Referee of the Soul (2)

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron… 1 Timothy 4.1, 2

The universality of conscience
Everyone experiences the reality of the conscience. We’ve all felt shame, self-justification, or guilt for some failure or wrongdoing, or satisfaction over a job well done. The secular thinker may ascribe such feelings only to chemicals and reactions in the brain, but the Christian knows that these are the workings of the conscience, as it brings heart and mind into harmony or discord, according to the situation, in the workings of the soul.

God has given human beings a leg-up on getting their souls into proper working order. He has written, by some spiritual means, the works of His Law on the souls of human beings, so that, in every person, there exists a sense of things holy and righteous and good (Rom. 2.14, 15). In each of us, that sense is more or less true and complete, depending on the extent to which our mind, heart, and conscience are serving as God intends.

People do not all define such terms as holiness, righteousness, and goodness in the same way, but they cannot get away from the notion that some things are permissible and valuable and some things are not. This is part of what it means that human beings are made in the image of God. They have a conscience, and their consciences have a sense of what is good and true and even holy, to which people appeal in making decisions and choices in life, even if those terms are filtered through a narcissistic view of the world.

Everyone has a conscience. But not everyone’s conscience functions alike, much less in the way God intends. This is because in many people, their consciences have become seared by the hot iron of unbelief and lies.

The role of the conscience
It is clear from Scripture that God intends the human conscience to harmonize thinking and feeling so that actions of beauty, goodness, and truth – as God defines these terms – issue from people’s lives. But He has also made human beings the responsible care-takers of their souls. God expects us to take responsibility for the contents of our consciences, those working priorities and values that guide thinking and affections into words and deeds.

All of us must take responsibility to receive God’s leg-up on values and priorities, and direct our souls and lives in accord with His good and perfect will. But people do not, in the main, respond this way. In fact, only as they come to redemption through faith in Jesus Christ do they have the power at work within them to make them willing and able to do what God approves (Phil. 2.13).

People who do not believe in God, and who refuse to engage with His agenda, can expect that the inherent ideas of goodness and righteousness, which God would write into their souls, will be hijacked, redefined, and used for self-centered purposes in an increasingly narcissistic age. The conscience, apart from saving grace, has no resources to resist the spirit of the age, however that spirit may be blowing. Exposed, over the whole of one’s life, to influences and inputs that blow contrary to the Spirit of God, people’s minds become absorbed in the lie of unbelief, their hearts are hardened against God, and their consciences become seared and calloused against the truth.

And this happens to different people in different ways, thus creating the moral confusion which characterizes our day.

Set of the saw
And the conscience is like the set of a saw: once that cutting angle has begun to be compromised, the soul will never be able to cut a straight path to goodness, beauty, and truth, apart from divine intervention. Left to themselves, without God’s truth and the reinforcement and accountability of a loving spiritual community, people today will experience their consciences going off course, taking them in directions not always to their liking, and leading them to cherish and choose things which, at other times, they may have regarded with less pleasure or importance.

Over time, the conscience, seared with lies and encrusted with false works, will drag the mind and heart into the black hole of the spirit of the age, so that the soul functions in harmony with the temper of the times rather than the intentions of God.

Christians are not immune to this tendency. As Paul explains, the conscience can go off course in Christians who refuse to take seriously their responsibility to nurture and guard their conscience as they should, causing them to depart from the faith, if not intentionally then certainly practically and really.

Which makes it all the more important that we understand the proper workings of this referee of the soul, and nurture and maintain our consciences in the best working order.

For reflection
1.  How is it evident that God has “written the works of the Law” on the souls of all people?

2.  Meditate on Romans 1.18-32. What happens, over time, to people who resist God and His Law? How does this affect their consciences?

3.  What can Christians do to keep their consciences from being drawn off course?

Next steps – Preparation: What would you say are the most influential outside sources for shaping a person’s conscience? How can you make sure those sources are not shaping your conscience in a way other than what God intends? Talk with a Christian friend about these questions.

T. M. Moore

This is part 1 of an 8-part series on Purifying the Conscience. To download this week’s study as a free PDF, click here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.