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“What’s a conscience? I’ll tell ya! A conscience is that still small voice that people won’t listen to. That’s just the trouble with the world today…”

—Jiminy Cricket (lines from the 1940s Disney Movie Pinocchio)

I don’t think we need a theological, psychological, or philosophical degree to tell us why it is important to have a good conscience. We all know that small voice. In the Disney children’s movie about Pinocchio, it was embodied in a small nagging insect named “Jiminy Cricket.” It’s that inward judge that monitors and that lives inside each of us. When we have done wrong it accuses us; when we have done well it approves of us.

Born into every person is that inner sense that says, “This is wrong” or, “This is right.” John’s Gospel tells us there is a true light that lights every man (John 1:9). Thank God for this precious gift of conscience.

But conscience is a judge, not a slave master. I say that because conscience can’t make me do right; it only approves of me when I do right. It can’t keep me from doing wrong, it can only judge me when I do wrong.

Do you remember when King David sinned with Bathsheba? He wrote, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions . . . my sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:1, 3 ESV). That is conscience at work. Wherever David looked, he saw the shadow of his sin lurking. When someone came in with a report, he worried, “What’s in that report?” When he saw two men whispering in the palace, he was disturbed, “I wonder what they are whispering about?” I think he must have had very little sleep fearing, “I wonder who knows? I wonder who is talking about me?”

The apostle Paul spoke so often about the conscience. What is a good conscience? It is a conscience that is informed by the Word of God, directed by the Spirit of God. It is like the windows in a house that let the light in. By it we see ourselves, others, and life clearly. That is a good conscience.

But the Bible tells us there are other kinds of conscience, such as the defiled conscience of Titus 1:15.

If the conscience is like a window that lets in the light of God’s truth, we can make that window so dirty that less and less light comes in. How do we know if our conscience is defiled? One simple test is to think about things that we are doing and saying and thinking today. Would we have been ashamed of them six months ago, a year ago? If so, then you may have a defiled conscience. That is why when people say, “My conscience doesn’t bother me,” it very well may be they are perfectly in the clear, or it may also mean that their conscience isn’t as tender as it was at one time.

Then there is something the apostle Paul called a seared conscience (1 Timothy 4:2).

I once had a friend who, as a young girl, was helping her mother with housework. They had nine children, so you can imagine the chores! She was pressing some bed sheets with something called a “mangle”—this was a machine used to press fabric by means of heated rollers. As she was feeding the fabric, her hand was caught in between these very hot rollers and it seared the skin and tissue, causing terrible third-degree burns. She badly burned not only the skin, but also the nerve endings. Strangely, third-degree burns often don’t hurt. We can defile our conscience by searing it so that it doesn’t warn us anymore.

But it can get worse than that. Hebrews 10:22 talks about an evil conscience. An evil conscience is a conscience that not only doesn’t function as it was meant to, but it is one that will approve what is wrong and disapprove of what is right. This describes a person who has ignored and fought their conscience and conditioned it by habit and repetition so that it functions opposite of how it is meant to function. You can go from a good conscience to a defiled conscience to a seared conscience to an evil conscience.

So what do I do if I find I don’t have a clear conscience? If my conscience convicts me? If it is full of “shoulds” and “oughts” and “shall nots”? Then dear one, I suggest you run to Jesus Christ.

And here is the amazing promise: Hebrews 10:22 tells us that even an evil conscience can be cleansed. God is able to not only cleanse our conscience but also help us to re-sensitize our damaged conscience! A few weeks ago after the evening service, Greg and I spoke to a beautiful young girl who had recently given her life to Jesus. When Greg asked her about her story, she simply replied, “Well, I haven’t murdered anyone; that’s about the only thing I haven’t done.” Oh, you would never in a million years have imagined her past life.

But because of the cleansing power of the cross, her sins have been forgiven, her conscience cleansed, and she is an altogether different person. We have watched the transforming work in her heart as she continues to study God’s Word, pray, and remain in fellowship with like-minded friends.

Though sociologists may say there is little hope of change because you are the product of your genetics, or your upbringing and environment (there are those factors that do contribute partly to who we become), the Bible also teaches that it is possible for a person to be transformed—for the compass needle to point true north again, for the weights to be balanced and set right, and for the conscience to go to work!

We have God’s Word and promise on this. Just read the testimony of sinners who encountered Christ in the Gospels! Guilt can be atoned for, and a new life can begin each time we come humbly to the cross. A good conscience is one that works because it is daily being informed by the Word of God and guided by the Holy Spirit of God!