I am Bill’s Conscience
Mark Roberts
I am not a cricket. I’m not even a perfect guide, and
you shouldn’t always follow me. I am, however, part of
God’s plans to help you do what is right. I am Bill’s
conscience.
This is a tough time to be a conscience. Bill’s
grandfather and great-grandfather respected their consciences,
and listened to them carefully. People spoke
of how “I couldn’t live with myself if I did that” which was
just a reference to respecting the power of a guilty
conscience. Now it seems few care about guilt (one of
my chief weapons) and most just want to extinguish my
voice completely. These ideas about sin, guilt and the
conscience has its affect on my Bill too. Sometimes it
seems like Bill just wants to do whatever Flesh and Self
say, without regard to what God says. That’s a big
problem for me because my job is to let Bill know
when he has done wrong. That what a conscience
does: it’s an awareness inside of you that judges
whether what you are doing is in harmony with your own
moral standards. That means when Bill does something
he shouldn’t I will be right there to let him hear all
about it. Using godly sorrow and guilt I can do wonders
for Bill’s spirituality. Indeed, I can help Bill repent of sin
so he will be right with God! “Godly sorrow brings
repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret,
but worldly sorrow brings death” (2 Corinthians
7:10).
Of course, Bill doesn’t like me very much some
times. Ears perked right up and tuned in carefully to
that psychologist on the radio who talked about how I
can cause stress and trauma if Bill listens to me. He
said guilt was always bad and should be ignored, and
that if Bill feels afflicted by his conscience then he ought
not listen to me. What a terrible thing to tell people! If
Bill ignores me enough eventually I will become defective.
The truth is I get discouraged easily and if Bill
won’t listen to me when I tell him he is doing wrong I will
get quieter and quieter. Finally I will be silent, leaving
Bill to practice evil without any inner pangs of guilt or
moral qualms at all. Paul speaks of such when he says
some wicked persons “have their own conscience
seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2). Bill needs me,
but Bill has to listen to me or I will ultimately disappear.
There is more you need to know about me besides
just my potential to be ruined. You should know that I
am not very smart. Yes, I afflict Bill when he does
wrong but I don’t have any sense of right and wrong on
my own. Truthfully, I’m clueless about morals, sin and
evil. I believe pretty much anything Mind tells me. So
if Mind tells me it is okay Bill can do it and I will not say
anything about his actions. Why? Because I think he
is doing right! This can be a big problem. For example,
Paul said once said “Men and brethren, I have lived in
all good conscience before God until this day” (Acts
23:1) even though during part of his life he had killed
Christians. How could Paul do that and still have a good
conscience? Simple. His conscience didn’t know that
persecuting the church was wrong. This is why
Disney’s personification of me as Jiminy Cricket, singing
“Always Let Your Conscience be Your Guide” is so
flawed. I don’t much appreciate being portrayed as a
bug in a tux, but worse, I cannot “always” be Bill’s guide.
Your conscience is good, and it is from God, but it is not
a trustworthy guide because a conscience is only as
good as the information we have been given to work
with. Paul had it right when he said “My conscience is
clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord
who judges me” (1 Cor. 4:4).
Not only can I sign off on bad behavior, sometimes
I can raise a ruckus over something not sinful at all.
Such is described in 1 Corinthians 8 as a weak conscience:
“Some people are still so accustomed to idols
that when they eat such food they think of it as having
been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is
weak, it is defiled” (8:7). Eating meat that had been
sacrificed to an idol wasn’t sinful, but some brethren
didn’t understand that so when they ate their consciences
began to howl. Some of Bill’s brethren today
are so proud of how they have all kinds of scruples
against almost everything and anything – even though
these things aren’t really sinful in and of themselves.
They seem to delight in how their consciences go off
over everything and anything. I see some of these
brethren with their giant and super sensitive consciences
and it makes me kind of sad. The conscience wasn’t
meant to get out of control like that. Usually such
consciences end up dragging their owner into Phariseeism
where really serious matters are neglected in favor
of obscure piety (see Matthew 23:230.
Since a conscience can be fooled into okaying sin
and just as well flag something right as being wrong you
may think we are fairly useless. But there is actually
great value in keeping me clean and pure. If Bill lives in
concert with my directives, as he feeds me good information
from God’s word, he can do all kinds of good in
the Kingdom of heaven. A clean conscience gives him
the confidence to teach others the Gospel. Bill knows
hypocrisy turns people away from the Lord, so he always
checks with me before Mouth speaks of Jesus. When
I give him the green light the words of eternal life can go
forth to save people. My benefits aren’t just for everyone
else though. Mostly I help Bill keep out of trouble. He
hates it so when I distress him about sin! So, when he
is tempted, and I begin to get worked up about it, he
often stays out of sin just so I’ll be quiet. Heart really likes
that, and it makes me feel stronger than ever. I have
helped Bill beat our old enemy many times. The Bible
and me are a potent force when put together!
Conscience is kind of a funny thing. I am able to be
a real help or a real hindrance to Bill. How about your
conscience? Is it helping you serve God?