The conscience we are seeking to discover here goes above and beyond the natural, beyond developmental training, beyond historical insight. The conscience we seek to develop is one which is a reflection of the changed heart, the new creature, the new man in Christ. It will serve you where the old one will fail you.

1 Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

1 Corinthians 10:23 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

In 1 Corinthians 6 Paul was telling them that there was a better way than the natural law. Believers in Corinth were taking their problems to court to be settled by unbelievers. In verse 7 Paul wrote “Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?” The old man, the old nature, said I’ve been wronged; I have a right, maybe even an obligation to redress this wrong. The old man’s conscience would allow judgment, retribution, an accounting. The new man with a new heart, with a new conscience seeks God’s will and abides in His commandments. What was at stake in Corinth was more than material goods, money or a good name. What was at stake was their relationship with their brethren, their relationship with God, the condition of their hearts and perhaps even someone’s salvation.

“Will we bind God by our judgments, or will we free God to transform our enemies—even ourselves—by grace?”  James Edwards – The Divine Intruder

According to the Merriam-Webster On-Line dictionary, conscience is defined as:

1 a : the sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one’s own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good

1 b : a faculty, power, or principle enjoining good acts

1 c : the part of the superego in psychoanalysis that transmits commands and admonitions to the ego

That is the conscience as the world sees it, but what does the Word of God say about conscience?

Hebrews 10:22  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.

The Word of God ties the conscience to the condition of our heart. On September 11^th, 2001, terrorist boarded American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, crashing into the World Trade Center towers and American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon. These were acts of an evil conscience. These are extreme examples but reflect the principle that serves to prove a point. The conscience is nothing more than a reflection of the heart. If ones heart is evil, the conscience is also evil and will not exhort you to good deeds.

Luke 11:34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness.

Do you think those men saw what they were doing as being an evil thing? Their conscience told them what they were doing was good and right, and that they would be rewarded for giving their lives in their cause. A conscience does evil if the heart is evil. The conscience is a function of the mind. It is a reasoning power which weighs character against desire.