Monday, September 3, 2012 -- A Blameless Conscience (1)

What am I doing to renew my conscience so it is a trustworthy mirror of the Holy Spirit’s voice?
I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men. (Acts 24:16, NASB).

Folklore advises, "Let your conscience be your guide." This has serious limitations since our conscience is a function of our mind. The first problem arising from depending solely on our conscience is that our conscience can be wrongly programmed by our experiences and the values of the people around us.  Also, until we come to Christ, the standard is the world system in which we were raised.

My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide. (1 Corinthians 4:4 MSG)

Numerous people are falsely guided by a guilty conscience--not a true guilt, but a psychological guilt usually developed in early childhood.  We receive false messages as we try to please parents and other care givers, develop relationships with children and teachers at school, compare our circumstances with others, and begin to interpret our world according to what happens to us.  Since we live in a broken and hurting world we receive mixed and twisted information about what is good and right. We are told we are bad or good because we do this or that, but, the truth regarding the statement may not be accurate.  Our conscience is seared by this misinformation and our actions reflect what we believe.

Don’t let them waste their time in endless discussion of myths and spiritual pedigrees. These things only lead to meaningless speculations, which don’t help people live a life of faith in God.  The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith. But some people have missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions. (1Timothy 1:4-6 NLT)