“So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.”

   - Acts 24.16

You know, and so does God, how I have been among you since my youth in truth of faith and in sincerity of heart. I have kept, and will keep, faith even with the heathen among whom I live...lest the Name of the Lord be blasphemed through me.

- Patrick, Confession, Irish, 5th century

The conscience is that sector of the soul where values, priorities, and default choices are housed. It is the fount from which the will asserts its preferences.

The conscience “referees” between the heart (affections) and mind (thought life), weighing their impulses, sorting out their differences, processing inward inclinations into practice through the members of the body in acts of faith and obedience. All this in some mysterious manner which will forever escape the latest technologies of neuroscience.

Paul relates that a “good conscience” is indispensable to loving God and neighbors (1 Tim. 1.5). By all means, then, let us imitate the Apostle and the Bishop of Ireland in striving to maintain a good conscience toward God and men, a conscience that operates at all times out of the perfect harmony of love for both.

How is such a conscience formed? By daily steeping in the Law of God. The Law of God is holy and righteous and good (Rom. 7.12). The Law defines the way of love (1 Jn. 5:1-3; Matt. 22:34-40). The Law is the standard for Kingdom greatness (Matt. 5:17-19). It guides us into the life of soul and body that conforms to the example of Christ (1 Jn. 2.1-6).

The neglect of the Law of God among Christians today means that their consciences are subject, not to eternal standards of love, but to whim and personal preference, having no anchor in unchanging moral norms. Such an untethered conscience cannot bring our thoughts and affections together into consistent actions of love.

The righteous person, David reminds us, makes daily meditation on the Law of God an important part of his spiritual life (Ps. 1). He knows that the Spirit of God works with such fodder to strengthen all aspects of our souls (Ezek. 36:36, 37). Absent such meditation, how shall we learn the commandments, much less keep them and teach others to do so?

And absent such doing and teaching, how can we expect anything other than the meanest of places in the Kingdom of God (Matt. 5.19)?

To the Law, then, brethren, with joy and delight (Ps. 119:97) – for the sake of a clear and good conscience, and to the end of loving God and neighbor (Matt. 22.34-40).

Psalm 119.171-176 (Regent Square: “Angels from the Realms of Glory”)
With our lips we praise You, Jesus, for you teach us, full and free.
Now Your Word will ever please us; Your commandments true shall be.
Let Your hand come forth to ease us; we Your Word choose gratefully!

For Your saving grace we plead, Lord, and Your Law is our delight.
We to live and praise You need, Lord, all Your help by day and night.
Straying sheep, we do not heed, Lord; come and seek us by Your might!

Can I say that I delight in Your Law, O Lord? That I truly love Your Law, and meditate in it day and night? That I am following in Your Law as Jesus did? If not, Lord, what can I say for myself?