A Clear Conscience

We live in an “anything goes” society today. Postmodernism has given way to post-postmodernism. Some of the “salient features of postmodernism are normally thought to include the ironic play with styles, citations and narrative levels, a metaphysical skepticism or nihilism towards a grand narrative of Western culture, a preference for the virtual at the expense of the real (or more accurately, a fundamental questioning of what ‘the real’ constitutes) and a ‘waning of affect’ on the part of the subject, who is caught up in the free interplay of virtual, endlessly reproducible signs inducing a state of consciousness similar to schizophrenia.” (Quote source here.)

Another term for post-postmodernism has been coined as “metamodernism.” “Metamodernism is the literary movement that is defined by being in a constant state of flux between modernist and postmodernist ideals. This essentially means holding both states of hopelessness and hope, sincerity and irony, knowingness and naivete, deconstruction and reconstruction in one’s head and then producing something out that liminal, fluctuating space. It’s all about being in a state where you know you’re on the edge, but could be saved. You just don’t know. Critics say that metamodernism bloomed out of a reaction to climate change—the idea that we are destroying our planet, that we are doing this to ourselves, and the idea that maybe this is a good thing. Humans are essentially a bad influence on this planet. So we’re simultaneously rooting for our demise but at the same time, want to live. This is the state of flux metamodernism puts us in. With this kind of mindset, how do you think you would act?…” (Quote source here.)

That’s a very good question. I realize I am now an official member of the older generation, but when we anchor our lives on nothing more solid then what is written above, where will it lead to and where will it all end? It’s like building a house on shifting sand. When truth becomes relative (which started with postmodernism), does that now mean we can destroy in some way (as in character, reputation, career and/or livelihood) our neighbor or a stranger without any consequences whatsoever? Does it mean we think we should get a paycheck regardless of whether we do the work our employer hired us to do or not? Does it mean that it is really no big deal to cheat on our spouse, or abuse a friendship, or hurt someone behind their back? Does it mean we can be callous to anyone we don’t like? And hiding any of these behaviors behind a “nice” facade and lies doesn’t change what we are actually doing even if the recipient is not aware of it. Do we believe there are never any consequences to our actions?

This is where conscience comes into play. Conscience is that built-in part of us that really does know right from wrong. Dictionary.com defines “conscience“ as “the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action” (quote source here).

If we keep intentionally making wrong choices long enough, we end up with a “seared conscience.” In an article published on June 27, 2013, titled, “A Seared Conscience No Longer Accuses You,” by Dan Delzell, contributor at The Christian Post, Delzell describes a seared conscience from a biblical perspective as follows:

When God made you, He gave you a built-in “firewall” to protect you from making destructive decisions. Without this firewall, man is prone to destroy his life and the lives of others by choices that go against God’s will. This firewall is known as the human conscience.

Your conscience is a gift from your Creator. He gave it to you because He loves you and He wants to help you do the right things. He wants you to feel guilty about your sin, and to feel good about His love and forgiveness. When there is no guilt over sin, there is no awareness of the danger you are facing and the harm you are causing.

You can thank God whenever you sense your built-in firewall working for you. Whenever you refuse to do what is wrong, you can be reminded of how God made you. Whenever you resist hurting someone else by your words or actions, you can thank God He made you to sense that preferable path. Whenever you choose not to lie or cheat or steal, you can thank God for giving you a conscience.

Your conscience acts in a way as your “prosecuting attorney.” Whenever you go against what is good, your conscience will accuse you and seek to convict you of your “crime.” It is a blessing to sense that corrective conviction. We all need that in our lives. Young people need it and so do adults. Without it, we are operating a highly advanced “computer” of sorts without any firewall and without any protection against destructive behavior.

When you first go against your conscience in some area of your life, you feel it. It is a nagging feeling that what you did was wrong. At that point, you will either submit to your conscience and do the right thing, or you will resist your conscience and prepare once again to go against it. That is a critical mistake. By going against our conscience, we risk losing our bearings and reaping a whirlwind of consequences due to wrong choices.

A person who continually goes against his conscience is in danger of “searing” his conscience. This dulls the work of your conscience and its ability to help you make good decisions. A seared conscience is a very dangerous thing. It provides its owner with a false sense of comfort over wrong behavior, and an unhealthy outlook which will continue to cause major problems.

The Bible explains how a person’s conscience can actually go from being your prosecuting attorney to your defense attorney. That progression is lethal. Paul writes, “The requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.” (Romans 2:15) This describes the process whereby man’s conscience stops accusing him, and actually begins defending his bad behavior. That my friend is a seared conscience.

To be seared means to make callous or unfeeling. This is exactly what happens to the human conscience when it gets repeatedly and deliberately violated. It stops working, at least in a helpful manner. It begins to justify the bad behavior and even comes up with excuses. After all, it has now become your defense attorney. (Quote source here.)

As Delzell stated, defending our bad behavior to the point where we don’t even care anymore–that is a seared conscience. In another article published on August 20, 2016, titled “A Seared Conscience,” by Ally Portee, contributor at seelemag.com, she writes:

The Bible talks about the conscience in good terms and bad terms. I believe, one of the worst things that can happen to a person is to have a seared conscience, or as Paul calls it in his letter to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:2, a dead conscience. When the heart becomes calloused, each and every ungodly thing a person does will get easier, until that person feels no remorse or their ungodly actions become normal to them. In this situation there is a problem. It’s best to not be around people with calloused, seared, or dead consciousness.

Dictators, embezzlers, mass murderers, and those who have carried out some of the worst atrocities in life would fit into this category. As we have seen from history and from experiences in our own personal lives, some people are so far gone into themselves, where it is as if their consciences are broken, and they feel no conviction for how they treat others or how they act/react in situations.

But we can’t control other people. And all we can do is make sure our hearts and actions are right before God, and that our consciousness are clean before Him. When our consciousness are seared then it means we have become insensitive to Godly living; perhaps insensitive to knowing how to treat our fellow man; and perhaps insensitive to moral pangs. Lying, stealing, cheating, adultery, idolatry, mistreatment of others are all okay–in some shape or form–to people like this. But one who has a good conscience and who is upright doesn’t have that calloused heart where they’ve become so insensitive to wrongdoing. These types of people can tell right from wrong, they are free from guilt and they maintain their integrity. And these people don’t get entangled in the lies of the devil, but rather they “fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience” (1 Timothy 1:18-19). (Quote source here.)

This brings us to the other side of the coin on the topic of conscience–a clear conscience. The following information is taken from a biblical perspective from an article titled, “How Can I Get a Clear Conscience?” written by the staff at GotQuestions.org:

Humans have tried a variety of things to clear their consciences, from charity work to self-mutilation. History is replete with examples of mankind’s efforts to appease his conscience, but nothing works. So he often turns to other means of drowning out that inner voice that declares him guilty. Addictions, immorality, violence, and greed are often deeply rooted in the fertile soil of a guilty conscience.

However, since all sin is ultimately a sin against God, only God can redeem a violated conscience. Just as He did in the Garden of Eden, God provides us a covering through the sacrifice of something perfect and blameless (Exodus 12:5; Leviticus 9:3; 1 Peter 1:18–19). God sent His own Son, Jesus, into the world for the purpose of being the final, perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world (John 3:16; 1 John 2:2). When Jesus went to the cross, He took upon Himself every sin we would ever commit. Every violated conscience, every sinful thought, and every evil act was placed upon Him (1 Peter 2:24). All the righteous wrath that God has for our sin was poured out on His own Son (Isaiah 53:6; John 3:36). Just as an innocent animal was sacrificed to cover Adam’s sin, so the perfect Son was sacrificed to cover ours. God Himself chooses to make us right with Him and pronounce us forgiven.

We can have our consciences cleansed when we bring our sin, our failures, and our miserable attempts to appease God to the foot of the cross. The atonement of Christ forgives our sin and cleanses our conscience (Hebrews 10:22). We acknowledge our inability to cleanse our own hearts and ask Him to do it for us. We trust that Jesus’ death and resurrection are sufficient to pay the price we owe God. When we accept Jesus’ payment for our personal sin, God promises to cast our sins away from us “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12; cf. Hebrews 8:12).

In Christ, we are freed from the stranglehold of sin. We are set free to pursue righteousness and purity and become the men and women God created us to be (Romans 6:18). As followers of Christ, we will still commit occasional sin. But, even then, God provides a way for us to have our consciences cleared. First John 1:9 says that, “if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Often, with that confession comes the knowledge that we must make things right with the ones we have offended. We can take that step with the people we have hurt, knowing that God has already forgiven us.

Our consciences can remain clear as we continually confess our sin to God and trust that the blood of Jesus is sufficient to make us right with Him. We continue to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). We trust that, in spite of our imperfections, God delights in us and in His transforming work in our lives (Philippians 2:13; Romans 8:29). Jesus said, “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). We live with a clear conscience by refusing to wallow in the failures that God has forgiven. We stand confident in His promise that, “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). (Quote source here.)

In an article with an intriguing title, “The Weapon of a Clear Conscience,” by Dr. Scott Rodin, President of The Steward’s Journey, Kingdom Life Publishing, and Rodin Consulting, Inc., he writes:

Today we will look at the disarming power of a clear conscience. Webster’s Dictionary defines conscience as, “the sense of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one’s own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good.” I like Dictionary.com’s version, “the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action, the complex of ethical and moral principles that controls or inhibits the actions or thoughts of an individual.”

God created us with a conscience and, under the control of the Holy Spirit, He can use it to guide us as we make the decisions that mark our path and define our character. This ‘complex of ethical and moral principles’ can be instructed by Scripture and empowered by prayer to provide us with a reliable resource for the choices that confront us daily. For the Apostle Paul, speaking truth comes from the conscience that is under the control of the Holy Spirit,

“I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 9:1)

It is not surprising that Paul would state,

“I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.” (Acts 24:16)

God values a clear conscience. When Abram lied to the king, telling him Sarah was his sister, the King took her as his wife. When he found out about Abram’s deception he cried out to God, and, “God said to him in the dream, ‘Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her’” (Genesis 20:6). God spared the King because his actions were done with a clear conscience.

The danger we face is that our conscience can also be numbed, muted and silenced. Paul charges that some followers of Jesus will abandon the faith and follow deceptive teachings.

“Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” (I Timothy 4:2)

He warns that idolatry is a sign that our conscience is compromised.

“Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.” (1 Corinthians 8:7)

The enemy delights in weakening and searing our conscience. The weapons he uses are unholy attitudes, unresolved conflict, and unconfessed sin. He has victory in our lives whenever we hold grudges, harbor resentment, withhold forgiveness, justify sin or wallow in cynicism. The fruit of a seared conscience include prejudice, greed, divisiveness, anger, malice and arrogance. The amazing truth is that, with our consciences becoming weak and calcified, we will not recognize that these cancers have taken root in our souls. We become both self-deceived and self-righteous. And we wonder why we never experience God’s abundant life–the life of contentment and joy in Him. Such is the power of a compromised conscience.

So how is your conscience? Is it clear or conflicted? Is it Holy Spirit guided or weak… even seared?

There are signs that can help you with this answer. When you lay on your pillow tonight and look up into the darkness, examine your heart. Listen to your inner voice as you survey the terrain of your life. Bring to mind images of the people and relationships that surround you. What does your heart say? Pray to God to make you sensitive to what you hear and feel. Is your heart at rest? Is your spirit at peace? This is not about being sinless, or living without conflict or dysfunction or disappointment or frustration. This is not a measure of whether or not you are experiencing the storms of life, but whether your heart testifies that God is your captain and you are seeking to be faithful as He guides you through. It does not require perfect relationships, but only the assurance that you are seeking peace and healing in the midst of strife.

If your conscience is not clear, take heart. A clear conscience is the fruit of repentance, humility and faithfulness. They are yours through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Claim them in His name. Submit to His authority and be willing to be made clean under the scouring power of His hand. Let Him create in you a clean heart and put a right spirit within you. He can put to death in you those things that disturb your spirit and eat away at your peace. Let Him demolish those strongholds and replace them with a humble and faithful heart. In their presence, the enemy is powerless. (Quote source here.)

I’ll end this post with the words from 1 Peter 3:16 (MSG): Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people…

Throw mud at you . . .

None of it . . .

Will stick . . . .

YouTube Video: “Speak Life” by TobyMac:

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