Searing of Conscience

Chuckle: The customer called the waiter over and said, while pointing to his steak, "Didn't I tell you, 'Well done'?" The waiter replied, "Thank you, Sir; I seldom get a compliment."

Quote: "Conscience is that faculty in me which attaches itself to the highest that I know, and tells me what the highest I know demands that I do." --Oswald Chambers

"Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared with a hot iron" (I Timothy 4:2 NIV). "Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more"  (Ephesians 4:19 NIV).

Last time, we saw how living Spirit controlled lives will sensitize our consciences to detect even the most minute breach in our moral and ethical standard of conduct. We saw that Paul was striving to have a clear conscience before God and before people. In our Scripture passages for today, we see that our consciences can become seared, dulled, and unreliable as guides for our lives. How can our consciences become "seared?" In the simplest terms -- SIN!

"The conscience is like a sharp square peg in our hearts. If we are confronted by a questionable situation, that square begins to turn and it's corners cut into our hearts, warning us with an inward sensation against doing whatever confronts us. If the conscience is ignored time after time, the corners of the square are gradually worn down, and it virtually becomes a circle. When that circle turns within our hearts, there is no inner sensation of warning, and we are left without a conscience." --Illustrations for Biblical Preaching; Edited by Michael P. Green

If we allow unconfessed and unforgiven sin to become prevalent in our lives and compromise, our consciences will lose their sensitivity to right and wrong. This will gradually render us spiritually undiscerning -- unable to discern what is right from what is wrong. Eventually our consciences will become useless. We then begin to live a life of disobedience and sin without the pangs of conscience we once felt. I believe this explains why some professed "Christians" can indulge in the most destructive, hurtful, and immoral behavior with, seemingly, no remorse or regret. The more we sin, the more our consciences are disabled. The "hot iron" of sin will have "seared" our consciences. They have hardened our hearts against the Holy Spirit.

The positive side of all this is that the Spirit can, and will, provide our consciences with very definite and reliable guidance if only we allow him to do so. The Spirit filled life is the Spirit controlled life. The Spirit controlled life will be led by a Spirit controlled conscience. Whatever sin is in your life that interferes with your inner communion with God, confess it, ask forgiveness for it, and let it go so that your inner vision from God (conscience) will remain clear and crisp.

Love, Jerry & Dotse