“Conscience is what makes a boy tell his mother before his sister does.”
― Evan Esar
“It is neither right nor safe to go against my conscience.”
― Martin Luther
“The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.”
― John Calvin
Violating one’s conscience is serious. Sun-Oida, or sunedasis in Greek means “to see together.” The conscience is the interface between the soul (mind, body, emotions) and the human spirit (where God, the Holy Spirit lives). Every time we ignore God’s promptings, the wall gets thicker and God’s voice gets softer.
John MacArthur labels the conscience “God’s early warning system.” Adam and Eve didn’t have a “knowledge of good and evil” until they ate the wrong fruit. They exchanged knowing God for knowing better than God. (Genesis 3:22)
. If I saw my heart as God sees it, I’d unplug the video feed. God in His glorious holiness sees every microbe of sin-my pettiness and poor choices, my ambivalence and arrogance. He shines His black light upon my heart and every disease-ridden microbe appears.
My conscience is enlivened and illumined by God’s light and God’s Word. However, every time I close my ears to God’s prompting or accept spiritual sludge into my brain, my conscience becomes callous and unresponsive.
Have you violated your conscience? Ask God to search you heart. Confess your sin. Allow God to show you Himself in all of His purity and holiness?