In exploring the moral terrain of sin, it is of the utmost importance that we recognize that this topography is not only external but also internal as well [1]. When we are orienteering in the real world, we almost always have a compass with us, so that we can have a sense of where we are aiming at. We may know, for example, that the compass does not point at true north, and that it shifts with time, but we know that it points in the general direction of north, so that we are not led astray by following it but are pointed in the right direction, even if not perfectly so. So it is with the internal compass that we use to navigate the moral topography of sin, which we know as our conscience. We are placed in the position that we must rely on our conscience but also with the realization that our conscience is imperfect. This twin realization means that our conscience is a sort of compass that can be improved, but that can also be harmed through our own behavior.

In this light, it should be of little surprise that the Bible speaks at length about the conscience and its importance, continually reminding us of its pivotal nature in behaving morally as well as the ways that our consciences can betray us if we have hardened ourselves to sin. In order to understand the importance of the conscience, and how the Bible conceives of it, it is worthwhile to understand at least some aspects of how the Bible speaks about it, so that we may better grasp its role as well as its limitations. Once we see where the conscience fits in the overall picture of our moral behavior, and also where it is viewed as being particularly suspect or particularly vulnerable, we are better able to understand the role that conscience is supposed to play in our lives, and to realize that an entire category of sin deals specifically with the conscience, and requires a great deal of respect for our own conscience and the conscience of other people. Let us examine this particular matter more closely.

In 1 Corinthians 8 and Romans 14, Paul is addressing a matter of conscience that was common in the ancient world and which, in a slightly different way is common in our own. To summarize the matter, many brethren who had come out of heathen religious beliefs were particularly sensitive about whether the meat that they were eating at people’s homes or were buying from the market had been offered to idols, seeing as they were leaving idol worship and seeking to worship the true God. Brethren who were more secure in their faith realized that the pagan mumbo jumbo of heathen priests was meaningless, but not everyone had this knowledge. One would expect that Paul’s response to this situation would be to teach others about how pagan practices and offerings were meaningless, but that is not what Paul did at all. 1 Corinthians 8:9-14 gives his response, and it is worth reflecting on deeply: “But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.” Here we see that Paul commands sensitivity to those who know better, and tells his audience that rather than offend the sensitive conscience of his brethren that he would refuse to eat meat if it caused offense. How differently would our own fellowship be with brethren if we were as sensitive to the conscience of our brethren as Paul was to that of his fellow brethren? Here we see that even where we know something is allowed to Christians, and is not in fact contrary to God’s laws, we are still restricted by the sensitivity of our brethren, and we sin if we offend the sensitivities of others, where these sensitivities do not contradict God’s ways, but rather reflect merely an immature understanding of it.

Nor was this a problem that Paul alone dealt with. The apostle John, in 1 John 3:20-22, address the same issue in a somewhat different way: “For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” Although this particular passage does not speak of conscience, it speaks of our heart and of self-condemnation, which amounts to the same matter. Here John offers a comforting reflection to genuine believers. If we are genuine believers and yet we have oversensitive consciences that trouble us, John reminds us that God is greater than our heart and knows all things, and is merciful to us. And if our conscience is sound, in that we are obedient to God and recognize it as the general pattern of our lives, then we have confidence in God’s favor. In either case, it is not our conscience that is the ultimate authority, but rather God’s law, and our consciences are judged as sound or unsound based on how they correspond with God’s law. A conscience that is overly harsh and strict against ourselves will be treated mercifully by God, and that which is sound and in accordance with God’s law is to be praised.

Sometimes it is as important to note what is not said as it is to note what is said. There are two cases that John does not discuss, both cases where someone is not living in accordance with God’s laws and is not doing what is pleasing in His sight. Such a case would result from people hardening their hearts against God’s ways. This can either be done where someone hardens their hearts against God but does so out of despair, not thinking that they can or will be forgiven for their sins, or where someone hardens their heart to quell their conscience so they can sin without regret or remorse, and avoid any pangs of repentance. It is perhaps for this reason that the author of Hebrews three times in Hebrews 3 and 4 (3:8, 3:15, 4:7) quotes Psalm 95 reminding us not to harden our hearts as in the day of rebellion, pointing out that the difference between those who obeyed God and those whose consciences were seared with a hot iron as a result of their rebellion were different not because of the message that God gave them, but the response to that message. If we harden our hearts against God’s ways, even if we act according to our debased and corrupted conscience, or act according to the times and behaviors around us, we can expect no pleasure and satisfaction from God in our conduct, since He demands that we follow the promptings of His Holy Spirit, and not the zeitgeist whose spirit we are often more easily prompted to obey to fit in with those around us. It is not without reason, for example, that the Bible uses the same term about the hardening of hearts to describe that of rebellious Israel in the wilderness with that of Pharaoh raised up for destruction. Both Israel and Pharaoh were, in the main, of the same spirit, contrary to God’s ways, however they were opposed in other ways.

Let us note the implications of this. One of the major terrains in our battle against sin is within us, in our heart and mind. Given that many avenues to sin involve feelings and attitudes and longings, this ought not to be a surprise. That said, we may not always be sensitive to the importance of the conscience, our own internal compass by which we seek to point towards the true north of God’s laws. Like a compass does not point to true north, but rather magnetic north, so too our conscience does not point precisely to moral perfection, but generally only somewhere in the vicinity of it. That said, because it provides the tools we have to live in a godly fashion on a regular basis, day in and day out, the Bible places a great deal of importance on not sinning against our own conscience and not encouraging others to sin against theirs, because once our conscience is hardened, we have no internal point of reference to follow in seeking God’s ways at all, and salvation becomes a much more difficult process since we must recover a conscience that we have lost through our own sinful behaviors. It is far better to slowly guide our conscience through better understanding and applying God’s ways, and being gracious and kind with the sometimes overly sensitive consciences of other people, so that we may grow in maturity and live in Christian freedom without living in licentiousness and slavery to sin as is the way of the heathen.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/05/24/an-exploration-of-the-moral-topography-of-sin-part-one/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/an-exploration-of-the-moral-topography-of-sin-part-two/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/05/27/an-exploration-of-the-moral-topography-of-sin-part-three/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/an-exploration-of-the-moral-topography-of-sin-part-four/