You Can’t Trust Your Conscience….. here’s why

(click on the pic to listen) Hand washing has not always been believed to reduce the transmission of disease. Up until the late 1800’s surgeons didn’t scrub or wash their hands before surgery. Often Doctors and medical students would move from dissecting a corpse through to examining new mothers without washing their hands. This led to a high mortality rate in maternity wards from puerperal or ‘childbed fever’.
In the 1840’s an Austrian-Hungarian physician named Ignaz Semmelweis realised the link between hand washing and the spread of infection between patients. In the Vienna General Hospital, where Dr Semmelweis was a director, patients in the maternity ward were dying at such a rate that they were begging to be sent home rather than stay in the hospital. A colleague died from a dissection wound and Dr Semmelweis decided to analyse the situation. He found that the midwives clinic had a far lower death rate than the students clinic and through trying different hypotheses he concluded that hand washing was the answer. Through insisting the staff wash their hands with various antiseptics Dr Semmelweis greatly reduced the deaths in his wards.
At the time this was met with hostile reaction from other medical professionals who decided that even if their was some truth to the concept, it would take too long to wash their hands between patients. Dr Semmelweis continued his studies and published a book which was once again received poorly. In 1865 he was committed to an asylum  where he died shortly after. After Dr Semmelweis died the germ theory was confirmed by Louis Pasteur, a French Chemist and Microbiologist. Today hand washing is a part of our everyday life and it is accepted practice to wash our hands before eating, after toileting and sneezing or coughing.

There are things we have believed that aren’t true (click here to watch video).

There are things we have not believed that are true.

These things we believe and don’t believe help form our moral conscience.  Some us grew up believing that certain words were wrong to say. Some of us grew up believing that doing certain things were wrong. There is nothing wrong with that – our parents did the best they could. They did and taught us what they thought was right and wrong.

One of the things we believe that is not true is that our conscious is a trustworthy moral guide.

All of us  have a defined set of beliefs and we learned those even before we started reading the Bible, going to church and Sunday School. They say all the important stuff we know and learn we master by 3rd grade. Most teachers can tell you what kind of student your student will be by the 3rd grade. Meaning, by the 3rd grade you know everything about what’s right and wrong.

Many of us have been taught to trust that our conscience is a God-given, interior indicator of right and wrong. When we are faced with a tough moral dilemma, we turn to it.

There was point in our nation’s history that we thought slavery was okay. There were some preachers who preached from the pulpit misusing scripture to prove to the people that slavery was okay in God’s sight.  There was a point in our churches history that going to movies, playing cards, going to dances were evil because they caused us to do evil things. Within the last 20 years, the pastor that I worked with told me and hundreds of others that reading Harry Potter was wrong and sinful. It was the devil’s tool to deceive young minds. That made me furious because I was confident he was wrong. So I did some research … I went to Wicca sites and Christianity Today (a Billy Graham ministries publication) and found out what he was saying was not true.

The truth is, slavery is a bad thing.
The truth is, going to movies, playing cards, going to dances are not evil.
The truth is, Harry Potter was never evil – it was all a fantasy world. A similar fantasy world as that of CS Lewis’,  The Chronicles of Narnia, JR Tolkein’s,  Lord of the Rings.

The truth is our conscience is a spiritual thermostat. Thermostats don’t define hot and cold. They reflect our definitions of hot and cold. 

In any given church around the world, there people sitting in a sanctuary saying, “man, I wish they would turn the heat up – I’m freezing.” Other people are sitting in the same sanctuary saying, “man I wish they would turn the heat down – I’m burning up.” And there are still others in the sanctuary who sitting in the same sanctuary maybe a couple of pew back saying, man, they got it just right!”  The fact is, most churches have a computer thermostat that sets the temperature and widely accepted 72 degrees all year round.

We set our spiritual thermostats to respond however we like. Our conscience doesn’t tell us if we’re violating God’s standard. It tells when we’re violating our standards.

Those standards are vastly different.

Some of us grew up in legalistic homes and some of us grew up in pretty liberal homes. As we have grown, matured, gain knowledge, and have had  different kinds of experiences, our spiritual thermostats are vastly different. Put it more simply, there are some things we are doing now that we once thought were wrong that we discovered weren’t. My mom, who loved dancing, and apparently was pretty good at, was told it was wrong so she stopped dancing. An older friend of mine told me that when he was growing up in the church he was taught that playing the saxophone was sinful in the church, so he gave up playing the saxophone.

All of us have our old pre-Christian values, some legalistic values, and what – does – the Bible – actually – say values. For many of us we have no idea if our thoughts and convictions come from the Holy Spirit, the nudging of our conscience, or merely an old tape that is still playing in our heads. This is why trusting our conscience as a reliable barometer of spirituality is a dangerous thing.

Proverbs 21:2 teaches us,

People may be right in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their heart.

Jeremiah 17:9 also says,

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

The great Apostle Paul continues to say this (I Cor. 4:4-5),

My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

Paul knew what it was like to walk in the Spirit. He received divined visitations, he healed people and knew the mind of God well enough to write 13 books for the New Testament. But at the same time he struggled with his own sins. At times he misread the leading of the Lord, prayed for things God didn’t want him to have, grew discouraged, and even hated life. He failed to offer the grace and second chances he preached about to the churches when he young helpers bailed, he had a bitter split with his main mentor, trusted untrustworthy people, and planted some pretty dysfunctional churches.

He was thoroughly human. It was his recognition of his humanity and fallen nature that caused him not to put too much trust in his clear conscience. If Paul didn’t fully trust in his own conscience, it makes you wonder how much stock we should put in our own.

Read what Paul writes in Romans 7:14-17,

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

We can’t trust our own conscience because of the sin living in us!

This is why we need a Savior!
This is why we need a Redeemer!
This is why a relationship with Jesus is so vital!

Those who have taken Jesus and his teachings seriously and have honestly given Jesus a chance have humbled themselves, taken up their cross, changed their whole thinking process (God renewing their mind), and renewed their conscience.

In other words, those who take Jesus seriously, live by a whole new set of rules. If we are not loving our neighbor – like Jesus loves us – we have sin living inside of us. We can’t trust our conscience on who to love and who not to love.  If we are not loving our enemies – like Jesus loved his enemies – we have sin living inside of us. We can’t trust our conscience. If we are basing our life decisions on what is good for us and not God’s greater good for us – well – we can’t trust our conscience to be our guide.  If we are base our moral cues on those around us and a lot of them believe the same way, right or wrong, God would surely understand. Majority doesn’t equal morality. God nowhere promises that if enough people take the wrong path, he’ll turn it into the right path.

The truth is,

• Jesus is not concerned with the moral majority – we are – because we don’t want to do or say anything wrong and we like going with the flow.
• Jesus is not concerned about right and wrong – we are – because we want to be in the right.
• Jesus is not concerned with whether you dance, play cards, or go to certain movies. We are because .. well …. Some people are still hung up on that stuff.

What is Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, most concerned about – the condition of your heart! Because when he has your heart – he knows other changes will follow.

• Jeremiah 17 reminds us that our heart is deceitful , desperately sick, who can understand it?
• Proverbs 4:23 – Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
• Proverbs 21:2 – “ …… The Lord examines the heart”

The apostle Paul says in 1st Cor. 4, “He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.”

Here is the truth – we cannot trust our consciences………

• If we are not first seeking and pursing the things of Christ.
• If we are not continuously aware of His presence in our lives.
• If we can’t love our neighbor, our brother, and our enemy.

As you do those things (the ifs above) – He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of your heart.

You might be like Paul and have a clear conscience but that does not make you innocent. God’s standards are far different from your standards.

• A harsh and judgmental spirit is far more dangerous than a deck playing cards.
• A selfish spirit is far more dangerous than seeing a rated R movie.
• A carnal mind is far more dangerous than the types of drinks you keep in your fridge.

When God has your heart, mind, and soul – all the things of this earth go strangely dim. When God has your heart, mind, and soul – your hidden agendas will come to light. When God has your heart, mind, and soul – he will expose the motive of your heart.

This is why we need Him …….

• Not to make us morally right.
• Not to make us look good.
• Not to make us model Christian citizens.

We need Him because we can’t trust our conscience. It is not good to let our conscience be our definitive guide while living in this world because we have been infected with a sin nature and we are not the Messiah.

We are not called to …..

• Be perfect – we are called to pursue Him
• Be right – we are called to do the right thing
• Good people – we are called to be in relationship with the one who is Good.

I am so glad we have accepted the truth that washing our hands prevents disease from spreading. Other doctors didn’t want to believe it was true and he, Dr. S.,  was committed to an insane asylum. But the results of the simple washing of hands were profound.

A lot of us in here and around the world are spiritually insane. We have believed the same thing for years expecting a different result in our world, in our families, and in our own lives. Many refuse to believe what I just wrote is true and Biblical. Those people will remain spiritually insane. Nothing in their life will ever change.

What beliefs need to change in your life? What myths have you been believing for years without really knowing if they are true or not?

I thank God I can dance with my wife without the fear of looking down upon like my mom was. I thank God I can play games with a deck of cards without the fear of being cast out of a church. I thank God I can go to movies without the fear of having to stand before a congregation and confess my sin of going into a movie house.

Don’t let your conscience be your definite guide.
Let Jesus be your definite guide.