Christian Moral Conscience

The Christian Bible views man in moral perspective. We are God’s creatures who can and must answer to Him for what we become. To assist us, God has given us both capacity and inclination to judge our own behavior on the basis of His standard of right and wrong made known to us through His Word.

Conscience aids us in discerning what is right and good from what is inferior, wrong, bad. It encourages decisions that are acceptable in His sight and where there is a conflict, it attempts to persuade us to follow God’s prescribed way of righteousness.

Moral consciousness is characterized by a sense of responsibility. When its urgings are ignored, we feel guilt, a complex experience that includes a sense of judgment, unworthiness, self-depreciation and estrangement from God, others and our self. This feeling can only be relieved by forgiveness extended to us by God and accepted by us.

Jesus never used the word conscience although His teaching aimed at arousing a sense of conscience in us and at focusing our attention on our motives as well as our acts. He called us to moral wholeness. “Clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean” (Matthew 23:26). Simply to avoid murdering or committing adultery does not suffice. To be angry with a brother or sister makes us liable to judgment and to lust after another is to commit adultery in our heart.

Jesus told us that God claims our desires and intentions as well as our acts. He did not belittle the haughty moral earnestness of the scribes and Pharisees; He merely made it clear that even this was not enough to enable a man to stand before God: “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” But through the Cross, Christ would effect reconciliation between man and God and men would be reckoned righteous through faith.

Paul regarded conscience as one of the evidences of the validity and universality of the moral law. He argued that all men are responsible for what they do. The Gentiles, who were not given the law, do what the law requires, thereby showing that their consciences are guided by a universal, built-in morality or to use his words, “written on their hearts.” Men have received a sufficient revelation of what is good to make us morally responsible.

We note that Paul speaks of himself as “having fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience” which he claims to have always maintained. This is consistent with his discussion of the weaker brother whose conscience will not let him eat meat offered to idols. He gives the stronger brother, the one who knows idols are unreal and is untroubled by eating such men, stern warning not to encourage the weaker brother to go against his own conscience, however uninformed that conscience may be. Paul thus, seems to be saying that we must appreciate where people are in their understanding and Christian maturity before being quick to overwhelm them with our education and explanations.

In his reasoning, Paul believes we are morally responsibility only for decisions related to our own conscience; to disobey conscience is to be at war with our own deepest self. Only a morally responsible attitude is likely to lead to contrition and repentance which are necessary to bring about a needed change of mind. Good and clear conscience begins with our heeding its urgings and warnings and it develops through bringing our moral convictions under the scrutiny of God’s will.

Paul also writes of the corrupted conscience in his letter to Titus where he speaks of persons whose Christian profession and worship are divorced from their actual behavior so that their actions belie their words (1:15). The scorn Paul has for such people may be seen in his final thrust at them; he calls them; “detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good” (1:15). Nor does he deal any more kindly with those whose consciences he describes as “seared” (1 Timothy 4:2). Seared consciences are consciences which have lost their sensitivity through ongoing and persistent embracing of the evil.

The Christian conscience must be rooted in His redemption through God’s grace in Jesus Christ and not on works of law (the flesh). Paul clearly understood the lure of a legalistic moral system and the moral shipwreck and spiritual death it brings; “They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth” (4:3). Therefore, he urged the Galatians to have the courage to live with a clear conscience, one that is free in Jesus Christ and which cultivates the fruit of the Spirit.

We are not born with fully developed moral consciences. Moral development is required and subject to the same laws of learning as other aspects of personality. Sound Christian conscience development is pivotal to spiritual growth and requires edification. Bible study is crucial to developing and maintaining an informed Christian conscience and encouraging moral and spiritual maturity.

Conscience development usually begins in childhood through parental expectations and prohibitions which the child internalizes and which then serve as spontaneous checks on his or her behavior. Whether or not a child progresses from this infantile, automatic moral response depends to a significant degree upon the emotional atmosphere wherein the child is taught. Thus, within the home teaching environment the child learns whether or not obedience is good or bad and how his or her objections are handled. Is the environment one of encouragement, or is it one heavily steeped in criticism and disapproval? This is an important question because it relates directly to the child’s moral development.

The child experiences unconditional love and the reality of forgiveness when parents are good Christian models of the qualities they require of the child. When the climate of the home is predictable, warm, loving and supportive; putting greater emphasis on approval and encouraging the best rather than upon disapproval and punishing failure, the child discovers “goodness” as attractive rather than something distasteful only to be obeyed to avoid punitive retaliation for failure to comply.

When moral training is excessively punitive, it becomes a fear induced process in which “goodness” is reduced to the avoidance of punishment rather than the attainment of positive virtues. This characteristic is often exhibited in children who feel he or she must earn their parents approval through pleasing behavior (external righteousness) that will win their parents love. Conditional love unfortunately becomes the only motivation for pleasing behavior and the child’s conscience then becomes negative, inflexible, and his or her sense of guilt becomes distorted. Many parents resort to manipulating the conscience of the child by making them feel guilty. Since guilty feelings can be emotionally unbearable for children, they quickly learn to avoid the pain of guilt through shallow, puppet like obedience.

Conscience maturity is rooted primarily in personal commitment to ideals and in moral conviction rather than in response to external demands. Mature conscience says, “I ought to do this because it is right,” or, “I ought not to do this because it is wrong.” Thus, the motivation is love for righteousness. The immature, prohibitive conscience says, “I must do this because if I do not I will be punished.” The motivation is fear of being reprimanded in some way.

The prohibitive conscience is not to be confused with a guilty conscience. A guilty conscience is primarily remorse created by feeling responsible for violating God’s standards of righteousness which we all experience from time to time. Prohibitive conscience, on the other hand, usually brought into adulthood from childhood experiences, is basically a fear-based worldview which can be destructive to the individual as well as to others. Children, who grow into adulthood with prohibitive consciences, are more likely to fear vice and wrong-doing rather than love of virtue and doing right. Goodness is nothing more to these adults than just trying not to behave in ways that may warrant punishment. Life is dominated by a need to appease and to propitiate God and man. The person’s world is one of demands, disapprovals, and anger over his/her imperfections and a chronic preoccupation with the terror of consequences.

This is a truly sad commentary for if those of immature conscience turn these feelings outward, he/she will probably adopt a critical disparaging life style which dwells on the sins and shortcomings of others. This may explain those we encounter who always seem to be negative towards others, not to mention much of the disturbances and disputes in church congregations. If on the other hand, they turn these feelings in on themselves, he/she magnifies their sins, wallow self-punitively in them and dominate others through their self-reproach and threats of self destruction.

In either scenario, the person lives in a vicious circle virtually anesthetized against the spiritual advice of family, friends, co-workers or pastoral counseling. It is only when he/she is able to reconnect the guilt feelings to the thoughts or actions that give rise to them is he/she apt to develop the remorse and repentance that open the way to genuine moral and spiritual insight and growth. Until this reconnection occurs, trying to convince them that God’s love is unconditional and rooted in His holy love revealed in the finished work of Jesus Christ, is an exercise in futility.

Every person is familiar with the inner voice which on occasion accuses and oppresses us, and on other occasions brings joy. Christian moral conscience by its nature is a spiritual instinct, which more clearly and quickly differentiates between good and evil than does the mind. The conscience is the Holy Spirit’s “code blue” alerting us to the evil of a dangerous presence. And, just as we cannot convince ourselves that we are happy when we are grieved or that we are healthy when we are sick, similarly we cannot persuade ourselves that our behavior is right when our conscience tells us otherwise.

“The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5.

“So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.” Acts 24:16

“Not fame and wealth, not great power and physical strength, not a magnificent table and elegant clothing, not any other human advantage can bring true happiness. This comes only from spiritual health and a clear conscience.” ~ Chrysostom