The Conflicting Conscience

One of my favorite aspects of being a pastor is being able to have spiritual conversations with people. Conversing with you all about what you’ve read in the Bible, how the Lord is working in your life and spiritual questions are the highlights of my ministry. I can talk about anything you’d like, but my heart overflows when we can talk about the things of God. One observation I have made along the way, and not in only one place of ministry, is that Christians of all stripes struggle in their faith from time to time. Men, women, teenagers, children often wrestle with the deep theological questions but also with the very personal spiritual questions that revolve around salvation. Many, many people ask themselves at different times in their life: am I really a Christian? Seasoned Christians have asked this, young believers and believe it or not, even pastors and ministers. This does not cast down on the truthfulness of what is believed but rather shows the tug of war that exists for the believer here on this earth. I want you to consider this point: confidence before God is not some sort of elusive ideal but something real that can be enjoyed.

Read 1 John 3:19-24

I want us to walk through this text together and as we do, I want us to understand everything John is saying as a comfort to us. Yes, Scripture at times puts us on the hot seat but at other times Scripture allows us to bask in the comfort of God’s Word to us. I want you to make a little mark in your Bible under by this we shall know. Whenever we read Scripture we have to ask questions to fully understand the message that that writer is trying to get across. When John says by this, what is he referring to? The most obvious and closest answer is the previous verse when John writes let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. John is going to set up this section on confidence and assurance and tie it into love. You might even draw a little arrow to verse 23, because that verse will be the power source to this particular section. John’s point is that as we put our love into action, we will be reminded of our love for God. This genuine love, not some generic love with no substance, but the meaty love that comes from God will serve to comfort our hearts. The experiential nature points to this growing knowledge that we are of the truth. Not only that, but this knowledge will set our hearts at rest. John introduces an important idea here: the heart or conscience. Heart comes from the Greek word cardia which you can hear an important English word: Cardiologist (a heart doctor). It can also refer to the seat of the emotions in the Greek language or in this case it refers to the human conscience, which is our internal barometer of right and wrong. The more we love, we will know we are of the truth and our conscience can be clear before God. John is going to tell us two important things about the conscience: the human conscience is a judge but not THE Judge and a clear conscience leads to greater confidence before God.

The Conscience

Have you ever been convicted by God for something you did or did not do? My goodness, I sure have, especially as it revolves around this issue of love. There have been times where the Lord has impressed on my heart to do something for someone and I didn’t do it, and the Lord uses my conscience to convict me. I’ve had to turn around quite a few times and make right my disobedience. This is a good thing and is a help to us in our journey to be like Christ. In this way, our conscience is a wonderful helper that keeps us on the right path. When I was in Virginia recently, I drove my sister's car and it has this feature that if you are driving and start to go in the other lane, the car will automatically correct it for you. It keeps you on the straight and narrow. Our conscience, while not forcing us to do right, can be an “assist” much like a modern vehicle.

Our conscience, while helpful, can go haywire. This is important because at times I think that some people confuse the conscience with God himself. The conscience is not God, but rather a part of us that is often used by God. However, there are times that our conscience can unjustly convict us. You see, there are a lot of people, myself included, that have a very active or active conscience. Some people have a conscience on steroids that is always pricking a person’s heart, sometimes for non-existent infractions. This person can become so fixated on clearing their conscience, that it becomes a very destructive pattern. Some people’s conscience will continually try them for their past sins and indiscretions. In this case, the conscience is acting as the prosecutor and trying the case over and over and over. The person with a prosecuting conscience will always find themselves dragged into court and will find little or no rest in the Christian life. This is an example of the conscience being manipulated by the devil to bring great heartache and worry into the lives of anxious believers. John says something here that is helpful: God is greater than our hearts and He knows everything. John’s point is that the conscience is not the ultimate Judge. I like what David Allen said, “Our conscience is not the Supreme Court! There is a higher court: God.”[1] God is the supreme Judge and there are times when we have to bring our case before God and say, “Lord, I have been brought up on charges that I think are unjust, will you review the case.” God, being the sovereign judge knows every aspect of our life and will render a final verdict. You see, our malfunctioning conscience would seek for us to become inwardly obsessed when we should have an upward look. D.L. Moody used this unsourced quote: “There are three ways to look. If you want to be wretched, look within; if you wish to be distracted, look around; but if you would have peace, look up.”[2] Are you wretched, distracted or at peace this morning?

Romans 8:1

However, a clear conscience can also lead to greater confidence in the Christian life. I don’t mean to malign our conscience because it is a useful tool. When we are free from the pricks of the conscience, we can approach God with confidence and boldness. Hebrews 4:16 reminds us to approach the throne of grace boldly. We don’t have to approach the throne of grace as a beggar, holding out our hands, hoping that God may give us the scraps. No, we can approach God as an heir because we are in right standing with God. I believe that this is an important thread in John’s letter. This is why sin is such a big deal. Although a believer cannot lose their standing as a child of God, they can temporarily lose the fellowship with God. The conscience rightly working is meant to warn us when this is the case.

A rightly working conscience can also lead to fruitfulness in the Christian life. You see, as we come before God, we can be certain that God will hear our prayers. Again, where does this clear conscience come from? Right living and pleasing God. I can hear the question: “Oh, so you are telling me that if I will simply obey God and please Him, He will give me whatever I want?” No, this is not what this verse is saying, as if God was some sort of magic genie with a lamp that you rub to get what you want. No, No, No. However, as we keep his commandments and please Him, we will have a clear conscience. This also means that we will be living and asking for things that are in His will. If I’m obeying God, I will be asking for things that are in accordance with His will! There is a powerful picture of faith and obedience, not as rivals but as hand-maidens that lead us to God.

Verse 23 is going to illuminate this further. Whenever I prepare a sermon, I always try to anticipate the skeptical mind that would seek to challenge something in the texts. I hear the objection: “Wait a second, all this talk about obedience and keeping commandments… I thought we were saved by grace through faith!” Perhaps John anticipates this when he tells us what the main commandment is: to believe and to love. This is the first instance of belief in 1 John but the idea has been ever-present. Nonetheless, John is telling us that the first thing we are called to do is believe. You see, to not believe in Jesus Christ is not simply unbelief, it is an act of great disobedience against a Holy and just God. We believe in the name of Jesus, which means that we believe in all that the name Jesus represents. We trust in Him as our savior and Lord. We trust in Him for our salvation. The command is one: believe and love. They are both there. We love, which John has told us so much about. This leads to wonderful confidence in the Christian life. Often we don’t experience freedom in our prayers is either because we have not properly believed in Jesus or we are not living in love for others.

John actually doubles down on this commandment-keeping when he said that as we keep God’s commands, we are abiding or living in God and God is abiding in us. We cannot say that we belong to God and He is residing within us, if we are living lives of disobedience. That would be like trying to convince me that you are giving me a clean cup of water when there are dirt and grime all on the outside. I wouldn’t believe that for a second! Think about the power of this verse, when we realize that God is abiding in us and we are abiding in God, then we can have the greatest confidence in the Christian life. Don’t forget, that is John’s point in this passage. He wants us to live boldly and confidently. The last part of the verse is transitionary and will set the stage for what we will be looking at next week: 1 John 4:1-6. The presence of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives is evidence of God’s abiding because the Holy Spirit is God.

I want you to remember that confidence before God is not some sort of elusive ideal but something real that can be enjoyed. We are not meant to live the Christian in continuous anxiety about whether we are in a right relationship or not. We are meant to live in continuous freedom. Now, if we are in sin, then it’s true that we will have the working of the conscience in our life that will be right and just. Yes, sin will cause us to have anxiety and a lack of confidence. This is a good warning signal. However, we ultimately look to God as our judge, not inward. While a healthy introspection is good, it can also be very detrimental in the life of a believer. Are you struggling with an overactive conscience this morning? Are you wrestling with questions about your own salvation? In that case, here are a few things to consider. One, have you ever trusted in Christ as your savior? Have you believed in Christ? Has there ever been a time in your life when you’ve asked Christ to be a savior? When I’ve asked people this question, they may respond: I’ve always been a Christian. No, just like you haven’t always been married, there was a definitive change from being single to being married. When did you begin your relationship with God? You may not remember the actual day and time, that’s ok, but you should remember a time in your life that you understood the Gospel. Second, if you are a Christian, do you have some sort of sin or lack of love in your life? Perhaps you are doing something that you know is wrong. This will cause the conscience to attack, for good reason. Or, perhaps you are not loving people as you should, this too will cause issues. If you are a Christian, and you’ve repented of your sin, you may be under the attack of the devil who is using an overactive conscience to cause chaos in your life. If that is you, then you just need to lay your case down before the sovereign judge and say, “I can’t win this case against my conscience…. I turn to you Lord, you are greater than my heart.” You need to begin the process of looking up.

[1] (David Allen, Preaching The Word Commentary, 1 – 3 John, 165-166

[2] D. L. Moody, The Way to God and How to Find It (New York; Chicago; Toronto: Fleming H. Revell, 1884), 97.