THE MATTER OF CONSCIENCE

THE MATTER OF CONSCIENCE

Friday, August 23, 2019

Genesis 3:1-8 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said to the woman, Is it so that God has said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make wise, she took of its fruit, and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. And the eyes of both of them were opened. And they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made girdles for themselves. And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God in the middle of the trees of the garden.

            Ephesians 4:17-32 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should not walk from now on as other nations walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. For they, being past feeling, have given themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and were taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus. For you ought to put off the old man (according to your way of living before) who is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And you should put on the new man, who according to God was created in righteousness and true holiness. Therefore putting away lying, let each man speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry, and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the Devil. Let him who stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, so that he may have something to give to him who needs. Let not any filthy word go out of your mouth, but if any is good to building up in respect of need, that it may give grace to the ones hearing. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed until the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and tumult and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.

  Man is born with a conscience, but how dependable is the old adage “Let your conscience be your guide.”?

  Before John 3:3 faith in Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior, conscience is grounded in chosen familial and/or cultural mores that may or may not integrally include God’s Law. (Rom.2:14-15.) The USA as a “Christian nation” is a prime example of this.

  In God’s Word, the first mention of conscience is Genesis, and guilty theirs’ was (Gen.3:7-8). Elsewhere the Bible speaks of a pure conscience (2Tim.1:3); without guilt; though one may even have, as Paul, a horrid pre-Damascus Road history. (Acts 7:58-8:13; 9:1-6)

  For both non-believer and Christian, repetitive violation of moral standards desensitizes one’s conscience. (James 1:14-16; 1Thes.5:19; 1Tim.4:1-3)

  For the Christian pursuing godliness, exercising personal examination (Acts 24:14-16; 1Cor.11:28-29) and John 1:9 confession is essential to both maintenance and progress in realizing the Hebrews 9:14-15 life.

  May God now and forevermore grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph.3:16-19)  EBB4

PS. Once again, for God to work in our lives we must lookup, consider, and submit to His Word. Without doing so our conscience will be very much our own, disastrously apart from Him.