[3] What is our conscience – can we trust it?

Is the conscience always right?

Has everyone got a conscience?
How can someone commit murder and their conscience does not stop them?

A bank robber’s conscience could say that it is wrong to break in and rob people’s houses, but robbing banks is okay, why?

What is our conscience?

The part of you that judges how moral your own actions are and makes you feel guilty about bad things that you have done or things you feel responsible for.”

‘Conscience’ Cambridge Dictionary. ¹

1. What is a conscience according to scientists and other thinkers?

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy gives a brief description:

Conscience is defined by its inward looking and subjective character, in the following sense:
Conscience is always knowledge of ourselves, or awareness of moral principles we have committed to, or assessment of ourselves, or motivation to act that comes from within us (as opposed to external impositions).”

‘Conscience’ The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ²

An article in the The Washington Times believes that everyone has a conscience:

There is undeniable evidence that everyone has a conscience.
In ‘Mere Christianity,’ C.S. Lewis tells how this was one of the things that led him from agnosticism to a belief in God.
As he looked at the various cultures and communities, he couldn’t avoid the evidence of a shared moral code that crossed the boundaries of time, geography, race, gender, and even religion.
While there were some modest anthropological differences, the bottom line was that people shared basic moral assumptions from tribe to tribe and from age to age.
And everyone seemed to have a common reaction of indignation when this code was violated.”

‘Ask Dr. E: Does everyone have a conscience?’ By Everett Piper The Washington Times ³

The following philosophers are in date order.

Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, priest, an influential philosopher and theologian, and a jurist [an expert in Law] in the tradition of scholasticism [medieval school of philosophy] from the county of Aquino in the Kingdom of Sicily. ⁴ His assessment of the conscience was this:

For Aquinas, conscience is the act of applying our general knowledge of good and evil to what we do (or might do).
So in order to (naturally) know what is a good action or a bad one, one needs to understand at a general or universal level how things are naturally ordered by God — primarily what human nature is, and what things it needs and deserves.
The understanding of this order which dictates what is good or evil behavior is called the Natural Law by Aquinas, and all rational people can and do acquire it simply in virtue of being rational.
Some people, however, can so obscure their grasp of the Natural Law through morally bad actions that it becomes as though they forget what is right and what is wrong.”

‘Conscience’ Aquinas on Line. ⁵

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. ⁶

Like his predecessors Kant also believes that ‘there is a germ of goodness left in its entire purity, a germ that cannot be extirpated or corrupted’. ⁷
In other words, there is some basic sense of goodness that is the source of feelings such as remorse.
Nevertheless, Kant also asserts that man is autonomous; in the sense that he is
the legislator of his own law. At the same time man is the subject of these laws.
They are formulated by practical reasoning. It is the duty of conscience to check whether man follows the orders of the law.
Therefore, ‘consciousness of an inner court in the human being (‘before which his thoughts accuse or excuse one another’) is conscience’. ⁸
He describes conscience as the duty to engage in a kind of second-order reflection, judging that one has applied moral judgments properly to oneself.”

‘A Study on Conscience: The Content and Function’ By Nalan Sarac. Duquesne Scholarship Collection. ⁹

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher. His ideas have had a profound impact on 20th and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy, especially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism, and post-structuralism, as well as art, literature, poetry, politics, and popular culture. ¹⁰

Contrary to his predecessors, Nietzsche conceptualizes conscience as something questionable, as an impediment for human beings, which prevents them from realizing their true nature.
This controversial view can give us an opportunity to check our presuppositions about human nature.
For example, do human beings, as a species have a real concern for doing the good thing?
If not, then conscience is nothing but a tool for controlling human behavior to maintain the social order.”

‘A Study on Conscience: The Content and Function’ By Nalan Sarac. Duquesne Scholarship Collection.

Scientists are trying to figure out how and why our brains evolved a conscience:

Early on, scientists expected to find a ‘moral area’ in the brain.
But there turned out not to be one.
In fact, there are several areas throughout the brain that turn on during these experiments.
By working together, these brain areas probably become our conscience. Scientists refer to these areas as the ‘moral network.’
This network is actually made up of three smaller networks, says Fiery Cushman of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.
This psychologist specializes in morality. One brain network helps us understand other people. Another allows us to care about them. The last helps us make decisions based on our understanding and caring..”

‘What part of us knows right from wrong?’ By Alison Pearce Stevens. Science News Explores ¹¹

These thoughts are varied, so how does the Bible answer the question, ‘What is our conscience – can we trust it?’

2. What is the conscience according to the Bible?

There are some very interesting verses in Paul’s letter to the Romans where he states:

For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
For when Gentiles, who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”

Romans 2:13-16 ESV

Paul is telling us that even those who know nothing about the God of the Bible have God’s law written on their hearts.
That does not mean detailed laws, but a summary of those laws.

For example, Jesus gave a summary of the Law in answer to a lawyer’s question, ‘What is the greatest Commandment?’

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:37-40 ESV

We do not know what God has put on everyone’s hearts but a bare minimum would be something like Jesus’ summary.

So everyone has a conscience from Stone Age man, Alexander the Great, the Roman emperor Nero, Joseph Goebbels to everyone in this digital age.

Is it wrong to ignore our conscience? Well, generally our conscience has got a lot of good in it so following it is better than nothing, but it is not totally trustworthy.

3. Can the conscience be altered?

We are born with some kind of conscience that gets influenced and trained as we get older.

Paul wrote to Timothy saying that a deacon, “must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear* conscience.” ¹²
The word ‘clear*’ ‘καθαρός’ (katharos) means ‘clean, pure, unsoiled’

That must mean that a conscience can get unclean, impure and soiled.
Another verse confirms that our conscience can be good or bad “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” ¹³

How we are parented, what we are taught at school and college, our experiences, etc, are all able to alter our conscience.

Our conscience is not always 100% right.

Why is that?
It is because our conscience is polluted and twisted by our sinful nature.
Paul writing about unbelievers to Titus states:

their minds and consciences are corrupted.”

Titus 1:15 NIV

We can so easily spoil and stain our conscience.

We can HARDEN or paralyse our conscience.
We can feed on wrong values, then our values become weaker.
There are so many different ‘values’ bombarding us through books and magazines, the Internet, films, TV programmes, and obviously, the people we spend time with.
All these things can either strengthen or harden our conscience. Paul says:

Bad company corrupts good morals.”

1 Corinthians 15:33 NIV

We can still socialise, but when we are meeting with others who do not have a godly standard we should be able to know where our boundaries are.

The habit of spending lots of time with bad company will harden and paralyse our conscience and over time can make it virtually ineffective.
Do we abuse and harden our conscience, or do we nurture it?

Can our conscience be burnt?

What sort of conscience would a false biblical teacher have – one who was used to lying and who potentially dabbled in the occult?
The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy warning him about such people:

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared*, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”

1 Timothy 4:1-3 ESV

The word used here about their consciences being seared* is ‘καυσόω’ (kausoō) meaning ‘to burn, to be consumed by fire, to burn intensely’ and is only used three times in the Bible.

It is fascinating to see that the other two references speak of the intense burning at the end of the world:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies [‘elements’] will be burned* up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”

2 Peter 3:10 ESV

The heat involved at the end of the world will be incredible, burning everything – even the elements so nothing will be left.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, awaiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn*!”

2 Peter 3:11-12 ESV

So these false teachers had allowed their consciences to be violated by giving themselves to evil and depraved situations, therefore these situations seared their consciences and just about destroyed them.

What is an evil conscience?

let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil** conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Hebrews 10:22 ESV

Jesus taught his disciples to pray and he said, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil**.” ¹⁴

We should avoid all evil conversations, thoughts and situations – choose your friends wisely!

Jesus told his disciples to have a ‘single eye’ focused on the Kingdom of God and not to long for riches or lust after other things, but then he said “but if your eye is bad** [‘evil’], your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” ¹⁵

What a warning Jesus is giving here!
Later, Jesus gives another warning that specifically mentions judgment:

The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil** person out of his evil** treasure brings forth evil**.
I tell you on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Matthew 12:35-37 ESV

4. An example of a good conscience from some biblical characters.

Ben-Hadad king of Aram marched to Samaria and laid siege to it
There was a huge famine in the city and there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate.
They decided that if they went into the city they would die of starvation so they turned around to head for the Arameans and surrender.

When they arrived at the massive camp they could see no one at all!
They did not know, but during the night the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, which they thought was the Hittites and Egyptians coming to kill them!

So they dropped everything and fled leaving all their equipment and supplies in the camp.

The men who had leprosy reached the camp and they started to eat and drink all they could.
Then they picked up the silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them.

Then they said to each other, ‘We’re not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.’ ”

2 Kings 7:3–9 NIV

They were suddenly aware of their conscience telling them that what they were doing was wrong.
They then had to choose whether to follow their conscience or refuse to listen.

They chose to listen to their conscience and went back to the city and told everyone what had happened so the people in the famine struck city could eat and be filled.

The lepers consciences were clean enough to tell them to do the right thing.

5. Can God judge us if we don’t know God’s Laws?

Paul tells us that Israel was the only nation to have God’s Law.

To repeat what was said earlier, the other nations instinctively know the requirements of that law because these requirements are written on everyone’s hearts, and their consciences bear witness to that fact:

They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.”

Romans 2:15 NIV

God is right in all that He does.
So He put an awareness of Himself in everyone, and He puts some knowledge of His Laws in each one of them too.
(But that does not mean our conscience is always right, as we discussed earlier.)

But there is enough knowledge there to leave people without an excuse.
If we choose to turn away from God we are guilty!
Therefore He is just and right to judge mankind for ignoring Him, and for disobeying Him.
We will all stand before Him one day and that is a sure fact.

The only safe place to be on that Day is in Christ Jesus.
Secure in Him, and trusting in Him for our eternal protection and joy.  
Are you safe in the Lord Jesus Christ?

7. How can we train our conscience?

Learning about good values and politeness will help to inform our conscience.

But it is when we turn to God that our conscience is WASHED clean.
It is washed to get rid of false notions and ideas.

We then have a duty to TRAIN our conscience.
We do that by studying God’s Word to make it good, and trustworthy.

If we don’t study the Bible, our conscience will be weak, and not able to do a proper job.
Paul says that a weak conscience is put alongside a lack of spiritual knowledge.

But not everyone possesses this KNOWLEDGE… since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.”

1 Corinthians 8:7 NIV

Let’s make our consciences strong, active, and fully able to do its job properly, by studying the Bible, and understanding how the Lord sees things.
If our conscience hasn’t been trained by applying God’s standards, we could find ourselves having a clear conscience, and yet, in reality, we could be guilty. Paul says:

My conscience is clear, but that does NOT make me innocent.”

1 Corinthians 4:4 NIV

We need to get God’s Word into our hearts so that our conscience then gives us the true picture.
It needs to be saying the same as the Word of God.

The Bible is a plumb line.
Whatever comes near to this plumb line will reveal whether it is in line with what God requires, or whether it is offline.
All our actions and motives are put next to the plumb line, and from that, there will either be peace or a feeling of guilt.

The apostle Paul wrote some very good advice:

So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.”

Act 24:16 ESV

How to keep our conscience clear when we are under a bad authority?
Jesus is about to hand over the work of his kingdom to his disciples, but they were arguing about which one of them is the greatest!

Jesus said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit...” How can that be?
Does God write off those who are divorced and have remarried?
Jesus wanted to commend and encourage a lady’s faith when she reached out to him.
Jesus says that he will set us free, but surely we aren’t slaves…?
Jesus went to Jairus’ house and said that his daughter was just asleep – the crowd laughed at Jesus!

References and credits – open in new tabs:

1. ‘Conscience’ Cambridge Dictionary. ↩

2. ‘Conscience’ The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 11 February 2021 ↩

3. ‘Ask Dr. E: Does everyone have a conscience?’ By Everett Piper The Washington Times 19 July 2023 ↩

4. ‘Thomas Aquinas’ Wikipedia last edited on 25 February 2024  ↩

5. ‘Conscience’ Aquinas on Line. ↩

6. ‘Immanuel Kant’ Wikipedia last edited on 20 February 2024. ↩

7. Kant 1793, Religion. Ak. 6:45-46 ↩

8. Kant 1797, Metaphysics of Morals, Ak. 6:438 ↩

9. ‘A Study on Conscience: The Content and Function’ By Nalan Sarac. Duquesne Scholarship Collection. 01 January 2016  ↩

10. ‘Friedrich Nietzsche’ Wikipedia last edited on 23 February 2024 ↩

11. ‘What part of us knows right from wrong?’ By Alison Pearce Stevens. Science News Explores 21 March 2019  ↩

12. 1 Timothy 3:9 ESV ↩

13. 1 Timothy 1:5 ESV  ↩

14. Matthew 6:13 ESV  ↩

15. Matthew 6:23 ESV  ↩