“Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.”
(Timothy 1:19 NLT)
The conscience of a man can become so severely compromised and violated that it is of little use to the Holy Spirit. Sadly there are too many people, even Christians, in this category.
As Paul said, it is not an accidental occurrence. It is a deliberate process. A Conscience is not violated in a day. It takes time, process, and continued defiance. If we continue to do things we know to be wrong, it comes to a point our conscience no longer pricks us. When many people get to this point they begin to feel, “Oh well, maybe it wasn’t such as bad a sin as I thought”. Or they think maybe God has decided to approve of their actions. The sad reality is God is still as upset about that thing as he was the first time. The only difference is that the conscience of that person has been made useless through deliberate violation. Nothing violates the conscience like deliberate disobedience. It is possible to violate our conscience to the point that it becomes completely dead: “These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead.” (1 Timothy 4:2 NLT)
We need to trust God to help us, and we need to repent of any sin in our lives that we have deliberately indulged in. After this, we need to commit to living a life of obedience. A life of obedience is the key to a clear conscience.
Prayer: Father, Help Me to live a life of complete Obedience. Purge me of every filthiness of the flesh and the spirit, and quicken my conscience.
Chubie Ujah
(To access the entire “The Conscience” mini-series, please press here.)