The Christian And Conscience
And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men.
Acts 24:16
One of the ways God has revealed Himself to us is the conscience. Conscience has been described as the light of the soul. Even when it is dulled or darkened by sin, it can still bear witness to the reality of good and evil, and to the holiness of God. What causes this warning light to go on inside me when I do wrong?
Conscience can be our gentlest counselor and teacher, our most faithful friend, and sometimes our worst enemy when we sin. There are no punishments or rewards on this earth comparable to those of the conscience. The Scripture says, “Man’s conscience is the lamp of the eternal” (Proverbs 20:27 MOFFATT). In other words, conscience is God’s lamp within man’s breast. In his Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant said there were just two things that filled him with awe—the starry heavens and conscience in the breast of man.
The conscience in its varying degrees of sensitivity bears a witness to God. Its very existence within us is a reflection of God in the soul of man. Without conscience we would be like rudderless ships at sea and like guided missiles without a guidance system.
George Bernard Shaw, the great Irish novelist, said, “Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.” And Benjamin Franklin rhymed, “Keep conscience clear, then never fear.” If conscience is so vital a concept to these worldly writers, how much more concerned should I as a Christian be that my conscience is “void of offense toward God, and . . . men”? And our conscience can be purified as we allow God’s Word, the Bible, to clean and enlighten them.
Our Father and our God, cleanse my conscience as if wiping a window clean. Help me to be attuned to the counseling of my conscience and to listen when it speaks to me. Use my conscience, Lord, to guide me safely home to You through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Through Christ I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).