Today we want to look at - “THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONSCIENCES!” The different kinds of consciences include:
1. A good Conscience. What is a good conscience?
a) A good conscience is a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.
Acts 24:16 says, “And herein do I exercise myself, to have always A CONSCIENCE VOID OF OFFENCE toward God, and toward men.”
b) A good conscience is a pure conscience.
1 Timothy 3:9 says, “Holding the mystery of the faith in A PURE CONSCIENCE.”
c) A good conscience is a clear conscience.
Acts 24:16 says, “I always try to maintain A CLEAR CONSCIENCE before God and everyone else.”
“So you must submit to them (governing authorities), not only to avoid punishment, but also to keep a clear conscience” (Rom. 13:5).
Several Scriptures spoke about a good conscience:
1 Timothy 1:5 says, “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of A GOOD CONSCIENCE, and of faith unfeigned (genuine, sincere, not pretended).”
Acts 23:1 says, “And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all GOOD CONSCIENCE before God until this day.”
1 Timothy 1:19 says, “Holding faith, and A GOOD CONSCIENCE; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck.”
1 Peter 3:16 says, “Having A GOOD CONSCIENCE; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation (manner of life) in Christ.”
Hebrews 13:18 says, “Pray for us: for we trust we have A GOOD CONSCIENCE, in all things willing to live honestly.”
2. An evil Conscience.
a) An evil conscience is a guilty conscience.
b) It is a conscience that is not void of offense toward God and toward men.
c) It is a conscience that is not pure.
d) It is a conscience that is not clear.
Hebrews 10:22 says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from AN EVIL CONSCIENCE, and our bodies washed with pure water.”
NLT puts it this way, “Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting Him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.”
3. Weak Conscience. A weak conscience is speaking of the conscience of Christians that have not been established in the Word of God.
“Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their CONSCIENCE BEING WEAK IS DEFILED” (1 Cor. 8:7).
“But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their WEAK CONSCIENCE, ye sin against Christ” (1 Cor. 8:12).
For instance, most people from looking at nature, know that there is God, that God is the Creator with almighty power. And because of this, the fact that God exists is undeniable.
When people deny God’s existence, as do the atheists, they are rebelling against an inner conviction caused by nature itself.
Romans 1:19-20 says, “The truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.”
4. A seared Conscience. A seared conscience is a conscience that is hardened. It is a conscience that has been made callous or unfeeling.
1 Timothy 4:2 says, “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their CONSCIENCE SEARED with a hot iron.”
5. Violated Conscience. A violated conscience is a conscience that has been corrupted or polluted.
“Timothy, my son, here are my instructions for you, based on the prophetic words spoken about you earlier. May they give you the confidence to fight well in the Lord’s battles. Cling tightly to your faith in Christ, and always keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately VIOLATED THEIR CONSCIENCES; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked” (1 Tim. 1:18-19).
6. A Guilty Conscience. A guilty conscience is an uneasy conscience. It is a conscience that is not at ease. It is the state of your conscience when you do whatever you know is wrong.
Sin is the act of going against your conscience. You know that what you are doing is wrong because your conscience tells you so, but you go ahead and do it anyway because it is so appealing to you.
So, when you follow your conscience, “If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning” (Jam. 4:17).
“Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (Jam. 4:17).
That means that to go against a conviction will leave you with a GUILTY or uneasy conscience. When God shows you that something is wrong for you, you should avoid it completely.
What is the function of the conscience? The function of your conscience in your life is to correct you and render you UNEASY whenever you want to do something that is contrary to the perfect will of God.
If you are doing anything that is contrary to the will of God, your conscience will not approve of it, and you will begin to feel uneasy right on your inside until you stop doing it.
Are you feeling uneasy in your spirit when doing anything? That is God speaking to you through your conscience that you should stop. Your conscience can keep you out of trouble if you let it.
In order words, if you don’t have peace about what you are doing, that is the Holy Spirit speaking to you that what you are doing is against the perfect will of God. So, you must learn to obey the voice of your conscience.
How does your conscience really work? What does it do? Your conscience testifies against you to yourself, reminding you of your sins, bringing a sense of guilt on you. It then calls you to act to remove this sense of guilt by righting the wrong.
For instance, in Genesis 42:21 speaking among themselves, they said, “This has all happened because of what we did to Joseph long ago. We saw his terror and anguish and heard his pleadings, but we wouldn’t listen.”
If you consistently go against what your conscience tells you, you dull your conscience, in a sense “tricking” it into thinking all is well when it really isn’t.
1 Timothy 1:19 says, “Cling tightly to your faith in Christ, and always keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.”
Conscience may be misinformed, or conditioned to regard evil as good, or seared and dulled by repeated sin. In such cases your conscience will be less than God’s voice. The particular judgments of conscience are to be received as God’s voice only when they match God’s own truth and law in Scripture. Consciences must therefore, be educated to judge scripturally.
“Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their CONSCIENCE SEARED with a hot iron” (1 Tim. 4:2).
You can’t lose your conscience, but you can become so dulled to its urgings that you don’t or can’t hear it.
The more developed your conscience is the more God can speak to you through it. As you walk with God, and maintain a clear conscience, He will speak to you through your conscience, letting you know the difference between right and wrong. Be sure to act on those inner tugs to do what is right - then your conscience will remain sound and clear.
The conscience is like a muscle; it must be exercised and developed. If you don’t exercise it the muscle will still be there. Even those who have done horrible deeds still hold a conscience. But over time they have learned to tune it off. This is so dangerous because without your conscience you feel free to do whatever you want.
“A murderer’s TORMENTED CONSCIENCE will drive him into the grave. Don’t protect him” (Prov. 28:17).
How can one develop his/her conscience? Since your conscience is the voice of your human spirit, the more you develop or build up your spirit-man, the stronger, more sensitive and clearer your conscience will become.
Your spirit-man can be educated just as your soul can be educated. Your spirit-man can be built up in strength and trained just as your physical body can be built up and trained.
Here are six rules by which you can train and develop your own human spirit and consequently your conscience:
a) Renew your mind with the Word (Rom. 12:1-2; Eph. 4:23; Ps. 23:3, Col. 3:16; 2 Tim.2:15),
b) Meditate in the Word of God day and night (Josh. 1:8; Ps. 1:1-3),
c) Practice the Word of God: be a doer of the Word (Jam. 1:22, Phil. 4:6-8),
d) Give the Word of God first place in your life (Prov. 4:20-22),
e) Spend quality time praying in the Spirit every day (1 Cor. 14:14-15; 1 Cor. 14:2; Rom. 8:26-28), and
f) Instantly obey the voice of your spirit-man. Don’t ever ignore it.
Ignoring your conscience has a devastating consequence. Each time you deliberately ignore your conscience, you are hardening your heart (spirit-man). Over time your capacity to tell right from wrong will diminish.
The more you study and meditate in God’s Word, the more sensitive and reliable your conscience will become. When your conscience is adequately developed, it can speak to you in concert with God Himself.
Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit!
- Your friend: I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor, HOG).
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