And what does your conscience say?

When was the last time you paid attention to your conscience?

Do you believe that you have one?  If so, do you respect it and give it consideration, actually follow its lead?  Or, do you more often than not squelch it and ignore it and treat it as a kind of nuisance that is more bothersome than helpful?

What is a conscience?  You know.  It’s that small inner voice that warns you: “Don’t do this,” or “You better take care of that.”  It monitors your conduct, evaluates your intentions, and directs you toward making good and right choices, while blaming you for the bad choices you make.

Speaking of a conscience presumes the following realities:

It presumes that there is a right and wrong and that you know the difference between them.  That is, it presumes the knowledge of good and bad by means of a rationale and reasonable mind.

It presumes that, at the core of your innermost being, you’d really rather do what is right and good; you prefer goodness over evil.

It presumes free-choice, that it is a matter of the will—freewill.

And it presumes that there is a higher law of moral consequence and just-desserts.  That is that, ultimately one cannot get away with continually doing wrong; sooner or later one’s bad deeds will catch up.  That there is a Judgment Day, and goodness will finally prevail over evil.

Christian theology tells us as much: God created Human Beings as intelligent and moral beings.

Proverbs 20:27 says that “The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord, searching every innermost part.”  Given that point, we could say that God’s voice plays a role in the voice of our conscience, which is probably a good reason why we should give it some careful attention.  In more stark terms, we are told that “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.  Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”  (Hebrews 4:13.)

Responding to our conscience: Fight or flight?

To fight is to rebel, to stubbornly ignore, squelch, or squash one’s conscience.  The Bible speaks of those who seem to have no conscience at all and couldn’t care less, those whose consciences are seared as with a hot iron (1 Timothy 4:2).  These are those who may have had a conscience at one time in their life but no longer.  They have seared them; squashed, squelched, and smothered the conscience so often that it can no longer speak or be heard.  “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”   (Ephesians 4:18)

To flee is to admit that one has a guilty conscience with the fear that there is no way of escaping its verdict.  One feels doomed and thus one flees.  Think of the story of Adam and Eve when they ran from God and hid in the garden for fear of being exposed.  They knew they were guilty of committing a wrong.  Humanity has been fleeing from God ever since.

Stop running.  Jesus tells us that he came into the world for this very reason.  “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”  (John 3:17)

This world, beautiful as it is, is also a very hard and painful place to live in.  There is much evil in this world, and many people do many bad things.  No one is without guilt of doing some wrong to others.

So, we have a choice.  Sear our consciences as with a hot iron and do what we want, as we want—good bad or indifferent.  Or, we can begin paying more careful attention to what it is that our conscience is really trying to tell us.  When we feel guilty, rather than run, the best thing to do is to seek God and His righteousness.  Seek the Savior, find forgiveness and redemption, and be given a whole new promise of hope and salvation in the face of a cruel, unjust, and evil world, not to mention our own wrongdoing.