Building a Strong Conscience
By George “Chip” Hammond
I have a daughter who works in physical therapy. The word “therapy” comes from a Greek word that means “to heal,” and physical therapy is often prescribed after someone has sustained an injury or illness that has impacted their physical abilities.
There are two ways she conducts physical therapy sessions, one with a single patient, the other with several patients in a group setting. There are benefits to group therapy, including comradery, a motivation that comes from friendly competitiveness, and the drive not to quit in front of one’s peers. As people work together, they repair damaged muscles, loosen seized ligaments, and break up fascia.
A Damaged Conscience
Some people, before they are awakened to their separation from God, have a conscience so damaged as to be nearly non-functioning. It is cauterized and scared over and has lost all sensitivity. This is a terrible condition, for the Bible tells us that God has given us a conscience to guide us – to defend us when we do right and to accuse us when we do wrong (Romans 2:15). Even a healed conscience, though, is not a perfect conscience. Paul could claim (in good conscience) that his conscience was clear, “but that does not make me innocent” (1 Corinthians 4:4). Still, a good conscience is of great value and the goal of the instruction of the Christian faith is in fact a good conscience, along with love from a pure heart, and a sincere faith (1 Timothy 1:5).
Coming to faith in Jesus requires recognition of our sin. Jesus did not come to call those who regard themselves as righteous, but rather to call sinners. Those who believe themselves to be the picture of health don’t seek a physician (Mark 2:17). No one recognizes a need for Jesus without recognizing one’s own sin, and this inflames and pains the conscience. Although people have different spiritual experiences, it is probably true that no one comes to faith in Jesus without a torn and damaged conscience, a conscience that requires spiritual therapy (healing).
Understanding a Weak Conscience
Often when people damage a muscle, ligament, or joint they will compensate by adjusting their posture or using other muscles. This compensation often leads to additional damage to the surrounding tissue, which then also requires healing. A first visit to a physical therapist can be disconcerting. It may be only then that the person first understands how much damage has been done, how weak she really is, and what addition damage has been done by the compensation.
The same is true with a damaged conscience. To understand the damage that sin does in weaking the conscience we must first understand what a strong conscience is. A strong conscience is one that knows the difference between what is sinful in itself, and what is not, and is able to engage with perfect freedom in anything that is not sinful in itself. Paul tells Titus, “To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled” (Titus 1:15). A cauterized conscience may be insensitive, or it may be hyper-sensitive, fearing all kinds of activities and enjoyments. But God has not given us a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7), and he has given us all things richly to enjoy (1 Timothy 4:5).
It is vitally important if our consciences are to be healed to recognize where they are weak and damaged, and herein lies a problem because the American Fundamentalism of a generation ago confused weakness with strength. Sometimes when someone curls dumb bells, he will think he is strong because he is jerking his arms and throwing his hips forward. He thinks he is strong because of “all the weight I can lift” but in fact his biceps are weak and are not benefiting, and he is straining other parts of his body.
We need to be able to recognize a weak conscience. Refusing to attend a movie theater (not common today, but at one time) indicates a weak conscience. Not attending restaurants where alcohol is served, not being able to listen to certain kinds of music, not being able to platonically hug someone of the opposite sex are all indications of a weak and damaged conscience, for “to the pure, all things are pure.”
In 1 Corinthians 8 Paul teaches that a weak conscience is behind a Christian not being able to eat meat sacrificed to idols. Someone with a strong conscience knows that there’s no such thing as an idol, that there is only one God, and that food from whatever sources has no effect on our standing with Him. “But not everyone knows this ...” What stands behind the “not knowing” is a weak conscience (1 Corinthians 8:7) which is “defiled.” The word Paul uses means “stained,” the antonym of a pure or “clean” conscience (Titus 1:15).
The person who throws-and-jerks dumb bells is not strong and is in fact likely doing himself damage, but he thinks he’s strong. In the same way people who won’t eat meat sacrificed to idols, won’t touch a drop of alcohol, won’t listen to music, or refuse hugs for conscience’s sake may think they have a strong conscience, but in fact they do these things out of a weak conscience.
Strengthening and Healing a Weak Conscience
You may be realizing for the first time that there are tendencies in yourself or practices that you thought indicated spiritual maturity and strength that actually indicate immaturity and weakness. God wants us to enjoy all the things he’s given us to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17) rather than living in timid fear (2 Timothy 1:7, 1 John 4:18). But how do you overcome a weak conscience and grow to maturity?
First, the way not to do it is by violating conscience, at least not on your own. Martin Luther was correct when he said that it is not safe or right to go against one’s conscience, for “whatever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23).
For those who have friends with weak consciences: you don’t strengthen them by forcing what you know to be not-sin-in-itself upon them (1 Corinthians 8:9-13). This means you don’t drink beer in front of your friend who has a weak conscience about alcohol or invited him to join you in an effort to try to “cure” him. Doing such a thing would be rude and being rude is the opposite of love (see 1 Corinthians 13).
The right place and manner for weak consciences to be (sometimes painfully) worked, stretched, healed, strengthened, and matured is in “group therapy.” It takes place in the church, the gathering of God’s people. Let me give you three true examples of how this may happen.
The first involves a man who had turned to alcohol to cope with the pain and stress of life. However much this dulled the immediate pain (and it did), it brought more and other kinds of suffering into his life. When he met Jesus, he found the power to break his dependency on alcohol. After that he wouldn’t touch a drop and wouldn’t go to eateries that served alcohol. He narrowed his circle of friends to teetotalers. His conscience had been badly damaged and weakened, and he lived in fear of finding himself on a slippery slope. But he soon realized that the Lord’s Supper was a regular feature of church worship. At first, he refused to participate, but this was disobedience to Christ’s command (Luke 22:19, 1 Corinthians 11:23) and an arrogant and prideful elevation of himself above his brothers and sisters (whom he thought at first had a weaker conscience than he). Yet within the sanctuary of the service, he was able to overcome his spirit of fear with a spirit of ability, of love, and of sound thinking. Today he joyfully participates in the sacraments, and even on occasion will lift a glass with a friend but is always careful not to go back to the place he was before. In Christ he has found healing, and within the church his conscience has been restored and strengthened. He is able to give thanks to God who “gives wine to gladden human hearts” (Psalm 104:15).
A musician friend had vigorously pursued music through his young adulthood. “It was my god,” he freely admits. When he came to Christ, he realized that his idols had to go. He stopped playing and even listening to music. At first his participation in the Christian faith was very truncated coming through books and radio program lectures and sermons. Some of these were good, however, and he discovered the great emphasis God’s word puts on the church (Colossians 1:18-24, Ephesians 5:25-29, 1 Timothy 3:15). The very worship of the Church emphasizes that we are not just “brains on sticks.” The whole person in soul, mind, body, voice, and emotions must worship. Music and singing are very much a part of worship (see the Psalms and passages like Romans 15:9, Revelation 5 and 14). At first, he refused to participate at church in the singing (particularly if he liked the music!) out of fear where he had come from, and fear that he might return there. He soon came to realize that his holding himself aloof from participating with the congregation was arrogant self-centered. Though difficult for him at first, he began to participate in the singing and as he did his conscience was strengthened. Today he not only sings in worship but helps to lead it by contributing his musical gifts. He has rekindled a love for all kinds of music. His idolatry is gone, and his conscience is strong.
Another man (coincidentally all my examples are all men) was taken for a misogynist at the church he joined when he first became a Christian. He seemed not to acknowledge the presence or even the existence of women. His backstory explained why. Before coming to Christ, he lived a sexually promiscuous lifestyle. He could not say now many women he had slept with because there had been so many. His conscience was seriously injured, and he came to see all women as a potential trap and pitfall. His way of dealing with this was simply to ignore their very existence. But he could not do this without despising half the church of God and sinning against his sisters. Gradually he came to see that objectifying women was behind his sin of promiscuity. While he had delt with his promiscuous behavior he had not dealt with the underlying objectification.
Within the created order there are some distinct roles for men and women, but their value is the same (see Genesis 1:26-27). In Christ there is no male or female, but all are one in Him (Galatians 3:28). Both receive the covenant sign of baptism, and both participate in the Lord’s Supper. Both have gifts to share, and both are vital and necessary parts of the body of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12).
In his participation in the life and worship of the church he came to see women as sisters in Christ and coheirs of the grace of God; to see them for their valuable gifts and their graces; to see them as precious souls Christ died to save and not merely as female bodies. In time his conscience came to be strengthened as he discovered that they were not the problem; he had been. “Had been” is the important phrase. “That is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11),and so he was able to “treat young women as sisters in all purity” (1 Timothy 5:2).
Today rather than treating women like pariah or as second-class citizens, his close friends in the church include both men and women, and he can greet both “with a holy kiss” (Romans 16, 1 Corinthians 16, 2 Corinthians 13, 1 Thessalonians 5) – or in our culture, a sanctified hug.
Assembling Yourselves
The writer to the Hebrews says, “Do not forsake the assembly, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrew 10:25). This is important for so many reasons, developing a robust conscience among them.
The advent of the internet has brought benefits, but it has also brought challenges and dangers. Today professors in Jesus will often “attend” church only online or will listen to disconnected sermons and lectures. There are dangers to this. One is that it is only within the church that weak consciences can be recognized, stretched, and healed. Apart from attending this spiritual “group therapy” a person who is weak may not recognize the weakness and may engage in behaviors and patterns that cause more damage.
Another danger is the availability of various teachers on YouTube. I cringe sometimes when I hear of some of the voices the people in my church are listening to. But beyond this, even when the voices are not in themselves bad, they are disconnected from the life of the body. In the New Testament Christ appointed pastors and elders in individual churches to study, understand, and exegete not only God’s Word, but the flock placed under their care. To shepherd the flock of God (1 Peter 5) a shepherd must know the sheep. Online voices have no way of doing this.
A medical doctor I spoke with once told me about his frustration with patients coming to him for treatment, then taking advice from medical websites. “It’s not that all of these are bad or wrong, it’s that they are dissociated from the patient’s case, and are therefore not comprehensive in the treatment. It frustrates me when I see a patient’s condition unnecessarily worsen because they are listening to so many voices.” For the same reasons, the assembly ought not be forsaken or seen as a mere “supplement” to one’s Christian growth.
The Church is God’s appointed means and place for the healing and growth of God’s people. It is within the assembly of believers that one regularly discovers his or her injuries and weaknesses. In the church God has appointed specific shepherds and soul-healers to know the weaknesses and wounds of those particular sheep. Within the church one finds the “group therapy” of comradery, encouragement, and sanctified competition (to outdo one another in loving and honoring each other, Romans 12:10) which are necessary to heal weak consciences.
