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

by D.A. Carson

Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving

And what is conscience if not shining the spotlight of your moral judgment back on yourself, your thoughts, and your actions. A moral being would expect to make moral self-judgments.

Romans 1:19–20 claims that all humans know intuitively by the witness of nature that God exists and must be absolutely powerful. Romans 2:14–15 goes on to teach that everyone also has a conscience, an imperfect-but-accurate-enough version of God’s will, as standard equipment in their hearts.

court. Conscience Is a Priceless Gift from

But if Bill and Anne had been blank slates And had no moral hijacking from legalistic codes and social constructs- what would they decide is left and right?

we come to understand God’s revealed will more and more, we will have opportunities to add rules to our conscience that God’s Word clearly teaches and weed out rules that God’s Word

lifetime, but we have the Spirit of God, the Word of God, and the church of God to help us.

(1) God is the only Lord of conscience, and (2) you should always obey your conscience.

that to go against your conscience when you think it’s warning you correctly is always a sin in God’s eyes.

Even if the action is not a sin in and of itself.

Because your intention ...

If God, the Lord of your conscience, shows you through his Word that your conscience is registering a mistaken moral judgment and if you believe he wants you to adjust your conscience to better match his will, your conscience must bend to God.

“We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29)?

Whenever

“obey conscience!” collides with “obey God!,” “obey God!” must come out on top—every time.

justification as God’s declaring us righteous rather than God’s making us righteous.

syneidēsis,

positively in two ways and negatively in six ways.

Ironically, a weak conscience is more likely to accuse than a strong conscience.

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

What should you do when your conscience condemns you? (ch. 3) •How should you calibrate your conscience to match God’s will? (ch. 4) •How should you relate to fellow Christians when your consciences disagree? (ch. 5) •How should you relate to people in other cultures when your consciences disagree?

The moment God accepts you as his child, he gives you the greatest gift he could ever give a child of God: his Holy Spirit to dwell in you. The Holy Spirit comes in to encourage you, comfort you, and be your dearest friend.

But he also comes in to reveal to you any sin that is robbing you of joy and to lead you into mortal combat against that sin

There is generally a proportional relationship between how mature you are as a Christian and how aware you are of 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.

God justifies sinners by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The

You should maintain a good conscience even if it means you’ll suffer prison or death. It’s that important.

would be a shame to go to prison or die because you held a conviction based on a misinformed conscience.

however, our ability to sense our own guilt

However, society can place undue guilt on people that is nowhere near wrong per biblical standards... for example- the expectations on Christians working in ministry is far often well above what those working in secular jobs face... and it often results in burn out. But Christian workers often feel guilty about taking vacations etc esp if they are on support because of societal expectations and other pressures

As a general rule, you should assume that your conscience is reliable, even if it isn’t perfect. And since conscience is usually right, the Bible says that we should do what our conscience says until we are convinced from Scripture that it needs adjusting.

Your conscience is not identical to the voice of God.

You might think that something is wrong at one point in your life but think that it is right at a later point in your life. Or you might think that something is right at one point in your life but think that it is wrong at a later point in your life.

Your conscience might become more hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Your conscience might follow the standards of other people such as your culture, family, or spiritual leaders.

Your conscience might conform more to truth, especially the truth of God’s Word.

To train and educate your conscience is not to sin against it but to put it under the lordship of Christ.

You are sinning against your conscience when you believe your conscience is speaking correctly and yet you refuse to listen to it.

You are calibrating your conscience when Christ, the Lord of your conscience, teaches you through his Scripture that your conscience has been incorrectly warning you about a particular matter, so you decide no longer to listen to your conscience in that one matter.

Calibrate your conscience by educating it with truth.

Calibrate your conscience with due process. This