Every human being needs to meet his Maker. Hopefully not at the end of his or her life when all life has to give an account for what one has done with one’s life but rather sought and receive guidance throughout one’s life and walk in harmony with the Almighty God, the Giver of All Life. It seems that this is the path chosen for all mankind for the Scripture declares that He is the Light who lights everyone who comes into this world (John 1:9). In Him alone is true life and this life is the light of all men (John 1:4). If God gives each human being sufficient light to live his or her life, why is it that many do not find their way back to Him? This light is in the spirit part of the human and only those who are sensitive to the spirit within them can sense this light that leads them throughout the path of life that they tread. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? (1 Corinthians 2:11). This light is also the light of the conscience which some have seared and hardened to the point of being insensitive to the inner promptings of the spirit man. The following things can happen to one’s conscience so that it is no longer reliable:
- An evil conscience that needs to be cleansed by the blood of the Lamb (Hebrews 10:22). Note that the conscience needs the blood cleansing and the body needs the washing of the Word. Only the Word is the pure water that sets our conscience correctly (Ephesians 5:26). Jesus told His disciples that they were cleansed by the Word that Jesus spoke (John 15:3). An evil conscience is a conscience that supports evil. It testifies within an evil man that what evil he did is “good.” An evil conscience senses good for bad and senses bad for good, it is totally perverted and need to be cleansed and re-trained by the blood and the Word.
- A conscience filled with dead works (Hebrews 9:14). A person with this conscience thinks he is serving God with all his life when actually all he or she produces is works filled with the spirit of death. There is no life in all that they do. A lot of works but all empty, devoid of life, and all burnt up at the judgment day. Paul was such a person who thought that he was serving God by going against the Christians, persecuting and imprisoning them before he was saved at the Damascus road. He called himself the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). Paul said that he had served God with his conscience before he was born again, yet he did a lot of harm to those around him, all the while thinking that he was serving God (Acts 22:3-5). He was zealous toward the God of his own imagination. He was sincere but sincerely wrong. Many Christians serve God with their own dead works rather than from God’s works that He energised through us. There are works energized by the desires and souls of man and there are works that originate from the Holy Spirit within us. The difference is not in its outward form but in its inner energy form. Works that are from God are intrinsically energized by God, whereas works that are merely from man are energized by human energy. The difference is that one is the works of grace (energized by grace) while the other is energized by human factors. The true works of grace are created inside us by our Lord Jesus and they flow forth from us like a river of life, a river of grace, effortlessly (Ephesians 2:8-10). There is some effort but it is from the energy of grace within which many times surpasses the energy of ordinary humans (1 Corinthians 15:10). True works of grace are also fulfilled through a state of rest and not a state of turbulence (Hebrews 4:10). Many Christians are walking in dead works and may find themselves naked with all their works that were built upon straw, wood and stubble burnt up in the judgment day (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).
- A weak conscience is that which is still affected by fear (1 Corinthians 8:10-13). Paul’s example is of a Christian who is still afraid of idols (fearing that the spirits behind them will cause them harm or evil) and who also feared to eat food offered to idols. He very clearly calls them “weak.” To Paul, an idol is nothing, and his consciousness of God is greater than the consciousness of idols or evil spirits behind idols. However, Paul did exhort that we be sensitive to those with a weak conscience, to come down to their level (1 Corinthians 8:9-13). Fear is a contagious negative force which makes people do things they will normally never do. Those who are fearful are not allowed to go to war (Deuteronomy 20:8; Judges 7:3).
- A seared conscience is that which no longer feel what is right or wrong any longer (1 Timothy 4:2). Those who have such might create new rules, regulations, commandments which have no spiritual value nor ever were instructions from our Lord Jesus (1 Timothy 4:3). They no longer have a sensitivity to how their lives oppress or make another life or lives miserable. Nor are they aware of their own destruction to their own lives, though the spirit within them screams for help, they cannot hear or feel anything. There is no concept of right or wrong and everything is just driven by a will going against the natural order of things and of the Will of God. Most of time, they have lost the joy, peace and love in life. The zest of life is gone and it is all driven by uncontrolled desires to gain control by outward means, where the end justify the means.
When one is finally freed from all the various types of negative conscience above, one can flow with the good conscience or a conscience filled with the life and the light of God. The Bible describes such conscience as:
- A good conscience that seeks to do what is right. Paul did sincerely try to have a good conscience before God, though he demonstrated some dead works in his own life (Acts 23:1).
- A conscience without offence toward God and men. Paul describes this in the context of him seeking to obey all the laws of man and of God (Acts 24:16). However, this is not possible without Christ or the Holy Spirit for Paul became a Pharisee and ended up doing the wrong things still, like persecuting the church.
- A conscience that bears witness to right and wrong. This is the conscience that Paul describes in the book of Romans of those who obey the law without having a form of the law (Romans 2:15). There are many people who have no knowledge of God but yet they have an inner sense of right and wrong and live by this inner knowledge. Without realising it, they are flowing in the light of life that guides and lights EVERY man who comes into this world.
- A conscience which is fully sensitive to the Holy Spirit and bears witness of the works and acts of God (Romans 9:1). After Paul was born again, his conscience grew into a sensory organ that helps him to flow exactly in line and in tune with all the Holy Spirit is doing. This conscience is a strong conscience that bears witness to the WILL of God on earth. Imagine having the ability and power to discern the will of God in every situation. Let your conscience be filled with the Holy Spirit and not just be an instrument of the human spirit.
- A good conscience that has the ability to walk in the faith of our Lord Jesus (1 Timothy 1:5, 19). A conscience that senses the love of God, the flow of faith of our Lord Jesus (our Author and Finisher of Faith – Hebrews 12:2). Love, joy and peace sings in this conscience and one who possesses this level of conscience enjoys life to the fullest. In the midst of a storm, this conscience still possesses the peace of God and sails through storms while others are shipwrecked for they have no faith meter, love meter, or joy meter to guide them through life.
- A pure conscience that knows the deep things of God and can discern the mysteries of God (1 Timothy 3:9). This conscience operates in the depths of the Holy Spirit and instantly knows when a dream, a vision, a tongue, a prophecy, or any other manifestation of the spiritual realm is from God or not from God. It is pure, such that this purity is that which Jesus said will see God (Matthew 5:8). This purity is such that any not in line with God can be perceived easily as polluted.
The Old Testament has no equivalent word for conscience (although modern Hebrew has adapted it in phonetically). The closest in biblical usage would be the word ‘heart’ and its function in knowing the things of God and the ways of God. The book of Psalms speak of knowing the secrets of the heart (Psalm 44:21), meditate within my heart and spirit makes diligent search (Psalm 77:6), asking God to search and know my heart (Psalm 139:23), etc.
The New Testament word for ‘conscience’ is ‘suneidesis’ which is translated ‘conscience’ most of the time but translated ‘consciousness’ in Hebrews 10:2 and in 1 Corinthians 8:7. The breakdown of the Greek word shows that it is made up of two Greek words: ‘syn’ which means ‘together with’ and ‘eido’ which means ‘to know visually’ or ‘to see.’ Obviously, it is not just a function of knowing and seeing but it is a function of ‘knowing and seeing’ with another (the syn part), which implies something which is always in line with God, our spirit, the Word, the flow of life and light, the Holy Spirit, etc. Our conscience is thus the place where God has placed and fulfilled the Scripture that says that He gives light to all men coming into the world (John 1:9).
Our conscience is not just an organ given to us to know what is right or wrong. It might begin that way but it is a special organ that gives us a ‘togetherness’ with God, a consciousness of God. The true translation would be ‘consciousness’ and not just ‘conscience.’ Our conscience can grow to become an organ that tells us how to exercise our differing and growing levels of faith. Paul points to the different levels of faith and understanding of each Christian in 1 Corinthians 8 and Romans 14. Obviously, those who cannot stop from fearing idols are weaker in their faith, and those who only observe one day or only eat vegetables in order to please God, Paul classifies as weaker in the faith. Yet, everyone needs to grow at their level. You cannot force a baby to take meat when they need milk. Given sufficient time, everyone will grow into God and mature. But each in their time and at their own level, with the stronger supporting the weaker. While this is important, we must also encourage all to grow in their conscience and their consciousness of God.
We can grow until we are so filled with the equal consciousness of God as God has given us the capacity. We develop our conscience into a super organ of consciousness of the slightest diversion from the Will of God, from the Word of God, from the Love of God, from the Faith of God, from the Joy of God, from the Peace of God. Yes, from every attribute and nature of God. Our conscience was made to become the supreme organ of a deep level of consciousness of God.
Let us pursue this growth. All men and women are created equal and given the same chance to grow and become conscious of God and all His Will and Presence. We can be and must become as Christ was. Christ was conscious of God in all His fullness twenty-four hours a day. We can grow to become exactly as Christ was and is. When we become fully conscious of ALL of God, God’s fullness becomes our possession and our very nature and DNA. Amen.