Bible Questions Answered: Conscience

Bible Questions Answered:
I don't think that a person has to go to church, or anything, because we all have a conscience, to do what's right and wrong.
Shelia/ Concord, California

Bible Answer:
Jeremiah 17:9 KJV
The heart* is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

*Heart (Hebrew) Leb (Labe): Feelings/the Will/ the Intellect.

If a conscience was pure, it indeed would guide us, but a conscience may be anything but pure.

Hebrew 10:22 KJV (Evil Consciences)
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

I Corinthians 8:4-13 NLT (Apostle Paul, spoke about eating meat offered to idols.)
(Weak and Defiled Consciences)
4 So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God.
5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords.
6 But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we live for Him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.
7 However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated.
8 It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do.
9 But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a
weaker conscience to stumble.
10 For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol?
11 So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed.
12 And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ.
13 So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.

I Timothy 4:2 KJV (Consciences Seared with a Hot Iron)
Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

Titus 1:15 KJV (Conscience defiled)
Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.

We need to have a conscience that's right with the Lord.

Acts 24:16 KJV (Conscience void of offense)
And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

Hebrews 9:14 KJV (Consciences Purged)
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

I Timothy 3:9 KJV (Pure Conscience)
Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

II Timothy 1:3 KJV (Pure Conscience)
I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;

I Timothy 1:5, 19 (Good Conscience)
1. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a
good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
19. Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

I Peter 3:16 KJV (Good Conscience)
[16] Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

Do we need the church, do we need the Word of God, do we need the presence and power of the risen Christ in our life?
Yes to all of the above.

Proverbs 14:12 KJV
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Our conscience, needs to be set straight through the Word, and the presence and power of the Lord, that is why the Apostle said....

Hebrews 10:25 KJV
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Read the wonderful Word of God:

Psalms 119:11,105,130 KJV
[11] Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
[105] Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
[130] The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.

Colossians 3:16 KJV
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Psalm 19:8 KJV
The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.

Our conscience is truthful, when and only when it is aligned with the Word of God.

A compass, is a small needle, balanced upon a pivot, that always points to magnetic north.
How many a lost traveler, mariner, has been saved, by that trustworthy instrument of direction.
But know well the secret of the compass, the needle before being placed into the case, has been magnetized!
It takes a magnet to recognize another magnet.
That is why the little needle spins, it is a small magnet, seeking the influence of another magnetic force, greater than itself.

Our wondering conscience, alone, and unguided, is of little help to anyone.
But when we submit our heart and soul to the Saviour and His Precious Word, our conscience ….
Isaiah 30:21 KJV
And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.