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Acts 24:16 says, “Because of this I also exercise myself to always have a conscience without offense toward God and men.” Second Timothy 1:3a also mentions, “I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure conscience.” Acts speaks of “a conscience without offense,” while 2 Timothy speaks of “a pure conscience.” Moreover, 1 Timothy 1:19 says, “Holding faith and a good conscience, concerning which some, thrusting these away, have become shipwrecked regarding the faith.” Verse 2 of chapter 4 mentions, “By means of the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, of men who are branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron.” Ephesians 4:19 also says, “Who, being past feeling [conscience], have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness in greediness.” These verses show us the importance of the conscience in a Christian’s living.
A Christian who wants to grow in life must do three things: first, thoroughly confess his sins before God; second, carefully deal with his sins before man; and third, consecrate himself to God absolutely. If the saints are willing to take these three things to the Lord and practice them in a serious way, they surely will have progress in life. However, if they only take these words as doctrines, they will not receive much help from them. These words are only guidelines; only when the saints seriously walk the way of the Lord will these words be profitable to them. The experience of these three matters—confessing our sins to God, confessing our mistakes to man, and consecrating ourselves absolutely to God—may vary in sequence. These three matters are like a threefold cord, and no one who takes the Lord’s way can neglect them.
Moreover, after a Christian has thoroughly confessed his sins, carefully dealt with them, and consecrated himself to God, he also has to deal with his conscience. This is the necessary pathway for a Christian to take. After we confess our sins before God, deal with our sins before man, and consecrate ourselves to God, we will immediately have a feeling deep within us. This feeling is not merely a realization in our mind, but a feeling in the depths of our being that we have to deal with our conscience and obtain peace in our conscience. Therefore, it is extremely important to know the origin, the position, and the function of the conscience.
In simple words, the conscience comes from God. People who know God should know that before the fall of Adam, man lived before God and had no need of the conscience. For example, when we are in the sunlight during the day, there is no need of a lamp or any other kind of light. Only those who are not facing the sun have the need of a light. The need of the conscience arose as a result of the fall, when man left the face of God. In the beginning man lived before God, who can be likened to the sun. Originally, man received light directly from the face of God. Although candlelight is weak, it is not without function; when the sun has set, the candlelight starts to function. It is the same with the function of the conscience. When man was living before God and had the light of God, the conscience was not used and the function of the conscience was not expressed because man had no need of it before God. We see from human history that man fell not long after he was created. He fell from light into darkness. After the fall there was a distance, a barrier, between God and man. At that point the Bible shows us that God took the definite step to activate the function of man’s conscience. This may be likened to lighting a lamp when the sky is getting dark. We have to bear in mind that the function of the conscience was activated after man’s fall.
The position of the conscience is to represent, or we can say, stand in the place of, God inside of man. Thus, although living according to the conscience is good, it is not the highest condition. The highest condition is that man would live before God directly. Why do we need a lamp? We need a lamp because the sky is dark. Why do we need the conscience? We need the conscience because man is fallen. Since man fell and left the face of God, God was forced to use the conscience as His representative in enlightening man. Human history can be divided into several dispensations. The first dispensation is called the dispensation of innocence; it is the time when man received direct ruling from God. After the fall the second dispensation, the dispensation of conscience, began. At that time man had both sin and a conscience within him. Although man had fallen into the darkness of sin, God still preserved a conscience, a lamp, for man. The conscience of man was still able to enlighten man and manifest its function. This was how the conscience was activated.
Man’s fall was not a partial fall but a complete fall and a continual fall. Man did not stay under the ruling of the conscience, but he continued to fall. How did man fall further? We see from human history that man’s fall into sin was progressive. First, man fell into the conscience, and it was the conscience that enlightened and ruled over man. Yet man was not able to stand firm under the ruling of the conscience, and so from there he fell again. After the first step of man’s fall, man had the conscience within him, which represented God to rule over man. Yet man ignored his conscience in everything he did and fell again. At this time the dispensation of law began, and man started to be penalized if he disobeyed the laws of the nation. At this juncture man had fallen to the uttermost.
Man is really strange: The more he is ruled by man, the further he falls. For instance, a person who is always supervised by his parents will do improper things once his parents are not supervising him. A student will also do something against the rules when he is not under school regulations. If there were no police in a nation or a society, the whole nation would be full of crime. This is why many robbers and bandits fear neither heaven nor earth, but they fear the laws of the nation. If they have a way to escape from the law, they will do many evil things. This proves that man is utterly fallen.
We have no way to really categorize man. If we have to do so, we may simply divide man into three categories. The first category is the highest, but there are very few people in it. This category of people lives directly before God. These people are full of light and are like the shining of the sun. However, the number of people in this category is extremely small. Those in this category are Christians who are very spiritual and very holy.
The second category of people is also composed of Christians and is also small. This category comprises those who live by their conscience and have a very keen conscience. The children in this category do not require the supervision of their parents; the students do not require the regulation of their schools; and the common people are law-abiding people who do not require the ruling of the police. This group of people lives under the ruling of the conscience. They do not require the ruling of man, because their conscience enlightens and regulates them. Anything that they sense is improper, they would not do. No law can completely rule over man, but the ruling of the conscience far exceeds the ruling of the law. This is the second category of people—those who live under the ruling of the conscience.
The third category of people is neither governed by God nor by their conscience. The people in this category do not fear the laws of the nation or the regulations of their families. They are able to do all kinds of evil things.
Another category of people, between the first and the second categories, is composed of those who live according to their conscience and, at the same time, are learning to live before God. These are advancing Christians. A normal and progressing Christian lives not only by his conscience but also before God.
In the fall, man fell from the face of God to the conscience and from the conscience to the law. We all, more or less, also have this kind of experience. When we were young, our parents charged us not to steal any candy. If we did, our heart would beat very heavily. When we stole some candy a second time, our heart beat less heavily. When we stole candy a third time, our heart beat even less. Then the fourth time we stole candy, our heart did not beat any heavier than normal because our conscience did not have any more feeling. The fifth time that we stole, we did not fear anything except being caught by our parents. At that point it seemed that to steal candy was nothing; the only thing we feared was being caught by our parents. Similarly, the first time we cheated on an examination in school our heart beat very heavily; then the second time our heart beat less heavily; the third time our heart beat even softer; and the fourth time our heart did not beat any more than normal. As long as we were not caught by our teachers, everything was fine. What does this illustrate? This illustrates how we have fallen from the ruling of the conscience to the ruling of man.
Moreover, immoral relationships between males and females are also the same. The first time when people do something immoral, they do have some feeling in their conscience; the second time they have less feeling; the third time they have even less feeling; by the fourth time they do not have any feeling at all. The fifth time they fear very little; they fear only the laws of the nation, or they fear being seen by man. This is the fall of man from the feeling of the conscience to the ruling of man. Robbers and thieves are the same all over the world; if there were no police or government, the chaos of the world would be beyond our imagination.
Most lawless people fear the penalty of the laws of the nation. Our Lord is saving us from living in this way. After our salvation if we still do things against our family’s rules, against school regulations, or against the laws in society, then I am afraid that we are not truly saved or that if we are saved, we do not look like Christians. God saves us out of the lowest point of the fall. An unsaved person makes a mess in his family, in society, and in the nation; this is the fall of man. A saved person does not require the control of his parents at home because he is already an obedient child; he does not require the supervision of the school because he is already a regulated student; he also does not require the governing of society or the nation because he is already a good man, a law-abiding citizen. He abides by the laws not because he fears the laws but because he is living by his conscience. In the fall, man fell from the face of God to the conscience and from the conscience to human rule. Human rule is the lowest point of man’s fall, the place where God’s salvation reaches man.
The lowest point of the fall is that man has to be ruled by other people. If a wife has to be ruled by her husband, a husband has to be ruled by his wife, and the children have to be ruled by their parents, then this proves that they are fallen to the uttermost. Some people work in an organization or a company that stipulates that its employees should come to work at eight o’clock, but every day they try to find out whether or not the manager will be coming to work at eight o’clock the next morning. If he will be coming to work at eight o’clock, they also will come to work at eight o’clock; however, if the manager has to go somewhere and will not come in until eight-thirty, they will come in at eight-thirty as well. Should a Christian do such a thing? If there are some among us who do such a thing, this does not mean that they are not saved, but at least we can say that they do not live before their conscience. A saved person goes to work at eight o’clock when his manager comes at eight, but when his manager does not come at eight o’clock, he still goes to work at eight. He lives this way because God has already saved him from living by human rule and has caused him to live by his conscience. Many people are truly saved, but sadly, many Christian wives still deceive their husbands and tell lies in front of their children. This is not the proper manner and conduct of a Christian. If a Christian is thoroughly saved, he should be saved from this kind of condition.
Ten years ago I was serving in a certain locality. One day a brother came to me and said, “I have a problem that I have been unable to solve for a few days. Please help me.” Then I asked him what the matter was, and he replied, “I was saved a long time ago, but later I became backslidden. Not only did I play cards all the time, but I also stole electricity from the electric company. At that time many people did such a thing, and I did it almost every day. But now by God’s mercy, I am revived, and whenever I think of those days of stealing electricity, I feel very uncomfortable. I do not know what to do.” Please notice that formerly this person did not fear anybody; he feared neither heaven nor earth but only the meter man from the electric company. He feared man but did not fear his conscience. One day, however, he was revived to the extent that he sensed that his conscience was not at peace. As a result, he could not steal electricity anymore, and he felt that he had to make payment for all the electricity that he had stolen in the past. When he came to me, he was in this difficult situation. I told him, “It is very simple. You just need to estimate a rough amount of all the electricity that you have stolen in the past and then pay it back to the electric company.” He said, “This is really difficult. First of all, it is hard to calculate the amount accurately, and second, I do not have the face and the courage to do so.” Then I told him, “It is not too hard. First, you just calculate an approximate amount and then add a little more; as long as your conscience does not condemn you, then this is good enough. Second, even though it is a shame to do this, at the same time, it is something glorious because it pleases God when someone repents and regrets what he has done in the past.”
The brother thought about my word and found it reasonable. Then he went back and calculated the amount, signed a check, wrote a sincere letter, and told the electric company the whole story. He wrote, “I stole electricity from your company in the past, but now I have become a Christian. I have an unpeaceful feeling in my conscience telling me that I should repay you, or I will remain unpeaceful.” Shortly after this, a brother who ran an electronics store went to the electric company to talk with someone concerning a few matters. The head accountant saw this brother and said to him, “Please help me to see if this check that I received is real or fake. Is this person a mental case?” The brother answered, “I know this person; he is not a mental case.” Then the brother testified to the accountant what had happened, and the head accountant was deeply touched when he heard it.
There was once a sister who used to be very careless. In 1932, after she was revived by God, she immediately began to live by her conscience. Through the feeling of her conscience, she realized that some years ago she had committed a disgraceful act. At that time traveling from Nanking to Shanghai was very convenient; there was a direct train that went back and forth between the two cities. This train, however, required a ticket. This sister had studied in America and was a professor at a university. She was also a responsible person among the female students. Many people who worked for the Railway Administration knew her, and they helped her to get an employee pass, which enabled her to ride the train for free. Even a person who had graduated from a university, who had studied abroad, and who was a university professor could do such a poor thing and could behave like a thief and covet such a small benefit. Most rebellious and lawless people first disobey God, then disregard their conscience, and third, defy the law. Hence, when they defy the law, this indicates that they have already disobeyed God and disregarded their conscience. At this stage, as long as they are not penalized by the law, they are able to do anything. This is the condition of fallen man.
However, after this sister was saved, her conscience immediately enlightened her and gave her the feeling that she had done something unrighteous and that she owed the government for using the employee pass. She felt very unpeaceful, so she went to fellowship with the saints. The saints told her that she should calculate the amount that she owed and deal with it carefully. She said that it was not a problem to pay the money back, but she did not know how to calculate the amount or how to return the money. At that time the income of the Nanking-Shanghai Railway went to the national treasury. In light of this, everyone suggested that after she had calculated the amount, she should send the money directly to the Minister of Finance, because if the money had to be transferred from the people at the lower levels, it would easily be lost. Therefore, she wrote a letter to the Minister of Finance and sent the money to him. Later, the Nanking newspaper printed this story.
Every saved one has to deal with his conscience. If he does not deal with his conscience, he will not have peace within. If he does not deal with his conscience, he will not be able to pray properly. If he does not deal with his conscience, his Bible reading will be tasteless and his gospel preaching will be powerless. If he does not deal with his conscience, he will not be able to walk the pathway ahead of him. All the saved ones have to pass through this stage of dealing with their conscience if they want to go further on the way. Our conscience is like a window, and our being is like a room; the light that the room (our being) receives must pass through the window (our conscience). Originally, there is no light inside of us but only darkness, but our conscience is like a window, which allows the light to come in.
Before we are saved, our conscience is like an extremely dirty window smudged with putty through which no light can penetrate. This results in a state of complete darkness in our being. However, once we are saved, the Holy Spirit enters into us to enlighten us, causing our inner being to be full of light. At this time we immediately feel that we are wrong. Then we should repent and confess our sins before God, and we should deal with our sins before man. Every time we confess or deal with a sin, we wipe the putty-covered window once. The wonderful thing is that before we wipe the window, we do not know how dirty it is; so the more we wipe it, the dirtier it seems to become. Once we wipe the window even slightly, all the greasy dirt is stirred up. Then when the sunlight shines through the window, it seems even dirtier than before. However, in the end, the window will be clean.
It is the same with our conscience. When we were first saved, we may have thought that we had committed only a few small mistakes before God, but after we began to confess these mistakes, we immediately saw many greater sins. Eventually, the more we deal with our sins, the fewer sins we have. This is like wiping a window: The more we wipe it, the less greasy dirt it has. As a result of this process, we have peace within, and spontaneously we can easily pray to God. When the rain splashes mud or sand onto a dirty window, we can hardly see anything inside the house; however, after the window has been cleaned, when a little bit of sand or mud is splashed onto the window, we will notice it immediately. Many people have done something wrong yet never sense that they are wrong. This proves that they have never dealt with their conscience.
One who desires to proceed on the path of God’s life must deal with his conscience, because conscience and faith go together. When we pray, we need to have faith. Prayer without faith equals not praying at all. God listens only to the prayers of faith, and He will not listen to any prayers that are not out of faith. However, once we have a problem with our conscience, faith is gone, and once there is a hole in our conscience, faith leaks away. We can still pray and plead, yet if we do not have faith and our conscience does not have any feeling, we will be like a tire with a hole in it—the more air we pump into it, the more air it leaks out and the flatter it becomes. First Timothy 1:19 says, “Holding faith and a good conscience, concerning which some, thrusting these away, have become shipwrecked regarding the faith.” The trend of society toward corruption is not something that was there in the beginning. It was not this way in the past. Today even the academic circles are full of lies. Teachers cheat their students, and students deceive their parents. Every place is full of lies. This is the case among the young people in particular. Even young people who are Christians tell lies both at home and in school. They think that it is very difficult not to tell lies. This is the reason why they have no progress in the faith.
If we have a feeling when we tell a lie for the first time, we should carefully deal with it and not allow it to pass away. If we tell a lie to someone and do not have peace in our conscience, we have to go to that person and deal with it immediately, saying, “I am sorry. The thing that I just said to you is a lie; it is not true.” In this way our inner being will be full of light. Perhaps we will be full of light for three days. Then we may encounter another incident and tell another lie. As soon as this happens, we should deal with the feeling that we receive from our conscience right away. If we do not, then after three or four experiences like this, the feeling in our conscience gradually will be lost. Once the feeling of our conscience is lost, not only will we tell more lies, but we will also do worse things and become shipwrecked regarding the faith.
Therefore, I am afraid that many Christians’ consciences are not able to withstand the test. A preacher once told me about something that he saw one time when he went to visit a pastor. When they sat down, the pastor’s child came and told his father that someone was looking for him. Then the pastor told his child in front of the preacher, “Tell him that I am not home.” This shows us how very easy it is to tell a lie, because a lie settles everything. However, once we tell a lie, inwardly our conscience is branded, as if with a hot iron. If we do this again and again, we will have no further feeling in our conscience; our conscience will become deadened. The conscience of many people is not a living conscience but a deadened conscience because telling lies has become their habit. A Christian will not be able to genuinely pray after he has lied, neither will he be able to genuinely pray after he has lost his temper. Some people say that they have seen Christians who have lost their temper but were able to pray immediately afterward. There are people like this, but God never listens to the prayers of one whose conscience is numb. If a person does not listen to the voice of his conscience, neither will God listen to that person’s voice. Those who do not have any feeling in their conscience certainly do not have faith in their prayers. God does not listen to the prayer of a liar. Once a person’s conscience is corrupted, leaking, or numb, he will no longer be able to understand the feeling of his conscience, and God will not listen to the prayer of this kind of person.
In Acts 24:16 Paul says, “Because of this I also exercise myself to always have a conscience without offense toward God and men.” A conscience without offense is one that is without holes or leakage. If we confess our sins before God and deal with our sins before man, our inner being will be without sins, and our conscience will be pure. We can serve God only with a pure conscience. If we want our service to touch God, we have to serve with a pure conscience. If our conscience is not pure, not only will our prayers not be answered, but they will never touch God. Some people’s conscience is like a wrecked ship. Although some have forsaken their conscience, those who are saved should not overlook even a small mistake; rather, we should deal with it thoroughly. We do not need to encourage people to be enthusiastic, because enthusiasm in blindness does not profit anything. If we want to follow God in life to walk on the way ahead of us, we must follow Him and fulfill His principles. If we want to serve and touch God, we must always have the presence of God within us, and we must be full of light and have faith all the time. In this way light, revelation, life, and power will become our constant experiences. As long as we thoroughly deal with our conscience, we will be able to walk on this path in a straight and proper way.
