The Doctrine of the Conscience

By Roy B. Zuck

[Roy B. Zuck, Executive Director, Scripture Press Foundation, Wheaton, Illinois.]

A study of the conscience is perhaps one of the most neglected aspects in biblical anthropology and psychology. Comparatively few systematic theologies even make mention of it. And how many sermons on the subject of the conscience can the reader recall having heard?

The conscience is a very important part of the immaterial nature of man and therefore deserves attention. Sanders stresses the need for knowing what the Bible teaches about the conscience: “Ignorance of the function of conscience and of the divine provision for its healthy exercise leads to serious spiritual disorders. Many sensitive Christians have limped through life because of a morbid and weak conscience whose condemning voice allowed them no respite. Their very sincerity and desire to do the will of God only accentuated the problem and caused them to live in a state of perpetual self-accusation. Deliverance from this unhappy state is possible through the apprehension and appropriation of the teaching of Scripture on the subject.”[1]

The Meaning of the Conscience

The English word conscience, is from the latin conscientia, a compound of con (“together” or “with”) and scio (“to know”). This in turn is a translation of the Greek συνείδησις, literally “knowledge with.” This noun is used in the Greek New Testament thirty times (nineteen times in Pauline writings, five times in Hebrews, three times in 1 Peter, twice in Acts, and once in John).[2]

The verb συνεῖδον, from which the noun συνείδησις is derived, is used only four times in the New Testament (three times in Acts, and once in 1 Corinthians). In Acts 12:12 and 14:6 συνεῖδον clearly means “to see in one’s mind, to understand or perceive” and, therefore “to know with one’s self.” The perfect tense may also carry this same meaning in Acts 5:2. In 1 Corinthians 4:4 the perfect tense σύνοιδα is used with the reflexive dative pronoun ἐμαυτῷ.”[3] The inept rendering of 1 Corinthians 4:4 in the Authorized Version, “For I know nothing by myself,” is more accurately translated by the Revised Standard Version, “I am not aware of anything against myself,” or by the Phillips paraphrase, “For I might be quite ignorant of any fault in myself.”

Pierce suggests that this use of the verb συνεῖδον with the dative of the reflexive pronoun is the verbal equivalent of the noun συνείδησις, conscience.[4] For this reason, apparently two other translations[5] render the clause in 1 Corinthians 4:4 with the words, “My conscience is clear.”

From this study of the verbal form, it appears that the nominal form—the conscience—is an inner awareness, a knowledge within one’s self. However, many writers suggest that συνείδησις means “knowledge with someone or something.” Hallesby, for example suggests that it is man’s knowledge of his conformity to the will of God.[6] Others suggest that the conscience means man’s coknowledge with God Himself regarding man’s morals.[7] However, σύν, as a verbal prefix, occasionally has a reflexive meaning (“with one’s self” or “in one’s mind or soul”).[8] Delitzsch explains this as follows: “The σύν is not that of fellowship or intercommunion, but συνειδησις imports…the knowledge dwelling in the person of man….”[9] He also observes that the conscience bears witness within man, not with God.[10]

But what does this inner knowledge or consciousness pertain to? The usages of conscience in the New Testament suggest that it pertains, broadly speaking, to one’s ethics or morals; i.e., the conscience is a moral consciousness. Therefore, based on ethnology and New Testament usage, the conscience can be defined as “the inner knowledge or awareness of, and sensitivity to, some moral standard.”[11] That standard may differ with each individual, as will be discussed later, but even so the conscience is the faculty of man by which he has an awareness of some standard of conduct.

However, this biblical view of the conscience has not always been accepted by others. For example, Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher of the nineteenth century, thought, along with many others, that the conscience is not innate at birth, but is acquired in life as a result of education, child training, and other forms of environmental influence.[12] According to this view, a sense of oughtness varies from person to person because of one’s training and social environment. The conscience, then, as Hegel taught, is acquired and is measured by social ethics.[13]

The Scriptures seem to suggest that the conscience is inherent in all persons rather than an acquired trait. Second Corinthians 4:2 refers to “every man’s conscience,” and in 1 Corinthians 10:29 Paul, in speaking of his own conscience and the conscience of another, apparently is presuming that the conscience is universal and innate.

Others have held that the conscience is the voice of God in man, the personal presence and influence of God Himself. Wordsworth held that the conscience is “God’s most intimate presence in the soul and His most perfect image in the world.”[14] But if that were true, the conscience could hardly be called evil (Heb 10:22), weak (1 Cor 8:7), defiled (Titus 1:15), or seared (1 Tim 4:2).

A third and perhaps more popular view of the conscience is that it is a personal guide to one’s moral actions. “Let your conscience be your guide” is the slogan of this viewpoint. The so-called “new morality” stresses the notion that each person is free to determine for himself his own moral standards. Following “the dictates of one’s conscience” justifies whatever conduct one may desire, for if a person is persuaded that a thing is right, then, it is argued, for him it cannot be wrong. Pierce points out that when a person says “my conscience bids me do this,” he is really saying (1) that he rationalizes that it is right to do it, or (2) that he wants to or feels like doing it, or (3) that he is conditioned by habit to do it.[15] But to justify morally wrong actions by hiding behind the cloak of personal opinions, inclinations, or desires distorts the New Testament meaning of the conscience.

The Functions of the Conscience

A number of authors suggest a threefold function of the conscience, similar to those given by Rehwinkel: (1) it distinguishes the morally right and wrong, (2) it urges man to do that which he recognizes to be right, and (3) it passes judgment on his acts and executes that judgment within his soul.[16] The Encyclopaedia Britannica refers to these same three functions: (1) discerning between right and wrong, (2) predisposing to moral action, and (3) bringing remorse to the person who recognizes he has broken a law.[17]

These three functions may be pictured by a courtroom scene, in which the conscience functions in a twofold way as both a witness and a judge. As a witness, the conscience tells the individual if he is doing right or wrong (according to the moral standards he has accepted for himself). And as a judge the conscience (a) causes the individual to feel condemned (and remorseful) or not condemned (and not remorseful) regarding his actions, and (b) urges him, when he has done wrong, to follow his standards more faithfully in subsequent actions. Rehwinkel calls this prompting action the “obligatory” aspect of the conscience,[18] and Strong calls it the claim of duty, the obligation to do the right.[19] Romans 13:5 may suggest this judiciary action of prompting toward correct action. We should be submissive to “higher powers” not only to avoid punishment (διὰ τὴν ὁργήν) for wrongdoing, but also because our conscience urges us to do so (διὰ τὴν συνείδησις).[20]

Three times Paul refers to the conscience as a witness—Romans 2:15; 9:1; 2 Corinthians 1:12. In Romans 2:14–15 three factors are said to demonstrate that the Gentiles have “the effect of the law written in their hearts” (2:15 )—their actions, their consciences, and their thoughts (or reasonings).[21] Their actions show to all that they are aware of an inward moral law; their consciences show to themselves that they are aware of and sensitive to such a law; and their thoughts or reasonings which condemn or approve one another’s conduct show that they possess and follow an inward law or moral standard of some sort.

Paul stated that his conscience witnesses to his honesty (Rom 9:l). Here his conscience indicated internally to Paul himself that his statement about his felt grief for Israel was in accord with his actual feelings. If Paul had been speaking falsely when he expressed his deep concern for Israel, his conscience, like a witness in a court trial, would have called his attention to his falsehood.

Paul’s third reference to the function of the conscience as a witness is in 2 Corinthians 1:12. Here he states that he rejoices because of the testimony or witness of his conscience that he has lived “with devout motives and godly sincerity” (Berkeley Version). How wonderful if every Christian could state the same thing—that his conscience witnesses to devout motives and godly sincerity!

The second function of the conscience is that of a judge. As such, it adjudicates regarding the moral quality of every action of man. Strong calls the conscience “the moral judiciary of the soul, not the law, nor a sheriff, but a judge.”[22] If the action is in accord with the person’s standard of conduct, the conscience gives a “not guilty” verdict. But if the action is not in accord with his standard of conduct, the conscience pronounces a verdict of “guilty.” Because of this continual adjudicating, the conscience is called by Chafer “a monitor over human actions.”[23] Calvin commented that the conscience “is appointed, as it were, to watch over man, to observe and examine all his secrets.”[24] Hodge states that this function of the conscience as a judge “is accompanied with vivid emotions, pleasurable in view of that which is right, and painful in view of that which is wrong.”[25]

Feeling inward remorse or moral pain over a wrong action indicates that one’s conscience as a judge has pronounced him guilty. Many Greek authors wrote of this aspect of the conscience. Plutarch called the condemning conscience a painful disease. Demosthenes described it as paralyzing in its effect and “as full of fear and trembling as the expectation of blows.” Philo wrote that it is a chastisement from which there is no escape and which injects fear into the soul.[26] Also modern-day literary artists have made much of the fear and remorse of a guilt-ridden conscience in the lives of their leading characters. In Hamlet (Act III, Section I) Shakespeare wrote, “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.” And Byron wrote, “No ear can hear nor tongue can tell the tortures of that inward hell.”[27]

Because the conscience is frequently associated with this moral remorse, pierce seeks to build a case for his view that συνείδησις in the New Testament is always used in a bad sense—bad acts, conditions, or character.[28] In fact, he limits his definition of the conscience to “the painful consciousness that a man has of his own sins, past, or if present, begun in the past.”[29] “It is the pain a man suffers when he does wrong.”[30]

There are several problems with this view. (1) Pierce wrongly equates the pain itself with the agent which inflicts the pain. Rather than saying the conscience is the moral pain suffered when a person violates his standards of conduct, it would be better to say the conscience inflicts moral pain. (2) Pierce’s view forces him toward a strained interpretation of the good, pure, cleansed, and void-of-offense conscience. A good conscience, according to Pierce, is an absent conscience![31] Accordingly, his explanations of Romans 9:1 and 2 Corinthians 1:12, in which the conscience is referred to as a witness, appear exegetically weak.[32]

The Fallibility of the Conscience

Why do some people say they can follow a certain course of action without their conscience bothering them, whereas the same course of action greatly disturbs (bring moral pain and remorse to) other people? Why is it that, as Sanders observes, “in former times the conscience of a Hindu would protest loudly against the killing of a cow but would remain quiescent while he sacrificed his child”?[33]

The answer is that standards of moral conduct vary from person to person. “That standard may be imperfect or flagrantly wrong, but such as it is, conscience will adjudicate according to it.”[34] Whether a person’s conscience accuses and disturbs him regarding a certain action depends on whether that action is in keeping with his standard of conduct or violates it.

In the last few years an optional piece of equipment which can be purchased with new automobiles is a speed monitor. The driver may set the controller at a given, speed, and then if his actual driving speed exceeds the speed set on the monitor, a buzzer is automatically triggered. This buzzer calls the driver’s attention to the fact that he has exceeded his set speed and thus prompts him to reduce his speed. Of course, if the driver does not exceed the speed set on the controller, the buzzer is not sounded.

The conscience is much like the speed monitor. When a person violates his moral standard, his conscience informs him that that act was wrong.

Suppose the driver sees a road sign which indicates he is in a 30-mile-an-hour zone, but deliberately sets his speed monitor at 40 miles an, hour. Obviously he will not hear the buzzer when driving between 30 and 40 miles an hour, even though he is violating the speed law. Likewise, a person may willingly choose to ignore God’s law and therefore is not bothered by an accusing conscience when violating that law. Sometimes a driver may ignorantly (rather than deliberately) set the monitor above the speed limit. But this ignorance does not excuse his wrongdoing. To have one’s speed in accord with the law, the monitor must be aligned with the law. Likewise, for a person’s moral actions to be pleasing to the Lord, they must be aligned with His moral laws, as revealed in Scripture.

However, the fall has affected man’s conscience, making it fallible and unreliable. Like a speed monitor set at the wrong speed, man’s conscience is not properly aligned with God’s standards. Only spiritual regeneration and a Spirit-filled life lived in full obedience to God’s Word can bring one’s conscience in conformity to God’s standards.[35]

The Kinds Of Conscience

1. A commending conscience. When the conscience acts as a judge or monitor over one’s conduct, it either commends or condemns each action. If one’s conscience commends or approves his actions and if those actions are aligned with God’s standards, then his conscience is a “good” or “commending” conscience. But if his conscience condemns his actions and if those actions are aligned with God’s standards, then his conscience is a “bad” or “condemning” conscience.

Four words are used in the Greek New Testament to describe a commending conscience: pure (καθαράς), good (ἀγαθος), noble (καλός), and unoffensive (ἀπρόσκοπος).

It is noteworthy that almost every time a pure (καθαρός) conscience is referred to in the New Testament, it is related to spiritual service (λατρεύω). The blood of bulls and goats cannot perfect (τελειόω) the conscience (Heb 9:9). Only the blood of Christ can purify (καθαρέω) the sinner’s conscience from dead or useless works and enable him, to serve (λατρεύω) the living God (Heb 9:14). In other words, only salvation through faith in Christ as our sacrificial Substitute can remove the condemnation of a guilty conscience before God and qualify us for spiritual service.

If those animal sacrifices had purified (καθαρίζω) those who, served (λατρεύω) in the tabernacle, they would have had no more conscience of sins (Heb 10:2). That is, they would not have had a condemning conscience filled with remorse because of failure to live up to God’s standards.

Only those whose hearts have been sprinkled from an evil conscience (made clean from a guilty conscience) can draw near to God (Heb 10:22) in spiritual worship and service.

Paul states that deacons (spiritual servants) are to have a pure (καθαρός) conscience (1 Tim 3:9). He also states that he himself served (λατρεύω) God with a pure (καθαρός) conscience (2 Tim 1:3).

The good conscience is the one that is free from guilt because of a life lived according to God’s standards. Salvation gives the believer “the ability to face God with a clear [good, ἀγαθός] conscience” (1 Peter 3:21, phillips). According to this verse, salvation is pictured by water baptism, which in turn was prefigured by the water of the flood.

Paul affirmed that he had lived “in all good (ἀγαθός) conscience before God” (Acts 23:1) and that he had a noble (καλός) conscience (Heb 13:18). A good conscience enables the believer (1) to love the Lord and others (“love that rises out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and genuine faith,” 1 Tim 1:5), (2) to be a strong soldier for Christ (“war a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience,” 1 Tim 1:19), and (3) to bring shame to those who falsely accuse him (1 Peter 3:16).

A good and pure conscience is one that is void of offense (ἀπρόσκοπος) toward God and men (Acts 25:16). Paul wrote that he “exercises” (ἀσκέω) himself to have that kind of conscience free from known sin. Though a conscience free from accusations and inward remorse requires labor and effort, it “imparts a new worthwhileness to a person’s whole life, gives it a new wealth and fullness and a quiet, peaceful joy which transcends all other joys.”[36]

2. A condemning conscience. A less-than-desirable conscience is said to be weak (1 Cor 8:7; 10:12), defiled (1 Cor 8:7; Titus 1:15), evil (Heb 10:22), or seared (1 Tim 4:2).

The conscience is also referred to five times in 1 Corinthians 10 (verses 25, 27, 28, and twice in verse 29). Though these verses do not call the conscience “weak,” the context does suggest that a weak conscience is being discussed. The situation in 1 Corinthians 10 is similar to that of the weak conscience discussed in chapter 8.

What is a weak conscience? It is clear from 1 Corinthians 8 that a weak conscience is one that is overscrupulous or oversensitive.

In seeking to answer the Corinthians’ question about the morality of eating food that had been offered to idols, paul states that idols do not really exist (8:4). But, he adds, not everyone is knowledgeable of that fact because they have become “so accustomed to think in terms of idols” (8:7, Berkeley). Therefore the weak (oversensitive) conscience of a person who eats such food becomes defiled (μολύνω, contaminated, soiled) (8:7). If a Christian with an oversensitive conscience sees another (Christian eating offered-to-idols food in a pagan temple, that weak-conscience Christian may be encouraged to do the same, thus going against his standards. Eating food in a pagan temple, though not wrong in itself, Paul argues, should therefore be avoided in order not to damage another’s testimony and thus sin against Christ.

This passage demonstrates that one’s conscience is weak because of a deficient knowledge of spiritual truth (see 1 Cor 8:7a). The answer to a weak conscience, then, is a greater knowledge of God’s Word. The inability “to distinguish clearly between things lawful for a Christian and things unlawful,”[37] can be overcome as one becomes more knowledgeable of God’s ways.

The situation discussed in 1 Corinthians 10 also pertains to the question of eating meat that has been offered to idols. If a Christian is invited to have dinner with an unbeliever, the Christian should ask no questions about what is served. But if someone (apparently someone with a conscience oversensitive about such matters) explains to the Christian that it has been offered to idols, the Christian should refrain from eating it out of consideration for the person with the weak conscience (10:28–29). Though it may seem strange to have one’s actions determined by the conscience of another (10:29), this is desirable because such action, borne out of concern for the other person, brings glory to God.

The principles given in 1 Corinthian 8 and 10 could be summarized as follows: (1) Don’t have an overscrupulous conscience. (2) But on the other hand, be careful not to offend someone whose conscience is overscrupulous. To refer to the speed monitor again, an automobile driver need not set the monitor below the lawful speed limit. But if some driver does get it below the limit (at say, 20, in a 30-mile speed zone), his companions in the car should not insist that he drive 30, because that would force him to go beyond his set limit and thus would disturb his conscience.

A weak conscience may easily degenerate into one that is defiled (1 Cor 8:7). “If we persist in some action against which conscience has witnessed, we thereby defile it and thus prevent its faithful functioning. When a watch stops, it is not the fault of the watch but of the dust which has clogged its delicate mechanism. So with conscience, especially in the realm of purity.”[38] According to Titus 1:16 morally defiled unbelievers have minds and consciences that are defiled (μιαίνω) In other words, they are so involved in sin that their consciences are unreliable. The more one sins, the more he becomes comfortable in his sins (cf. Ps 1:1). By lowering his standards, he is less sensitive to and feels less remorse about previously accepted standards. As a poor judge, his conscience renders unreliable judgments and does not adequately prompt him toward morally correct actions. Such a person possesses an evil (πονηρά) conscience (Heb 10:22), in need of the spiritual cleansing of regeneration.

It is possible for a person to defy the voice of his conscience habitually until it is reduced to insensibility. Paul describes this condition as “seared with a hot iron” (καυτηριάζω, 1 Tim 4:2), i.e., made insensitive like the skin of an animal cauterized by a branding iron.

An automobile driver may refuse to listen to his speed monitor even when it is buzzing. It is possible for one’s ears to become so accustomed to a continuous sound that he no longer consciously hears it. A person who continually refuses to heed the warnings sounded by his conscience will find that his conscience becomes dulled and insensitive to his previously accepted standards.[39]

The Exercise of the Conscience

To have a clean conscience with no offense to God or man (Acts 24:16), a Christian should do five things: (1) Make a deliberate effort to avoid sinning. Paul stated that he exercised himself to have a clear conscience (Acts 24:16). Disciplining himself he strived deliberately and continually to avoid known sin. (2) Know God’s standards. As the Word of Christ dwells in a believer richly in all wisdom (Col 3:16), his oversensitive conscience becomes more fully aligned with God’s standards and is thereby strengthened.[40] (3) Let your conscience be ruled by the Holy Spirit and not by your own will. If a Christian desires to please the Lord and thus have a good conscience, he will seek to be led by the Holy Spirit and not his own desires.[41] (4) Don’t use your spiritual liberty in Christ to offend an overscrupulous believer. (5) Confess sin. This is essential for spiritual joy and fellowship with the Lord, and therefore essential for a removal of remorse caused by the sin.

Only by following these five steps can a Christian testify, “I have lived in all good conscience before God” (Acts 23:1).

Notes

1. J. Oswald Sanders, A Spiritual Clinic, p. 57.
2. If the “Adulteress Pericope” (John 7:53—8:11) is not accepted as part of the original manuscript of John’s Gospel, then the number of occurrences is 29.
3. The full clause is οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐμαυτῶ σύνοιδα.
4. C. A. Pierce, Conscience in the New Testament, pp. 32, 55.
5. The Paraphrased Epistles and The New Testament in Today’s English Version.
6. O. Hallesby, Conscience, pp. 12-13.
7. Sanders, op. cit., p. 58.
8. Two examples of this are συλλυπέω (“to grieve within one’s self,” Mark 3:5) and with συντηρέω (“to keep within one’s self,” Luke 2:19).
9. Franz Delitzsch, A System of Biblical Psychology, p. 160.
10. Ibid., p. 161.
11. The Old Testament does not have an exact equivalent of συνείδησις, though the thought of a moral awareness or sensitivity is found in the Old Testament and is frequently rendered by the word heart. For example, “David’s heart smote him” (1 Sam 24:5; 2 Sam 24:10); “My heart shall not reproach me” (Job 27:6).
12. C. A. Beckwith, “Conscience,” Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, III, 243.
13. Ibid.
14. Quoted in Augustus Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology, p. 501.
15. Pierce, op. cit., p. 125.
16. Alfred W. Rehwinkel, “Conscience,” Baker’s Dictionary of Theology, p. 136.
17. “Conscience,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (1967 edition), VI, 363.
18. Rehwinkel, op. cit., pp. 136-37.
19. Strong, op. cit., pp. 498-99.
20. Or this verse may be illustrating the function of the conscience as a witness: We should be submissive to higher powers because our conscience tells us it is right to do so.
21. In Romans 2:14–15 the Greek does not equate the conscience with the condemning and approving thoughts.
22. Strong, op. cit., p. 82.
23. Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, VII, 92.
24. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, II, 91.
25. A. A. Hodge, Outlines on Theology, p. 224.
26. Quoted in Pierce, op. cit., pp. 47-51.
27. Quoted in Lewis C. Henry (ed.), Best Quotations for All Occasions, p. 44.
28. Pierce, op. cit., p. 45.
29. Ibid., p. 111.
30. Ibid., p. 71.
31. Ibid., p. 51.
32. Ibid., pp. 84, 86, 87.
33. Sanders, op. cit., p. 60.
34. Ibid.
35. “Just as a bullet will reach the bull’s-eye only if the two sights are in correct alignment, so correct moral judgments are delivered only when conscience is correctly aligned with the Scriptures.” Sanders, op. cit., p. 60.
36. Hallesby, op. cit., p. 26.
37. Thayer, op. cit., p. 602.
38. Sanders, op. cit., p. 63.
39. Sanders illustrates this in the words of a Canadian Indian: “My conscience is a little three-cornered thing inside of me. When I do wrong it turns round and hurts me very much. But if I keep on doing wrong, it will turn so much that the corners become worn off and it does not hurt any more (ibid., p. 59).
40. Martin Luther expressed the necessity of the conscience being aligned with the Word of God. When called on to renounce his position, he affirmed: “My conscience is bound in the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is unsafe and dangerous to act against conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me! Amen.” (Quoted in Hallesby, op. cit., p. 36).
41. An automobile driver should align his speed monitor with what the speed limit actually is, not according to the speed he wants it to be.