Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide- Acts 24:16

"Always let your conscience be your guide."

You can probably actually hear the voice of Jimminy Cricket saying that to Pinocchio. It may be one of the most recognizable lines from any movie...although we are so far removed from the movie now, that I would say there are several now who would attribute the line to the Bible instead of to the cricket!

And for the most part...in ideal circumstances, it is a reasonable piece of advice to live by. After all, God created our consciences for a reason. They are designed to call us to higher moral ground. Paul even speaks in Romans 2 about the conscience that God put in everyone in the world to guide them even when they were not specifically given the Law (Romans 2:11-16). Having said that, of course, we also recognize that consciences can be seared beyond the point of working any more (1 Timothy 4:2). Therefore we need a higher authority, and the only real higher authority is God.

So how do we use the conscience that God has given us while not relying on it solely? I love the way Paul words it here in Acts 24 when he is on trial. Notice the verse starts with "In view of this..." So we really need to back up a few verse to find out what is in view that motivates him to keep a blameless conscience.

¹² My accusers did not find me arguing with anyone at the temple, or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city. ¹³ And they cannot prove to you the charges they are now making against me. ¹⁴ However, I admit that I worship the God of our ancestors as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets, ¹⁵ and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.                        - Acts 24:12-15

 Notice that there are three things- all bound together- that guide every decision that he makes.

1. He worships God.
2. He believes everything in accordance with the Law and Prophets
3. He has the hope of the resurrection

 It is physically impossible to really strive to worship God in the assembly and in life and not take care to guard your conscience against offending sin. When you are focused on God's beauty, the feeling of filth and guilt that a healthy conscience inflicts because of the violation not so much of the law of God as much as a violation of the love of God is simply not acceptable to you anymore!

When you really believe that the Bible is God's inspired message for us...that it helps us to understand Who God is, how we can know Him, and what kind of life he wants for us, then the message of the Bible is what guides our consciences. We live by faith!

And when we are living by faith in Jesus and His word, then we are overwhelmingly living by the hope of the resurrection! That one day I won't even need a conscience as a warning system for when I have stepped outside God's plans because I will be perfected as I am surrounded by the very presence of God Himself!

May we strive to live by those three tenets today as well. Worship, and faith, and hope. And may those give us the motivation to live before both God and the people around us in such a way that we can also have a blameless conscience.

That Pesky Conscience- Proverbs 20:27

Do you remember Jimminy Cricket's advice for Pinnochio? "Let your conscience be your guide." On the surface, that seems pretty good, right? After all, our consciences let us know when we are violating our morals. However, what if someone has a different set of morals than I do? Can I follow one set of rules while they follow another and both of us be in the right because we are both being led by our conscience? Obviously, the answer is "no." Either there is an absolute standard of right and wrong or there is not. If the latter is true, then Jimminy shouldn't be giving advice at all because it doesn't matter what we do anyway...there is no standard of right and wrong. However, you and I both know that there is a standard and it is defined by God, Himself. So is Jimminy giving good advice? Well...I'd say the answer is no...and yes.

The answer is no for the reason I've already stated. Each one of our consciences tell us slightly different things depending on our personality, our upbringing, and I'm sure a host of different influences that sociologists might point out that I don't have a clue about. However, the answer is also "yes" because it was God who designed the conscience as a warning system for us.

I've always understood the conscience to be from God simply because He made us and we have it, therefore it's from God. But I have never noticed this Proverb before. The Interpreter's Bible notes that "the word 'spirit' here is from the literal Hebrew word 'breath'; and it refers to that 'breath of life' which God breathed into mankind in the person of Adam (Gen. 2:7). It is the equivalent of conscience, God's lamp, that searches out the innermost recesses of a man's heart." I've talked and written before about my desire to hear God's voice. But according to this verse, what if I already am in the language and accent of my conscience? If the commentator is correct about the "spirit" referring to our conscience, then this is exactly what Solomon was teaching through this Proverb. What an incredible thought about the intimacy that God shares even with those who are not yet Christians and those who, in our minds, are worlds apart from the God of the Bible. I'm not referring to the kind of relationship that God shares with Christians after their sins have been washed away and they can then have access into the Most Holy Place. But we do know that God has "breathed life" into every human that has ever existed- both good and bad. I believe that refers to more than just getting our hearts and lungs pumping. It refers to that part of us that is eternal. We also know that God calls all men to Christ (John 6:44) and that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin (John 16:5-11). Unless I'm completely missing the point of the Proverb, God has placed our "spirit" (whatever that involves) inside of us in order to shine light on the hidden parts of who we are. But obviously, God doesn't need any help revealing to Himself who I am! Therefore, I have to conclude that the light that is being shed is for my benefit.

Why then do all of our consciences alarm in different ways and how are we to use it since there is only one standard of right and wrong?

Well, we know that we can sear our consciences by repeated violating them and thereby deaden them to a particular sin (1 Tim 4:2). I also believe consciences are different based on what children are raised believing, though, so how are we to use them?

Is it possible that we are to use our consciences not  as an absolute authority in itself, but as an alarm system for when we are violating a higher authority? In other words, our conscience is a tool that God uses to shape us and call to us but it is not a standard.

Let me suggest one other thought before I wrap up. We often consider our consciences only in the matter of a "guilty conscience." But what if we were to include the whole of our self in that. What about our emotions, the things our mind wanders to, our dreams and nightmares, our worries, and our passions? What if we also consider those to be part of our "spirit" that the Proverb refers to? Could God be trying to direct my life by giving me a passion for something? Could God be reminding me to come to Him when I begin to feel the emotion of despair and loneliness? Could God be nudging me to change my perspective when I notice a feeling of contempt for anyone? Could God be fueling a path for ministry by giving me unexplained joy and excitement about something I've participated in? I'm not talking about psychotherapy, but is it possible that God could still use dreams to get us to think about something or reveal an area of worry in our life that we need to turn over to Him?

I guess the challenge today is for us to pay attention to what's going on inside of us...not so we have an unhealthy preoccupation with self, but so that we can evaluate it with the words of God in the Bible and determine if God is trying to reveal something to us that He would like us to quit doing, start doing, or continue doing. Notice I said "doing" in all of those statements because inevitably, faith - trust in God- leads to action. May we continue to have faith that the God who began a good work in us is going to carry it on to completion (Phil 1:6) and may we realize that one of His tools to finish that work is the "lamp" that He put in each one of us if we will only take the time to pay attention to where it is shining...and then determine with the help of God to never "sear our consciences" in that area again. So yes...within reason I say, "let your conscience be your guide."