Our conscience informs us on such issues as how we dress, whether or not we celebrate certain holidays, how much time we spend on the computer or watching TV, what we do for a Bible reading routine, our choice to speed or not to speed on the freeway, our education choices, whether or not we vaccinate, what we believe about things like abortion, embryo adoption, in vitro fertilization, sex before marriage, homosexuality, and on and on. But how do we know our conscience is functioning accurately?

I recently listened to a sermon by Andy Naselli called Calibrating Your Conscience. It was extremely helpful to me, and I want to recommend it to you (watch it below) and give you an overview of what he taught.

Conscience: Your consciousness about what YOU believe is right or wrong (it may not be what actually IS right or wrong) at any given point in time (it can change).

The word conscience comes up 30 times in the New Testament. The conscience can be wounded, weak (hypersensitive and overactive), defiled, emboldened to sin, dead, evil, and seared (inactive and silent), purified, perfected, washed, and clean. (1 Corinthians 8:7-12; 1 Timothy 4:2; Hebrews 9:14; 1 Timothy 1:5)

The Bible says our conscience bears witness to or confirms things, leads us to act in certain ways, and causes us to judge or determine another person’s freedom. ((Romans 13:5; 1 Corinthians 10)

Six Things That Are True About the Conscience

1. Everyone has a conscience (although it may not be functioning properly.)
2. Our conscience is internal.
3. It’s independent – it can make you feel guilty when you want it to stop.
4. It produces different results for people based on different moral standards. For example, someone may be sleeping with their girlfriend or boyfriend and have a clean conscience because their moral standard is different from someone else’s moral standard. Martin Luther stated, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God.” He didn’t sleep with his girlfriend, but he did have fun with his wife. (That was not in Naselli’s sermon. It’s my own addition.)
5. It functions like a witness, judge, and guide. It condemns you when you violate the moral code you believe in and it commends and defends you when you keep your moral code.
6. Your conscience can change.

There are three reasons it may change:

1. It may become more hardened to sin.
2. It may merely follow the changing standards of other people: family, church, friends, etc.
3. It may conform more to the Truth of God’s Word.

Naselli then goes into a brief discussion of Romans 14 and talks about how we can love other Christians who disagree with us on matters of conscience.

There are two types of Christians described in Romans 14:

• Strong (those who hold theologically correct positions.)
• Weak (those who hold theologically incorrect positions.)

The three examples given in this chapter are food, days of distinction, and wine.

Verses 22-23 make the point that we should listen to our conscience, but that doesn’t mean it is wrong to adjust our conscience so that it more closely matches what God teaches in His Word. The takeaway point here is: be informed theologically. Study your Bible.

So how do you know if you are sinning – or recalibrating?

According to this passage, you are sinning when you believe your conscience is telling you you’re sinning and you refuse to listen to or believe it.

You’re recalibrating when Christ teaches you through Scripture that your conscience is wrong in THAT area. The example in Scripture for this is found in Acts 10:9-16 where Peter’s conscience would not allow him to eat unclean animals. God made it clear in a dream that the animals were made clean, and he could eat them. He was making the point that the gospel was for the Gentiles as well as the Jews, and once Peter recalibrated his conscience according to God’s Word, he could mingle and eat with a clean conscience.

How Do We Recalibrate our Conscience?

1. Educate your conscience with the TRUTH.

Ask yourself why you hold certain convictions? Is it because the Bible teaches it – or is it because you picked up that rule somewhere else?

2. Recalibrate with DUE PROCESS.

Our conscience is a garden that can fill up with weeds. Weed your garden.

How do we relate to other people’s consciences? What about the collective conscience of a group of people? How about when we cross cultures? (I Corinthians 8:9-10)

At this point he recommends listening to John Piper’s sermons on Romans 14. You can find those HERE.

There is so much more to this sermon. I’ve left out all the interesting anecdotes and a lot of the flesh. I highly recommend listening to it if this subject interests you.

This sermon resonated with me because of all the deprogramming God has been taking me through. I guess you could also call it recalibrating. (Or weeding.) I have realized that my own conscience was hyperactive due to the myriads of rules I chose to believe were Biblical, when they were actually just applications of principles that were imposed upon me by groups of people.

Because my conscience bothered me when I “broke” one of these man-made rules, I interpreted that as the Holy Spirit convicting me. Really, it was just that my conscience had weeds in it, and I couldn’t tell the weeds from the healthy plants.  Now that I’ve been walking more fully in freedom for a while, I am experiencing more joy and intimacy in my relationship with Christ.

How about you?