Acts 23:1. “And Paul earnestly beholding the council, said, ‘Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.’”
IN ALL GOOD CONSCIENCE. There is a witness in men that cannot be denied; its presence is continually there. It is the conscience placed there by God in His plan, to keep men of God’s presence aware. When the hand or the mouth or even the thoughts, step out of line – the conscience steps in. What may first have been thought as just a good time; the conscience may say it is sin.
Conscience approves or condemns, as God intended it to; that we His will do obey. The whisper in the soul is the voice God placed there; so, we will watch what do and we say. When the conscience is pure, we can live quite content; when it is bad, we will be ill at ease. The accuser so powerful when it makes itself known, will be at rest when it is God that we please.
To accuse us of sin is one of the means; the Spirit uses conscience to bring the proud down. No accuser of men is as powerful a force as the conscience to make truth be known. The guilt that it brings can make a sinner repent, and down on his knees there to fall. The work of God’s grace reveals it is not a foe, but of all the senses the greatest friend of all.
For conscience we submit to the authority of others, who rule to bring blessings to pass. There will be times when for the sake of our conscience we suffer, pain’s desperate and awful blast. Not an enemy but a friend, one of the best of all is the conscience that humbles my pride. A conscience that’s seared, is a conscience defiled; such an enemy will be a false guide.
I am not at liberty to ignore those around; I am never their conscience to offend. It would be hurtful of me to make out a joke that would hinder that person’s best friend; For the conscience they have may be more tender than mine; what would hurt them would never hurt me.
So, the conscience God gave me, is best friend to us both, its testimony makes us both to see.
The voice of the soul is this conscience of mine; it speaks loudly even when I am deaf. It keeps my life straight, my pilot it is, so that of this time here on earth I will not wreck. To live in good conscience all of what’s left of this life, is a goal that I continually seek. To look in the eye all men and the Savior as well – will happen, if good conscience I keep.
“Father, it must be a great delight to Thee to watch a man like Paul who could live his life in good conscience. There are times when mine blows the whistle on me and I am thankful for it. Yet it happens too often. Missed opportunities, wasted time, self- centered living bothers me. Give me a better spiritual hearing that I may act before the fact rather than after. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.”