HOW’S YOUR CONSCIENCE?

BY REV GOH YONG KUANG

“..I always try to maintain a clear conscience before God and all people.” - Paul (Acts 24:16, NLT)

Conscience... 

Some call it the voice of God.  To others, it’s simply a moral sense of right and wrong, which results in guilt feelings when one commits wrong. 

When people ask, “Where’s your conscience?” - it can either mean that the person in question lacks a conscience or that something is wrong with his or her conscience.  Perhaps, it has been ignored or suppressed for too long that it is no longer effective.

How reliable is your conscience?

The late Pol Pot was a communist Khmer Rouge leader infamously associated with the killing fields.  He was responsible for the murder of more than a million Cambodians in the ‘70s.  Yet, during an interview, he unashamedly declared that his conscience was clear!

The Scripture speaks of different types of conscience – such as a “dead” conscience (1Tim.4:2, NLT), a “weak” conscience (1Cor.8:7, ESV) an “evil” conscience (Heb.10:22, ESV) and a “corrupt” conscience (Titus 1:15, NIV)

God has given us a conscience to protect us and help us guard against sin and wrongdoing.  He often speaks to our conscience, and through the Holy Spirit, alerts us and pricks us when something we say or do isn’t right. However, sin has affected much of the human conscience and caused it to be out of order, ineffective and unreliable.  

 Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ, said he strived to maintain a pure conscience.  He told the Jewish council in Acts 23:1, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.”  How did he do it?

All of us have said or done things that made us stand guilty before God and others.  We can respond to our guilty conscience by following the 3 A’s:

Admit – that we have sinned (Jas.5:17)

Ask – for forgiveness (1 Jn.1:9)

Amend – by forsaking our sins and seek reconciliation with God and man (Isa.55:7, Matt.5:23-24)

How can we keep our conscience clear and pure before God?  The blood of Jesus that saves us, is also able to cleanse our conscience (Heb.9:14).  Paul’s clear conscience was a result of a life fully forgiven and surrendered to God, and a life constantly filled with the Spirit of God.  Likewise, if we have been forgiven, are walking in obedience to His Word and are guided by the Spirit - we can live and serve God with a clear conscience!   

Our conscience is only as good as our relationship with God.  How’s your conscience?  That depends very much on your walk with God! 

(P.S. If you are interested to learn more about this subject, you may want to start with a book entitled               

“The Conscience” by Dr Robert Solomon – a copy is available in our church library)