Conscience is making a comeback among Christians. In recent years, the term conscience has been increasingly referred to in debates that occur both in our churches (for example, appeals to conscience on moral issues) and the public sphere (for example, defending the right of awareness). There’s a lot of talk about consciousness, but what exactly does it mean?
The general concept of conscience can be found in almost all human cultures, but for Christians it has a unique and distinctive meaning. The Greek term for conscience (suneidesis) appears more than two dozen times, and serves an important concept, especially in the Pauline epistles.
If we examine the way in which Scripture speaks of conscience, it allows us to discover five general themes:
1. Conscience is an internal rational capacity that bears witness to our value system.
A few decades ago, a common figure in sitcoms and cartoons was the angel/devil on the shoulder. A person’s inner conflict was personified by having an angel, representing conscience, on the right shoulder and a devil, representing temptation, on the left shoulder. These types of folk images gave people the false impression that the conscience was like an inner room in which a person could hear the voice of God (a “good conscience”) or the devil (a “bad conscience”). A more biblical view is to consider the angel/devil shoulder as representative witnesses of our internal value system.
Our conscience is a part of our God-given inner faculties, a fundamental inner sense that bears witness to the norms and values we recognize in determining right or wrong. Conscience does not operate as a judge or legislator, both of which are modern versions of the concept. Instead, in the biblical sense, conscience serves as a testimony to what we already know (Rom. 2:15, 9:1).
Consciousness can induce an internal dialogue to tell us what we already know, but more often it simply makes itself present through our emotions. When we conform to the values of our consciousness we feel a sense of pleasure or relief. But when we violate the values of our conscience, it induces anguish or guilt.
John MacArthur describes conscience as “an integrated alert system that tells us when something we have done is wrong. Conscience is to our souls what pain sensors are to our bodies: it inflicts suffering, in the form of guilt, when we violate what our hearts tell us is right.”
2. The conscience is a reliable guide as long as it is informed and governed by God.
In 2004, a few days before he became a candidate for the US Senate, Barack Obama sat down with Cathleen Falsani, a religion journalist, to discuss his faith. Asked by Falsani, “What is sin?” Obama responded, “Being out of alignment with my values.”
Although there is a great deal of error, theologically speaking, with that answer, it does contain a grain of truth. What Mr. Obama described as “being out of alignment with my values” is what we might call “violating our conscience.” Violating our conscience is indeed a sin (as we’ll see in a moment). But what makes something a sin is not simply being out of alignment with our values, but choosing our will over God’s will.
Therefore, our conscience is reliable only when it does not lead us to choose our will over God’s will. As R.C. Sproul explains,
“We have to remember that acting on conscience can sometimes be a sin. If the conscience is misinformed, then we look for the reasons for this lack of information. Is he misinformed, because the person has been negligent in the study of God’s Word?”
A good example of how our conscience can lead Christians and non-Christians alike into sin is when we violate, or advocate the violation of, the ordinances of creation. Among the creation ordinances are clear commands to preserve the sanctity of the marriage bond between a man and a woman, the necessity and desirability of godly work, and the observance of the Sabbath (Gen. 2:1-3, 15, 18 -24). Our consciences bear witness to the reality and truth of these ordinances, and we are guilty of sin when we deny or break them.
3. The conscience must be subservient to and informed by the revealed Word of God.
Conscience cannot be our final ethical authority since it is, unlike the revealed Word of God, variable and fallible. However, all too often Christians reverse the order and try to use their conscience in order to judge God and His Word. Many Christians say, for example, “I couldn’t worship a God who says” or “I couldn’t believe in a God who would.”
By making such statements they may be appealing to their conscience. But in such cases, their consciences are being informed by Satan, not by God. A person’s conscience can cause him to question a particular interpretation of Scripture. But our conscience can never legitimately judge a holy God or his holy Word. When we find ourselves thinking “Did God really say?” when Scripture clearly says that he did it, then we know that he is speaking about the serpent and not the Savior. (Genesis 3:1)
4. Acting deliberately against conscience is always a sin.
Sam Storms says “The Christian’s conscience is constrained and bound only by what the Bible commands or forbids, or by what can legitimately be inferred from an explicit Biblical principle.” Our conscience must always be informed by what God has spoken. But what if we are wrong about what the Bible commands or forbids? What if, for example, I believe that the Bible forbids any form of dancing, and yet I go dancing on Saturday night? Is that a sin?
In that case, it would be a sin to dance since you would be acting in a way that I think is wrong.
Imagine if I went to a neighbor’s house and saw a wallet lying on the floor. I quickly take the money from her thinking it’s my neighbor’s wallet. Later I realize it wasn’t my neighbor’s wallet at all—it was mine that had fallen out of my pocket. Even though it was my own money, would I still be guilty of theft? Yes, since I intended to do evil. I intended to steal – with the intent to violate God’s commandments – even though I was wrong about the object of my theft.
As Paul says: “For everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). RC Sproul expands on this verse by saying:
“If we do something that we believe to be sin, even if we are misinformed, we are guilty of sin. We are guilty of doing something that we believe to be wrong. We act against our consciences. This is a very important principle. Luther was right when he said: “It is neither safe nor healthy to act against conscience.”
Sproul adds that “conscience can excuse when it should be accusing, and can also accuse when it should be excusing.” While we must challenge misperceptions of what the Bible commands and forbids, care must be taken to encourage people who are immature in the faith or underdeveloped in their knowledge of Scripture to act in ways that violate his undeveloped or immature consciousness.
5. Conscience can be suppressed by sin.
If we want to develop a positive habit, we have to perform an action repeatedly, until it becomes an automatic reflex. The same process occurs when we fall into sin. When we sin, we reject God’s authority. If we repeat our sin, over time, rejection of God’s authority becomes an automatic reflex.
Even non-believers, who by nature know God’s general revelation, such as his invisible attributes, the ordinances of creation, and the Noahide Laws, begin to deny this knowledge because of sin. Paul says that by our unrighteousness we suppress the truth. They think they are wise, but their sin makes them fools. Eventually, God gives them over to their reprobate minds (Rom 1:24).
Believers are also in danger of falling into this destructive pattern. Sometimes our sin leads us to doubt the very reality of God. When we deny God’s authority we begin to doubt his existence so that we can ease our conscience about his judgment. (Not all doubt is caused by sin, but sin almost always leads to doubt.) Sin can cause our conscience to be “seared” and “corrupted” and totally unreliable (1 Tim. 4:0, Titus 1:15 ).
This is why to protect our conscience and keep it in good condition we must preach the gospel to ourselves every day. We must ask the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin, and guide us to righteousness, and remind us of the judgment from which we are saved by our union with Jesus Christ. It is only then that our conscience can fulfill its purpose of helping us to conform to the values of our Creator.