Point Counter-Point
Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide?
(SLIDE) I read a story this week about a tragic bus accident. I don’t know when this occurred – it likely happened many years ago. Returning from a sporting event on a foggy night, the driver missed a turn, plunging tragically over a mountain cliff killing everyone. What caused the accident? The fog? The driver? It was discovered that someone thought it would be a good joke to alter the road sign.
Of course, that was no laughing matter. I use it today as a metaphor for where we might be going as a society. We’re living in a moral fog – a time of deep spiritual confusion. We aren’t seeing the road ahead clearly – and, in my estimation, we’re being guided by signs that could lead to destruction. What’s the answer? How do we find our way out of the fog? How can we know right from wrong? One popular form of guidance we often hear is my topic today:
(SLIDE) POINT: Let your conscience be your guide – SHOW PINNOCHIO VIDEO CLIP!
(SLIDE) The saying – “Let your conscience be your guide” has been around for a long time. For some of us, this 1940 Disney video may have been the first time we heard it. Some have called it the Jiminy Cricket code of ethics – and you can see in his song the connection made between morality and conscience. Actually, the phrase is a lot older than that. It originated as an Islamic saying 1,300 years ago. Caliph Umar Ibn Al-khattab was the father of one of Mohammed’s wives and was the third Muslim Caliph. After conquering Jerusalem he was returning to Medina, and he prayed and gave a message at Jabiah. One of the things Al-Khattab said was: “And speak the truth. Do not hesitate to say what you consider to be the truth. Say what you feel. Let your conscience be your guide.” (David Dykes message, Sermon Central).
What is the conscience? Our English word “conscience” comes from two Latin words,”con”, which means “with” and “science” which means “to know.” Both words have the idea of “knowing with ourselves” or “knowing within ourselves.” When it comes to moral decisions, it means to “understand internally.” It’s not just an imaginary inner voice. It’s an actual part of the brain believed to be located in the prefrontal cortex (the part that helps us make decisions). It records what we learn about “right and wrong” so that we know what’s required in different situations. From a creation perspective, it’s one of those amazing ways God equipped us. Dr. Marvin W. Berkowitz, an expert on moral development writes: “Kids have an internal conscience. It starts developing in the first few years of life and really kicks into high gear around 3 or 4 years of age. Our consciences tell us when we are about to violate (or have violated) our moral code. You can see this even in pre-schoolers who cry at their own selfishness and who try to soothe those they have hurt.” (Sanford N. McDonnell Professor of Character Education; University of Missouri-St. Louis) The conscience works much like our nerves. When we touch a hot stove or an open flame, our nerves send a signal back to our brains, telling us that’s not such a good idea! Our conscience serves a similar function – when we’re facing a poor moral choice, our conscience is like a warning light telling us not to do what’s wrong – you’re in danger of breaking your internal moral code.
So, “let your conscience be your guide” sounds like a good think – even sounds biblical, too – but you can’t find the phrase in the Bible, and Jiminy Cricket left one critical element out of his song: (SLIDE) our conscience is fallible – and that’s my counter-point today. Our conscience isn’t always the reliable guide we think it is. Our conscience is a good mechanism – a vastly important part of our internal makeup – but it’s only as good as the information it’s filled with. After all when we talk about the conscience as an internal moral code – that is our own internal moral code – it’s what you have chosen to believe and live by – and therein lies the problem.
The Apostle Paul knew this as well as anyone. He makes a pretty amazing statement in (SLIDE) 1 Corinthians 4:4 - 4My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. He was saying this in the context of talking about others judging him – in saying his conscience was clear, he was saying he knew of nothing against himself, nothing someone could judge him for, but he knew he could be wrong in his assessment – that his conscience might be wrong. Paul couldn’t trust his own conscience, and would ultimately answer to God. Why would Paul come to that conclusion (SLIDE)?
1) Paul knew the conscience can be weak – easily changed and easily influenced. He had been a Pharisee – the whole legalistic system of the Pharisees was really based on the assumption that the human conscience is weak and can be faulty – so what did they do? They created a very complex set of rules and guidelines to keep the conscience in check. Fast forward to our secular world today – the pendulum has swung to another extreme. We live in a world in which truth is relative to each person – so what do I base my conscience on today – where do I get my moral cues from - what I just read or saw in a book or a movie, what I hear coming out of Hollywood (or even Washington, DC), what I hear from a teacher I respect, or seeing what my favorite famous personality does or says, or the gravitational pull of the majority? Of course, we know the unreliability of all those sources of moral guidance. I love this quote: “A case could be made that the best way to determine God’s will or the right course of action is to take an opinion poll and then do the exact opposite!” Anyway, the bottom line is our conscience can be very pliable – may even vary from day-to-day – can our conscience then really be trusted?
2) Paul knew sin can distort the conscience. I think of the powerful point made in Jeremiah: “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9) Paul understood this, knew the powerful influence of sin on the human soul and certainly the conscience, and he wrote often about how sin distorts human thought and corrupts the human conscience. In Titus 1:15 he asserts: Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted. Sin and its powerful influence and ability to distort are no doubt the underlying reasons for the corruption of the human soul and conscience – and Paul was deeply aware of that reality.
3) Paul knew the conscience can be hardened. Paul speaks of this possibility when discussing false teachers in 1 Timothy 4:1-2 - Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. 2These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead. The Greek word for “dead” also means “seared” – as with a hot iron – our English word is “cauterize”. The concept Paul is speaking about is that something – a way of thinking, sinning – can become so normal, so justified – we no longer consider it a sin – or we simply become dead to the pain or power of that sin – it’s like a callus. A blister on a foot can be painful for a time, but eventually you can develop a callus – the wound is no longer sensitive to the pain. Now that’s good perhaps for a runner, but really bad for the human conscience. If you do something you know is wrong – that initially brought on guilt – but you keep on doing it anyway, pretty soon the guilt dissipates – even disappears – you might have a clear conscience, but your actions are less than honorable. So many people get to the point that they don’t even know their conscience has stopped working. Our prisons are full of people like that – and so is every human institution – even the church. Lots of examples: the Nazi’s, Ted Bundy’s of the world, the Christian leader who carries on an adulterous relationship for years without guilt. A conscience can become so hardened it simply become useless in guiding our actions.
(SLIDE) CONCLUDING COMMENTS: So what’s the answer? If our conscience is unreliable, what do we do? I read this little piece from a pastor and aviator.
“Every airplane has a magnetic compass. You can’t depend on the magnetic compass unless you are flying straight and level because whenever you are climbing, descending, or turning, the compass doesn’t work properly. So every airplane has a gyroscopic compass called a “directional gyro” or a DG for short. This instrument is driven by a small gyroscope which maintains equilibrium even when the airplane is turning or climbing. But the DG is not a real compass, it must be set to match the magnetic compass, and it has to be reset frequently or it will not reflect the correct heading.”
One of our own aviators, TJ Palmer, tells me that even with all the “Gucci” aids pilots have these days, the pilot is still responsible to verify everything using the compass and a known, certified heading. That says a lot about how we must deal with our conscience. We have to accept the fact that we have a “true north” – a pilot who ignores the law of nature, ignores his instruments and fails to do the constant checks needed, will be in big trouble trying to navigate a route – there is an absolute standard of truth when it comes to navigation. God and the Bible represent a “true north” for all of us in our lives – if we fail to accept that fact, we’re in danger of losing our way. The Bible, God’s words, should be informing our conscience, day after day – always checking to make sure we’ve got the correct heading – because it’s so easy to go off course.
Let me close with words of scripture. In Jeremiah 17:5-8 (just before the part about our deceitful hearts) God’s wisdom is this:
This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strengthand turn their hearts away from the Lord. 6They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land.7“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. 8They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.
And then from Hebrews 9:13-14 –
(SLIDE) Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God.
Your conscience isn’t your guide – Christ is your guide. When you have a relationship with Him – a relationship with deep roots – that reach into His deep waters – you’ve allowed Him to program your conscience – that you might live the blessed and productive life that God has called you to.
It’s all about surrender – daily, sometimes hourly – to surrender to God’s direction.