The role of the conscience in the soul is to arbitrate between the thoughts of the mind and the affections of the heart, processing these together into words and deeds.

The mind receives and processes information, while the heart stores and deploys affections. In the soul, these overlap and interact, but they require the conscience to help them process ideas and feelings into actions.

The Christian life is not all happiness and rejoicing. It is that, to be sure, but many reasons exist why Christians will sorrow and grieve, and we need to know how to do so to the glory of God.

The Christian life is not all happiness and rejoicing. It is that, to be sure, but many reasons exist why Christians will sorrow and grieve, and we need to know how to do so to the glory of God.

We need courage to overcome the fear of growing, serving, or reaching out to others in new ways. Courage rises in our hearts out of the combination of fear of God, love for God and neighbors, gratitude, and hope. We can’t gin up courage; it must be nurtured along with all the other affections in our heart, so that it is always at the ready and sufficient for every challenge.

As we fear and obey God, we find Him to be gracious and lavish in His goodness, which leads us to love Him and to give thanks for His mercy and many gifts.

Keeping the heart with all diligence begins in the fear of God and aims at love for God and neighbors as the greatest affection. Thanksgiving is the most practical affection because it is the easiest to engage, and it trains our heart for all the other affections. Giving thanks is God’s will for us, so we should make sure we’re doing this as often as He prescribes.

Fear of God is the first affection which we must diligently guard in our hearts. Love for God and neighbors, however, is the greatest.

We may not like the idea of fearing God, but there’s no way around it. God commands it. Jesus advises it. Paul and the other apostles confirm the importance of it. If we are to press on in the holiness of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must fear the Lord.

In Biblical teaching, the heart refers to that faculty of the soul which manages our affections. The heart works together with the mind and the conscience, in a relationship of mutual interaction, overlap, and cooperation, to bring forth in us the words and deeds that make us who we are.

We have the mind of Christ, but we need to grow into it, so that we can reach maturity in our thinking and live increasingly as true disciples of the Lord.

Of all the forms of culture that have the power to confront us with the mind of Christ, great Christian art is surely the most effective. Yet how many of us have any familiarity with this precious treasure and resource?