If he refuses to listen, he injures his conscience. It becomes dull and seared.

A seared conscience has issued so many unheeded warnings that it has become weary in well-doing. It no longer sounds the warning, or if it does, it is a very faint or feeble one. It simply became tired of not being listened to. To ignore warning signals is to harden the heart toward right, as Pharaoh did. It is to put light for darkness and darkness for light, as the ancient Israelites did—a course much too easily achieved today.

TRAINING NECESSARY FOR RELIABILITY

The conscience is not automatic; it is not infallible. The conscience must be trained. Much depends upon the kind of information that we take into our minds as to the value of our conscience. For example, a conscience trained in an environment of crime, polygamy or polyandry accepts these practices without a twinge. Another reared in surroundings of moral laxity, where common-law marriage, adultery and fornication are the general practices, takes such wrongs for granted. Still another conscience brought up in an atmosphere of sly business methods, among lying, cheating and grafting, silently condones such wrongs on the ground that everyone is doing it, that these are the accepted ways. A misled conscience, in fact, may excuse the wrongdoer of wrongdoing; yet this fact does not excuse the man before God. Paul said: “I am not conscious of anything against me. Yet by this I do not stand vindicated, but he that examines me is Jehovah.”—1 Cor. 4:4.

A conscience is reliable only when it has been trained in the will of God. It is the divinely educated conscience with its prickings and proddings that helps in safely guiding Christians in the way of life. It helps them apply righteous principles to their daily living, making unnecessary detailed and written laws of conduct.

Accurate knowledge of God’s Word, the Bible, is needed to train the conscience in the righteousness of God. For the Word of God is alive and is “able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” God’s Word has the power to discipline the conscience in righteousness. A weak conscience is due to lack of accurate knowledge. Study of God’s Word and faith in that Word will build up the conscience. Obedience to God’s commands will help Christians to carry out the injunction: “Hold a good conscience.”—Heb. 4:12; 1 Pet. 3:16; 1 Cor. 8:7.

MAINTAIN A GOOD CONSCIENCE

To maintain a good conscience one must continually take in knowledge of God. Then one must make decisions and conduct oneself in harmony with the principles of God’s Word. One must be able to say as Paul said: “I am exercising myself continually to have a consciousness of committing no offense against God and men.”—Acts 24:16.

It is very easy to defile the conscience. If we relax our vigilance and adopt worldly standards of morality instead of Scriptural standards, our conscience will stop working for us. We must be alert to errors and learn from our blunders. When wrongs are committed we should seek the forgiveness of Jehovah and our brothers. Faith in the blood of Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to make the request to God for a clean conscience. (1 Pet. 3:21; Heb. 9:14; 10:22) So do not nurse wrongs or plague yourself with continual self-condemnation, but accept the forgiveness that God gives, and erect barriers through prayer and study to further transgressions.

A good conscience is not the certainty of reconciliation but the mirror of our moral condition. Hence its chief characteristic is its sincerity. Hypocrisy accuses the conscience. For the conscience to remain the practical thing that it is, we must make correct use of it and take proper care to heed its warnings and cultivate its powers.—Rom. 9:1; 2 Cor. 1:12.

The diligent servant will continually examine and correct his own conscience. Properly looked after, the conscience has power to lead the servant of God to reach a greater responsiveness to the call of duty and higher virtue. Whereas the negligent servant, and still more the perverse, may become dead to the workings of his conscience.

It is fear-inspiring to contemplate the execution of God’s judgment against all wrongdoers. (Mal. 3:5) Yet not just for motives of fear should we avoid wrongdoing and do good. The motivating force should be a conscientious love of righteousness. Hence Paul says: “There is therefore compelling reason for you to be in subjection, not only on account of that wrath but also on account of your conscience.” For conscience’ sake, therefore, we should want to subject ourselves to God and do right.—Rom. 13:5.

CONSCIENCES OF OTHERS

Christians must show regard not only for their own consciences, but also for the consciences of others. To disregard one’s own conscience will force it to callous and scar over for its own healing and protection. To disregard the consciences of others is to offend them and stumble them on the way to life. Paul was well aware of this fact. He said that he preferred to forego his freedom, if by using it he would trouble his brother’s weaker conscience.—1 Cor. 8:7-13; 10:27-29.

On the other hand, Paul would not compromise his conscience just to satisfy the miseducated consciences of false religionists. It was up to them to re-educate their consciences. While regard must be shown for weaker consciences, under no circumstance should the defiled and faithless consciences of worldlings be a Christian’s guide.

If all the world had a true Christian conscience, men would feel an obligation toward one another, as brother to brother. They would be moved to love, not only themselves, but their neighbors and enemies. Where there is a Christian conscience there is no desire to kill, no desire to destroy savings and the fruits of toil, no desire to threaten the unity of millions of homes throughout the world. There is only a desire to live and to let live in peace, according to God’s principles. Therefore, all men should seek a good conscience. Request God for such a conscience and act in harmony with your request.—Matt. 5:43-48.

A Closed Corporation

“A church which has ceased to be the agency of his creative love, which knows no barriers, and has settled down to be a closed corporation of nice, respectable, middle-class people, a bourgeois ghetto, as someone has called it, has ceased to be Christian.” So stated Taito A. Kantonen in his work A Theology of Evangelism.