August 11, 2024
How often have we heard these words, “Let your conscience be your guide.” No doubt, the acceptance of this concept is part of the reason so many people’s lives and messed up and broken. The problem is that a lot of us imagine our conscience to be a spiritual thermometer. We assume it can be placed into any situation and it will tell us the moral temperature—too hot, too cold, or just right. But that’s not how our conscience works. It’s more like the thermostat in our living room. It reflects our definition of hot and cold. We set it to the standards we choose. We determine when it kicks in and when it stays idle. Our conscience doesn’t tell us if we’re violating God’s standards. It tells us when we violating our standards. Our conscience can’t be our guide because it needs to be guided itself—by God’s Word.