Is my conscience seared? This is the serious question which each one of us should take time out to ponder and answer truthfully. It is highly impossible for chaos and conflict to exist if we are operating with clear consciences, hence it is worth the time for us, individually and collectively, to reflect and examine the state of our consciences if we are to move forward.
You see, the conscience plays a vital role in our everyday lives. It is regarded as the seat by which we make decisions. It is the automatic warning system designed by God into the framework of the human soul that helps us to determine whether things are right or wrong. Its role is not to teach us moral and ethical ideals, but to hold us accountable to the highest standards of right and wrong we know. Therefore, our ability to sense our own guilt is a tremendous gift given by God, and one that we must never train ourselves to ignore, but respond quickly to its warnings.
The conscience is switched on all the time, actively assessing the rightness or wrongness of what we are considering or experiencing. We have the ability to contemplate our own actions and make moral self-evaluations. And then, having made that judgment call, the conscience knows how to get our attention. When we violate our conscience it condemns us, triggering feelings of shame, anguish, regret, consternation, anxiety, disgrace, and even fear. Conversely, when we follow our conscience, it commends us, bringing joy, serenity, self-respect, well-being, and gladness. A good conscience is like a warning system that can keep us on course in the rough seas of our lives.
When we continually go contrary to our conscience, it no longer troubles us, it no longer responds and reacts – it becomes, what the Bible calls, “seared”. If the conscience is “seared” – literally “cauterized” – then it has been rendered insensitive. Our ears have become shut to it; we listen to lies instead of the truth. When this happens the conscience becomes evil and defiled. Both the mind and the conscience can become so defiled that they cease making distinctions between what is pure and what is impure ( Titus 1:15). But, in spite of that, we still have knowledge and we know that we have sinned. Many people today respond to their conscience by attempting to suppress it, overrule it, or silence it. After so much violation, the conscience finally falls silent. Morally, those with defiled consciences are left flying blind.
Are you like that? Are you calling wrong right and right wrong? Can you tell the difference between both? When there is no guilt over wrongs committed, there is no awareness of the danger you are facing and the harm you are causing. If we choose to steer past the waving red flags our consciences emit, then we can expect to become shipwrecked. The Apostle Paul wrote of the dangers of a calloused conscience (1 Corinthians 8:10), a wounded conscience (1 Corinthians 8:12), and a seared conscience (1 Timothy 4:2), which we will do well to adhere to. The story of the exodus also recorded the calamity that was brought on the nation when Pharaoh steeled his conscience against God’s will.
God always has a way to get man’s attention when they fail to take heed. There are many stories that demonstrate what happens when people cross the line with their conscience – when they ignore its warnings and shake off the guilt it inflicts on them. Here are two of them for example:
1. Jesus told a story about a young man who had to be put through just such a circumstance in the story of the Prodigal Son. It was only after the son found himself in very deprived circumstances that he came to his senses and returned home.
2. Another story was when God used a famine to get the attention of Joseph’s brothers. He provoked a crisis in their lives. Long decades had passed since their jealous hatred of Joseph had boiled over and, in a moment of incredible wickedness, they sold him as a slave to a group of passing merchants. Years had come and gone since that lie they told their father to cover their foul deed – about how a wild animal attacked and killed Joseph. As far as we know, these brothers never repented of the terrible evil they had done – not to God, not to their father, and certainly not to Joseph. They just did what we tend to do at times – pretend like nothing has happened, suppress all thought of past actions, press through the guilt, and live a lie. But the day came when they had to face the truth! It took a famine in their land.
You see, God at times has to bring the pinch of material want into our lives to cause us to re-evaluate our condition and cause us to confess our wrong doings. Sometimes he allows barrenness to come upon our land. He deprives us of something. He subtracts from our lives that which we are depending on for comfort or ease. In Psalm 106, the psalmist describes how Israel forgot the works that God had done for their good, and forged ahead with their desires and plans rather than waiting on the Lord. They pushed God’s will away and wanted their own way. Verse 15 declares that God gave them their request, but sent leanness to their soul. One of the things that the Lord will do to get our attention and awaken spiritual hunger is make life hollow and unsatisfying. In the land of Canaan, the comfort of food and home was taken from them. Joseph’s brothers had to journey to Egypt to find a solution, the very country which the slave merchants took Joseph to after his brothers sold his freedom. God was using their physical need to quicken a sense of spiritual need.
Another tool God oftentimes uses to quicken our conscience is ‘Pain’. In the same story, Joseph gave his brothers a dose of their own medicine as it were. He put his brothers in prison for three days, after which he ordered them to select one of their number to remain in custody while the other nine returned home to bring the youngest son before him as proof of their honesty. The prison he cast them mirrored the pit into which they had thrown him.
The only way for real restoration of their broken relationship to happen, to move them to a place where they could begin again on a new, clean, footing was to break down all their defenses and show them who they really were. It was during that time that they acknowledged they wronged him. That time of suffering affected his brothers. In verses 21-22 they said to one another, ‘In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.’ And Reuben (Joseph’s eldest brother) answered them, ‘Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.”
At other times, God uses ‘Testing’ to awaken our consciences. This was highlighted in Deuteronomy Chap. 8 where Moses explains why God sent Israel through 40 years of wandering. “And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” Sometimes to reach a seared conscience we must be put through the press of solitude. This is often a valuable gift because it gives us the opportunity to meet with God. Oftentimes, this allows us to see the proof of God’s presence in our lives and in all our circumstances.
If we take time to search the Scriptures, we will see it is filled with warnings concerning our conscience. Jeremiah spoke about his people having “forgotten how to blush” (Jeremiah 8:12). Further, he said that when wickedness was done in Israel, “my people love to have it so” (Jeremiah 5:31). Paul speaks of those who “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” and therefore do not pay attention to God’s will (Romans 1:18). Later, Paul again mentions people who had spent so much time in sin that they were “past feeling” (Ephesians 4:19). Jesus Himself spoke of those whose “hearts have grown dull, their ears hard of hearing, and their eyes closed” (Matthew 13:15).
All those passages point to one frightening truth: it is possible for people to get to a point where the things that are wrong no longer prick their conscience and cause them to feel guilty. We begin to procrastinate, rationalize, and compromise the truth. However, when we become numb to wrong doings, it becomes impossible for us to please God. May God help us both individually and collectively to examine our consciences and act truthfully! Let us heed the words of the hymn by Melissa Cartwright who commands us to: Tell the Truth, Even to the Letter
Tell the truth, even to the letter.
Tell the truth, it makes you feel much better.
Others then can count on you, When you speak a word so true.
It is what we all should do, so tell the truth.
Remember: Conviction is the conscience of the mind. Nicolas Chamfort
About the Author: Mrs. Marilyn Hodge owns and operates the Wellness Centre in the Farrington, Anguilla. The Centre offers Counselling Services by Appointment Only and has now published Positive Living Volume 2. Contact information: 476-3517 or email:marilynb@anguillanet.com. www.facebook.com/axawellnesscentre
