Having defined conscience in our previous post with such clarity that should not leave anyone in confusion when it comes to self-assessment, let’s go on to see the impact of the state of conscience on the believer’s faith.

Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 1:17 in describing our Father in heaven used a word “incorruptible” that sets for every believer, a target to be attained just as the command in Matthew 6:9.

Hallowed be thy name. Matthew 6:9b

And the gauge of measure of your attainment is measured by the conscience.

To be like our Father is to be holy, incorruptible, and the measure of attainment is reflected in the makeup and the dictates of our conscience.

By the word of God received, that is resident and obeyed in the believer’s life two things result:

1. Fighting a good warfare
2. Holding our faith and a good conscience.

A GOOD CONSCIENCE is built from the pure word of God that we have received, allowed to be resident in us, and that we obey. Only then can the conscience act as the moral compass it is created to be.

That good and clear conscience connected to the faith we profess is manifest in the example spoken to in 1 Timothy 1:19,20.

Holding fast to faith (that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence) and having a good (clear) conscience. By rejecting and thrusting from them [their conscience], some individuals have made shipwreck of their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan in order that they may be disciplined [by punishment and learn] not to blaspheme. 1 Timothy 1:19-20 AMPC

You can mess up your faith having a bad conscience or failing to listen to the warnings of a good and clear conscience. You disobey the warnings and deliberately do what you know is wrong. James 4:17 says, Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. This biblical principle of moral accountability highlights that sin is defined just as much as by what we fail to do as by what we actively do wrong.

We do not know much about Hymenaeus and Alexander, but what we do know is sobering. It is instructive. They both failed to develop, protect and live by a conscience grounded in God’s word and ended up spiritually shipwrecked. What a graphic image. A ship broken to pieces on the rocks because it went off course!

How is your conscience, what are you persistently yielding to despite knowing it is wrong? Don’t presume on God, make the change, asking for and yielding to the help of the Holy Spirit while there is time.

Selah.


Pastor Afolabi Oladele