Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ

by D.A. Carson

to be human is to have the capacity for conscience, whether or not one is able to exercise that capacity.

It shouldn’t surprise you that you have a conscience. You’re made in the image of God, and God is a moral God, so you must be a moral creature who makes moral judgments.

though we all have a sense that what’s going on in our conscience is secret, we also have a sense that an all-powerful, all-knowing God is in on the secret and will someday judge those secrets at his great and terrifying tribunal.

all of us intuit very strongly our accountability to an all-powerful, all-knowing God, even if we suppress that intuition,

Conscience is all about right or wrong, black or white. It doesn’t do gray scale very well. It doesn’t nuance. It doesn’t say, “It’s complicated.” It leads your thoughts to either “accuse or even excuse” (Rom. 2:15), to pronounce guilt or innocence. Because conscience wants to make such stark pronouncements, it is of utmost importance that you align your personal conscience standards with what God considers right and wrong, not just with human opinion.

In fact, people usually agree much more in matters of conscience than they disagree.

Differences in conscience cause a significant percentage of conflicts in any church.

There is a connection between a bad conscience and apostasy; objections to Christianity are fundamentally moral, not intellectual

People with weak consciences tend to fret about things that should provoke no guilt in a mature Christian who knows God’s truth.4

The conscience is your consciousness of what you believe is right and wrong.

1. Conscience produces different results for people based on different moral standards.

2. Conscience can change.

3. Conscience functions as a guide, monitor, witness, and judge.

Your conscience is a gift. God gave it to you for your good. And when it’s condemning you, you need to discern why and then respond.

This is because your knowledge about God’s will in the Scriptures usually increases at a faster pace than you can put that knowledge into practice.

There is generally a proportional relationship between how mature you are as a Christian and how aware you are of your sinfulness. The more you grow by means of grace, the more sensitive you become to your sinfulness.

Propitiation is a sacrifice that turns aside the justly deserved wrath of God and completely satisfies all of his righteous demands for justice.

Only the cross can fill that ever-widening gap between your consciousness of what you ought to be and your actual obedience.

1. Calibrate your conscience by educating it with truth.

The wise Christian wants to master biblical truth so that the conscience is completely informed and judges right because it is responding to God’s Word.

discern the difference between issues of right and wrong and issues of preference or scruple.

2. Calibrate your conscience with due process. This is a wisdom issue. Sometimes it will take a lot of time to work through a particular matter.

And Peter’s failure many years later to eat with the Gentiles in Antioch when under pressure reminds us that sometimes recalibration is necessary (Gal. 2:11–14).

due process involves reading and meditating on Scripture, processing wisdom from your church’s elders and other Christians, and proceeding cautiously and prayerfully.

although everything in the Bible is important, not everything is equally important.

We should expect disagreements with fellow Christians about third-level matters, and we should learn to live with those differences.

Christians don’t always need to eliminate differences, but they should always seek to glorify God by loving each other in their differences.

One of the most important points in Romans 14 is something that Paul does not say: that the weak in faith must change their view. He makes clear that he does not agree with them, and by labeling them weak he implies also that they have room to grow on these matters. But he does not tell them to change their mind; he does not berate them for being “immature”; he does not tell them to “get with the program.” Yet this is usually our first reaction to someone who differs with us. We want to change their minds, to convince them we are right. Paul would undoubtedly support the church’s efforts to educate its members as fully as possible about the gospel and its implications. But he is wise enough to know that there is a time and a place for such efforts. . . . All of us have our traditions, and they are not easy to give up. As long as they are not contrary to the gospel and hindering the work of the church, we should learn to tolerate these differences.7

The kingdom of God is so much more than your right to eat and drink certain things.”

Our ultimate goal is not simply to stop judging those who are free or to stop looking down on those who are strict. Our ultimate goal is to follow the example of our Lord Jesus, who gave up his rights for others. He joyfully renounced his unbelievable freedom in heaven to come to earth and become an obedient Jew in order to save his people (Rom. 15:3–9).

he happily (not grudgingly) gave up any personal preference if that might result in peace within the church or success in winning people outside the church to Christ.

(1) How does this particular action affect other believers? and (2) How does this particular action further the gospel of Christ?

those in the church who don’t hold the views of the majority may feel judged and pressured to change for the wrong reasons.

5. Assume that others are partaking or refraining for the glory of God

I am struggling with this on the mask issue.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to be in a church where everyone gave each other the benefit of the doubt on these differences, instead of putting the worst possible spin on everything?

Believing the best about others

Am I fully persuaded that it is right? (Rom. 14:5, 14, 23) 2.Can I do it as unto the Lord? (Rom. 14:6–8) 3.Can I do it without being a stumbling block to my brother or sister in Christ? (Rom. 14:13, 15, 20–22) 4.Does it bring peace? (Rom. 14:17–18) 5.Does it edify my brother? (Rom. 14:19) 6.Is it profitable? (1 Cor. 6:12) 7.Does it enslave me? (1 Cor. 6:12) 8.Does it bring glory to God? (1 Cor. 10:31)

For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love.

Not only that, of the two groups, only the strong have a choice in third-level matters like meat, holy days, and wine. They can either partake or abstain, whereas the conscience of the strict allows them only one choice. It is a great privilege for the strong to have double the choices of the weak. They must use this gift wisely by considering how their actions affect the sensitive consciences of their brothers and sisters.

Christ gave up his life for that brother or sister; are you unwilling to give up your freedom if that would help your fellow believer avoid sinning against conscience?

We must never allow the conscience of others to determine our own conscience. But we must always consider the conscience of others when we determine our own actions.

In Christianity, why you do things is more important than what you do.

then why not voluntarily abstain if your freedom could harm the faith of a wavering Christian?

We must follow the example of Christ, who put others first

For a Christian, to “bear with” the weaknesses of the weak means that you gladly help the weak by refraining from doing anything that would hurt their faith.

Christian freedom is not “I always do what I want.” Nor is it “I always do whatever the other person wants.” It is “I do what brings glory to God. I do what brings others under the influence of the gospel. I do what leads to peace in the church.”

That’s what Christian liberty is all about: being free to discipline yourself to put the gospel and others first.