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

by D.A. Carson

Nothing trumps my right to be “authentic,” which from a Christian perspective is nothing other than the siren call of the supreme idol: Self.

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.

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.

The conscience is a gift for your good and joy, and it is something that God—not your mother or father or anyone else—gave you.

As 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 treats as optional. This will take a lifetime, but we have the Spirit of God, the Word of God, and the church of God to help us.

You can damage the gift of conscience, just as you can damage other gifts from God. Oddly enough, you can damage it in two opposite ways: by making it insensitive and by making it oversensitive.

Of all the principles related to conscience, two rise to the top: (1) God is the only Lord of conscience, and (2) you should always obey your conscience.

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

What moral standard should you base your conscience on? Martin Luther’s famous statement nails it: “My conscience is captive to the Word of God.”9

When the Holy Spirit comes in, he supercharges your consciousness of sin by writing his laws on your heart (Jer. 31:33–34). He opens your eyes to see sins that you didn’t even know were sins, like pride, greed, and covetousness. He reveals to you all the little idols in your heart’s idol factory. As you read the Bible every day, you see more and more how good and holy God is and how filthy you are.

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

How do we avoid a calloused conscience? “The way to keep the conscience tender,” writes Jonathan Edwards, “is to the utmost to resist sin.”5

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.

What are some reasons that your conscience may change? Here are three: 1. Your conscience might become more hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Some people think that their mind is broadening, but in reality their conscience is stretching.11 Feeding excuses to your conscience is like feeding sleeping pills to a watchdog. 2. Your conscience might follow the standards of other people such as your culture, family, or spiritual leaders. You simply go with the flow without thinking through issues. 3. Your conscience might conform more to truth, especially the truth of God’s Word.

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.