Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God’s grace. 2 Corinthians 1:12 (NIV)
God has planted within our souls a noble and divine power called a conscience and there is no getting away from it. He has given it both power and force to convict and absolve. It is a recording and testifying witness of what we think and do and say, pointing us to our weak areas that are in need of bolstering. And there is both greatness and sovereignty in it. A good conscience results in becoming more and more like our Lord Jesus through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus yet, until we go home to be with the Lord, we still continually have to battle the sinful nature.
Our conscience pricks us when we have wrong words, thoughts and actions in both the “greater” and “lesser” sins – if one can describe them as such. All sin breaks relationship with God and continual sin will sear our conscience as with a hot iron. The best way to keep our conscience clear is quick repentance – we are to run back to the cross for restoration and peace. Our hearts are deceitful and easily deluded and when our conscience is pricked by our words and deeds – quick repentance is key. Sin will suffocate a good conscience and it becomes easier to sin than you have ever dreamed it would be. It is wise to keep our accounts short with the Lord.
Our conscience serves as a judge and a testifying witness – recording and replaying our actions and words. Like Lady Macbeth lamenting she could still smell blood. Even all the perfumes of Arabia could not remove the smell. Indeed, God has given the conscience great power and force as it is an exact notary of what we think and do and say. And there is no getting away from it. A good conscience seeks to avoid stains and pitfalls and the scandalous blemishes of sin. We do this by quick repentance, which means a turning from sin back to the point of departure. A good conscience seeks a higher more honorable way of life and it is a very soft pillow upon which to lay one’s head.
Worldly conformity in any degree can be a snare to the soul and make us liable to insolent, presumptuous and flagrant sins – and it does not take long. We must not flirt with things that tempt us to fall – rather flee from them. Walking carefully carries with it a good amount of self-denial yet pleasures unearthly in their nature await us in doing so.
“But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? ‘I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.’” Jeremiah 17:7-10 (NIV)