"Having a good
conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be
ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better,
if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing."
God has blessed all men with a conscience. This is that
internal awareness that either excuses the things we do or accuses us of the
wrong things that we do. (Rom. 2:14-15) However, before we assume that our
conscience should be our guide and direct our lives for all good living, we
have to realize that conscience alone is not a good guide. You see, a
conscience is only as useful as the amount of information that has been put
into it. Someone who lives a life as a criminal will feel a shamed or guilty
conscience if he turns or “squeals” on his accomplices. This is because at some
level he ingrained his conscience with some philosophy like “there is honor
among thieves.” While philosophies like this make for entertaining TV shows,
they make for horribly anti-biblical living. You see, God designed our
conscience to be informed well. We soak all things up and develop a world-view
that will be based upon the things we allow to influence us. Our conscience
simply tells us how to live. God also gave us His Word, so that we could read
and know all things that He desired for us to know. One of the greatest things
that He desires from us is obedience. He has equipped us with a conscience, and
He has given us His Word so that we can equip our conscience for a lifestyle of
obedience. Sadly, we often neglect to read His Word. Instead, we live a life
that exhibits poor decision after poor decision, all the while, our own
un-informed conscience excusing all of our ignorant actions. Here in 1 Peter
3:16, Peter tells us that we should have a good conscience and that our
conscience should bear out the fruit of a good lifestyle in Christ. Inform your
conscience with God’s Truth, and then allow that conscience to convict you of
wrong doing, or to offer peace when others falsely accuse you of wrong doing.
Food For Thought: Is
there such a thing as an ill-informed conscience? How do we have a
well-informed conscience?
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