This lesson focuses on a basic understanding in regard to godly consciences. It is essential to grasp this understanding if future lessons are to be helpful. The lesson: a godly conscience does not give a person his/her standards and values. Rather, a godly conscience honors the standards and values a person accepts as right or as from God.
The importance of grasping this principle cannot be exaggerated in regard to the conscience and this series. The principle is simple: the conscience does not determine a person's understanding of right and wrong; the conscience reacts to one's understanding of right and wrong. The conscience responds to the meaning of a person's values and standards.
From a Christian perspective, there are numerous kinds of consciences. Those kinds of conscience include a "good" conscience, a "guilty" conscience, a "strong" conscience, a "weak" conscience, a conscience that feels, a conscience that cannot feel, an "alive" conscience, and a "dead" conscience. Actually, there is but one conscience, but that conscience can be in any one of these states or conditions.
When a person acts consistently with his/her understanding of right or wrong, the conscience reacts positively. When a person violates his/her understanding of right and wrong, the conscience reacts negatively. Consciences react with no feeling if they are neglected or dead.
In one way the statement, "Let your conscience be your guide," is correct. In another way, that statement is incorrect. The statement is correct if a person means, "I should be true in my actions to my standards and values." The statement is incorrect if a person means, "My conscience defines my standards and values."
The correctness or incorrectness of the statement is determined by one's understanding of the role of conscience. If the person understands the conscience is reacting to his/her standards and values, the statement is correct. If the person thinks the conscience defines/produces standards and values, he/she is incorrect.
When a person violates his/her understanding of right and wrong, he/she has a "guilty conscience." The conscience convicts that person of being wrong because he/she violated his/her standards or values. The conscience did not declare the person's standards and values. The conscience declared a violation of the person's standards or values.
It is for this reason a person can do something that is right by God's definition, but feel like he or she is in violation of God's expectations for doing that which God declares right. See Romans 14:1-3 for an example.
The two statements in today's texts illustrate the situation. Paul declared he always had functioned on the basis of a good conscience. That included the period of life when Paul was not a Christian. Thus it included the time when Paul guarded the robes of those who executed Stephen by stoning (Acts 7:58; 8:1). It also included the disrespectful treatment and arrest of Jewish men and women who were Christians (Acts 8:3). Included were those times when Paul tried to make Jewish Christian men and women blaspheme God by denouncing Jesus publicly (Acts 26:11). Also included were those times that he blasphemed God because he violently persecuted those who believed Jesus was the Messiah [the Christ].
Pre-Christian Paul could do things Christianity regards wicked and still be a person of good conscience. Later, the Christian Paul could emphasize the role of conscience as being essential to godly existence. Conscience of itself is neither right nor wrong. It simply reacts to a person's understanding of right and wrong.
If you react by asking, "How can a person be true to his conscience and at the same time encourage murder, abuse people, blaspheme God, and persecute the innocent? Is that possible?" Yes! How is it possible? It is possible because the person is being true to his/her standards and values. The problem is not in being a person of conscience, but of having incorrect standards and values.
Emphasize the source of the problem are the standards and values that govern our behavior, not the existence of conscience. If a person of conscience is to be redirected, his/her standards and values must acquire new definitions.
Consider Paul as an example. Prior to believing in the identity and resurrection of Jesus, was Paul devout? Yes! See Acts 26:9. Was he dedicated to God? Yes! See Galatians 1:13, 14. Was he convinced he was pursuing God's purposes? Yes! Look carefully at Acts 26:8-13. The problem was not that he was a person of conscience. In fact, to be true to his standards and values, those standards and values demanded that he destroy the influence of Jesus among Jews who believed God resurrected Jesus from the dead.
Paul's conscience was not retrained. Paul's understanding of Jesus and his significance was retrained. When his standards and values changed, his behavior changed.
When he held the robes at Stephen's emotion filled execution, he was honoring his standards and values. He was honoring the same standards and values when he arrested Jewish Christians, abused Jewish Christians, blasphemed God by denouncing Jesus, and persecuted Jewish believers who placed their faith in Jesus. In fact, he could not be a person of conscience and ignore a situation he believed opposed God's will and purposes in Israel.
What altered Paul's situation? It was not that the man of conscience suddenly became a man with no conscience! What altered his situation was an understanding of (a) who Jesus was and (b) what God did by giving life to the dead body of Jesus (Acts 9). When he understood Jesus' identity and God's work in Jesus, everything changed!
Paul's life and actions changed quickly because (a) he had a completely new understanding of who Jesus was and (b) he understood that God was at work in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. He looked at information he possessed for a long time, but he looked at that old information from a completely different perspective. The scriptures he studied did not change. The meaning he grasped from those scriptures changed. He saw God's meaning, not Israel's meaning.
Why? A correct understanding of Jesus instantly changed his standards and values. What had to happen previously in honor of his standards and values could not possibly happen after his standards and values changed. Were he to continue to be a man of conscience, he had to honor his new standards and values.
This new understanding demanded new standards and values. Old standards and values had to be redefined. If he were to continue to be a man of conscience, he had to honor his new standards and values. That meant behavior had to radically change. What he did previously to honor God as a person of conscience changed radically when he realized he could not honor God unless he honored God's son, Jesus.
In his words, he received mercy from God for his atrocious, ungodly behavior because he acted "ignorantly in unbelief" (1 Timothy 1:13). He did not know Jesus was the Messiah! He did not believe Jesus was the Messiah! He did not understand God was at work in Jesus! Because of ignorance, Paul was forgiven by God of what we might regard unforgivable behavior. As soon as Paul knew who Jesus was, Paul placed his faith in Jesus. His actions radically changed--immediately! See Acts 9:19-22. Why the immediate, radical change? Because he continued to be a man of conscience! When he knew who Jesus was, his standards and values changed. As a man of conscience, he had to honor his new standards and values!
Paul received mercy for two reasons. (a) He acted ignorantly in unbelief. (b) God could use Paul to demonstrate the adequacy and power of His grace (1 Timothy 1:12-16). He acted ignorantly in unbelief (a) because the things he did before he was a Christian were not deliberate acts of rebellion against God [though wrong, he sincerely thought he was serving God], and (b) because he did not know who Jesus was in relationship to God.
To note how real and genuine the change was, read Acts 8:1--3 and immediately read 1 Thessalonians 1:5-8. Note the contrast!
Contrast the brutal, abusive man with the gentle, kind man.
A person of conscience will be true to his/her standards and values--even in moments when being true to standards and values is costly! To redirect a person of conscience, educate his/her standards and values. When standards and values grow and improve, the conscience continues to be loyal by honoring the new standards and values.
Our objective as Christians is NOT to destroy consciences, but TO redefine standards and values by Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. God is not blessed by people who possess unfeeling or dead consciences.
For Thought and Discussion
This lesson focuses on producing a better understanding of godly consciences.
The conscience can be good or guilty, strong or weak, feeling-filled or unfeeling, alive or dead.
It is true if one understands the conscience reacts to the standard and values a person has. It is false if one thinks it defines the standards and values the person has. It is true if one understands the conscience reacts to standards and values. It is false if one thinks it gives standards and values their definition.
He/she has a "guilty" conscience when he/she behaves in
a manner that violates his/her accepted standards and values.
Included in this discussion must be the understanding
that Paul before becoming a Christian and while living as a Christian was
honoring his standards and values. Before and after he honored by his actions
that which he regarded to be right.
An understanding of the correct identity of Jesus
changed Paul. That understanding changed his standards and values.
He received God's mercy for two reasons. (a) His
wickedness was not a product of delibrate rebellion against God. He did not
understand who Jesus was. (b) As a Christian, he was a living illustration of
the adequacy and power of God's grace.
We must redefine his/her standards and values by using
the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. We must not seek to destroy the
conscience.