24 April
“I always take pains to have a clear conscience towards God and man” (Acts 24:16).
Genuine and committed Christians have one main concern: to know God truly and serve Him rightly, and so to glorify Him and enjoy Him. Because of this concern, they are deeply concerned about conscience, for, to them, conscience is the mental organ in men and women through which God brought His word to bear on them. Hence, they hold it as a priority that their conscience before God should be enlightened, instructed, purged, and kept clean.
Such believers understand that there could be no real spiritual comprehension, nor any genuine godliness except as men and women exposed and enslaved their consciences to God’s Word.
To the Reformers, conscience signified a man’s knowledge of himself as standing in God’s presence, subject to God’s Word. and exposed to the judgement of God’s law and yet – as a believer – justified and accepted nonetheless through divine grace.
Once, Christians were taught to commune with their consciences daily, in the regular discipline of self examination under the Word of God; but how much of this practice remains today? Do we not constantly give evidence of our neglect of this secret discipline by unprincipled and irrespose public conduct?
Even more so today, we see consciences completely ignored when men and women freely justify their lies, deceits, immoral behaviour, under the guise of having good reasons to do so – we should remember how Eve blamed Adam for her sin and failure, and how Adam very quickly pointed his finger at Satan – and this has been going on throughout human history, and even in the history of the church.
Certainly, this works against genuine repentance in one’s life; it nurtures the ‘hardening of the heart’ and closes one’s openness to being teachable and being corrected by God. But we are told to commune with our consciences daily in the regular discipline of self-examination under the Word of God; but how can this be truly possible if we do not place priority in the study and meditation of God’s Word, and we rationalise away when clearly confronted with the truth in God’s Word?
Brethren, let us, from the youngest to the matured Christian, take pains to have a clear conscience before God and men.
It may be too late to do so when we have to appear before the judgement seat of Christ!!