a store of persuasive power and simple eloquence for winning souls.
Striving to live with a conscience void of offense toward God and man shows the sanctifying power of sacred truth in heart and life and character. It belongs with assurance that God for His dear Son's sake has forgiven sins, with having made peace with God and placed all upon the altar. It belongs also with often pleading with God for friends and neighbors, as the preparation that makes soul-winning service profitable.
Faithfulness in Daily Life
A clear conscience toward God and others requires weighing the influence of one's conduct on others. Conduct is to be regulated by the Bible so that it injures no one and draws no mind away from God into vanity and folly. Each person is accountable to God for the impressions made, and those whose example touches others bear the greater responsibility to order life by the Bible, including knowing the Master's will and exerting an influence for good.
Recreation itself must leave the conscience clear toward God and toward others. Christian gatherings are therefore to be conducted with prayer and with talk of Christ and sacred things, and with such behavior that on returning home there is the consciousness of not having wounded or injured associates in any way nor exerted a harmful influence over them. This deliberate practice of returning with assurance of having harmed no one and spread no evil influence is the applied test of the clear conscience in social life. It stands in marked contrast to worldly gatherings for pleasure, which replace prayer and sacred things with silly laughter and trifling talk, aim only at a general high time, and begin in folly and end in vanity.
A conscience free from offense is kept by bringing every word and act into accord with God's will. This includes remembering that self and money belong to God, keeping baptismal vows to work for Him, refusing selfish spending, and using all that can be spared to advance His work, sustain missions, and proclaim the gospel. It means denying self rather than letting God's cause suffer, and using money for God's glory instead of self-pleasing, so that account can be rendered with a conscience clear toward God and people and in the judgment there is knowledge of having done a faithful part according to ability.
A worker in the church is to seek earnestly through prayer a conscience free from offense before God rather than using office to become unapproachable and wielding position as arbitrary power. The place to occupy is meekness and lowliness of mind and humility, serving others with comfort, counsel, and consolation. Then when one in trouble comes for help, the worker can say let us pray, and kneel with that soul and become one with him.
Faithfulness that preserves a clear conscience is also seen in giving up harmful indulgences such as tea and coffee when believed harmful, leaving the conscience clear in that respect. It is seen in acting with a clear conscience in heaven's sight by allowing no burdens to be bound upon oneself, taking a meek, humble, childlike course, and refusing to compromise liberty for anyone's fellowship. It was likewise seen when believers acted on faith that Christ would come on the tenth day of the seventh month, so that even amid sorrow over disappointment there were rejoicing, confidence of abundant blessing, trust that all would work for good and God's glory, and cheerful admission of mistake about the nature of the expected event while still believing that on that day the great High Priest accomplished all the type justified expecting.