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Acts 24:10–16
“This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men” (Acts 24:16).
As we have progressed through Romans 13 and 14, we have repeatedly encountered references and allusions to an often-misunderstood aspect of our humanity—the conscience. Paul referred to it specifically in 13:5, where he urged the Romans to submit to the governing authorities lest their consciences accuse them of wrongdoing. As we have moved into chapter 14 of Paul’s letter, we have not encountered the word conscience again, but the idea has been present as Paul has talked about believers who are “strong” and “weak” in the faith, and about the behaviors in which such believers feel more or less free to engage. Clearly, it is the conscience that compels a believer to eat only vegetables (or allows him to eat meat also) or to observe one day above another (or to treat all days the same). This is an important concept. Therefore, before moving on in Romans, we will pause this week to consider the conscience. What is it? How does it function? What is it intended to do for us? Dr. R.C. Sproul’s teaching series “Building a Christian Conscience” will be our guide for this brief study.
As we saw when we studied Romans 13:5, the word conscience is a combination of the Latin prefix con, which means “with,” and the word scientia, which means “knowledge.” The conscience, therefore, is our internal knowledge of what is right and wrong—and that approving or chiding mental voice that evaluates our actions as good or bad.
The classical view is that this internal knowledge is implanted in our minds by God Himself, that it is an innate understanding of His requirements as expressed by His laws revealed in Scripture. Thus, depending on our actions, our consciences either accuse us of wrongdoing, of violating His laws, or excuse us of guilt, reassuring us that we have not trespassed against God’s requirements. But as modern culture has passed through the moral revolution of recent decades, a new understanding of conscience has arisen. Under what we might call the relativistic view of the conscience, there are no absolutes, but values are seen as expressions of the desires of a given group at a given time. The conscience is thought to be merely the reaction of each person’s subjective personality to taboos imposed on him or her by the culture. This view, while not entirely true, does reflect our tendency to allow societal norms and man-made rules to inform our consciences.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Take time today to think about times your conscience has accused you of wrongdoing. As far as you can tell, was it accusing you of violating an actual command of God or a rule created by men? As we will see during this study, the conscience is not an infallible guide. Thank God for your conscience and pray that He will guide it by His Word.
For Further Study
- John 8:9
- Acts 23:1
- 2 Corinthians 1:12
- 1 Timothy 1:5
- 1 Timothy 3:9