By Kevin Harris, pastor of the Illawarra Community Baptist Church in Wollongong, NSW
And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.
Acts 23:1
The Apostle Paul is speaking to the Jewish leadership. Gazing intently at them, he testifies: ‘I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.’
On the dashboard of our cars are warning lights. When the engine is in trouble, or the car is too hot, or the oil or fuel is too low, lights flash to alert us and avert danger.
Likewise our conscience is a built-in warning system designed by God to convict (John 8:9) and witness accusations when we sin (Romans 2:15). We refer to this as a guilty conscience.
While the conscience is God’s gift to warn us and guide us, it must be properly taught. Since Paul carefully trained his conscience to the standard of God’s Word, it served as a faithful guide. What God thought about things, he thought likewise. How Christ lived and reacted to people and problems, he mimicked.
A conscience untrained by Scripture is a weak one (1 Corinthians 8:7, 10, 12). 1 Timothy 1:5 shows that we can have ‘a good conscience’ as we obey God’s commands.
In our text, Paul is stating that although he had disappointed these men – even to the point of enraging them – he knew before God that his integrity was intact.
It was important to Paul that his conscience be clear. About a week after this he stood before Felix the governor and said, ‘And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men’ (Acts 24:16). This was his constant habit. In 2 Timothy 1:3 Paul wrote, ‘I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience…’ This sentiment is echoed in Hebrews 13:18 ‘Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.’ Again, he references, ‘the testimony of our conscience’ in 2 Corinthians 1:12.
May the Lord help us to be conscientious, sensitive that our hearts not condemn us (1 John 3:20-21). Violating it risks defiling it (1 Corinthians 8:7) or even searing it (1 Timothy 4:2).
Just as we can keep the dashboard lights from flashing by maintaining our car, so we can enjoy a pure conscience by maintaining an obedient walk with God.
Father, thank You for giving me a conscience, and for cleansing my conscience by the blood of Your Son. Teach me Your Word, ‘that I might not sin against thee.’ Keep me sensitive to Your still, small voice. As I do what You tell me to do, and confess my sin, keep my conscience pure. I ask this in the Name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
This article was written by Kevin Harris Dapto pastor of Illawarra Community Baptist Church.