A Seared Conscience

I’ve got one and you’ve got one- a conscience. That thing that jerks us back when we do wrong, and that that gives our hearts peace when we’ve made the right decision. According to the dictionary app on my phone, a conscience is “the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action. And, the complex of ethical or moral principles that controls or inhibits the actions or thoughts of an individual.”

“Character is doing what you don't want to do but know you should do.”

-Joyce Meyer

The Bible talks about the conscience in good terms and bad terms. I believe, one of the worst things that can happen to a person is to have a seared conscience, or as Paul calls it in his letter to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:2, a dead conscience. When the heart becomes calloused, each and every ungodly thing a person does will get easier, until that person feels no remorse or their ungodly actions become normal to them. In this situation there is a problem. It’s best to not be around people with calloused, seared, or dead consciousness.’

Dictators, embezzlers, mass murderers, and those who have carried out some of the worst atrocities in life would fit into this category. As we have seen from history and from experiences in our own personal lives, some people are so far gone into themselves, where it is as if their consciences are broken, and they feel no conviction for how they treat others or how they act/ react in situations.

But we can’t control other people. And all we can do is make sure our hearts and actions are right before God, and that our consciousness are clean before Him. When our consciousness are seared then it means we have become insensitive to Godly living; perhaps insensitive to knowing how to treat our fellow man; and perhaps insensitive to moral pangs. Lying, stealing, cheating, adultery, idolatry, mistreatment of others are all ok- in some shape or form to people like this. But one who has a good conscience and who is upright doesn’t have that calloused heart where they’ve become so insensitive to wrongdoing. These types of people can tell right from wrong, they are free from guilt and they maintain their integrity. And these people don’t get entangled in the lies of the devil, but rather they “fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience.” (1 Timothy 1:18-19)

Three ways that we can maintain a healthy conscience is to: 1) stay rooted in the word of God. 2) Be planted in a church community. 3) Have an accountability partner that will keep us on track when temptation comes.

“The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.” -John Calvin

God doesn’t give us more than we can handle and He always provides a way out of temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13), so may we turn to Him and our a trusted Christian accountability partner when temptation comes. The temptation of lying, stealing, cheating, adultery, idolatry, and mistreating others- if not dealt with over time- can lead to calloused hearts and seared/ dead consciousness.

 Happy Weekend!