Conscience
12/20/23
The Apostle Paul wrote about conscience, the inner feeling or voice acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of our behavior. In Christian life this concerns spiritual things, the things of God and Christ. 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 is scripture addressing conscience and so is 1 Corinthians 10:27-32 . Those who are strong in the faith should bear the weak and be willing to limit their freedom in Christ for the sake of all people. The strong know they can eat anything, even food sacrificed to idols and that all days are indeed alike. However this knowledge is not in all people. Paul’s letter to the Galatians shows Paul’s anger over them keeping days, months, seasons and years. God, who is spirit cannot be worshipped in this way because it uses the physical to worship a God who is to be worshipped in spirit. No physical thing is to be used to worship God or His son because physical things are not spirit. Colossians 2:6-8 makes it very plain that deception based on human traditions and the spiritual forces (Satan) of the world , 2 Corinthians 4:4 , are not of God and Christ. Even weak Christians are not to remain weak but rather grow in grace and knowledge to become strong. Strong Christians have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them, expose them for what they are to the weak Christian but not to the world because they will turn and rent you to pieces. Ephesians 5:6-7 . We can associate with people of the world but it is very wise to not get involved in their spiritual practices. You could find yourself in a very uncomfortable situation. Do we not know the Father is the only true God but most people in the worlds understanding say Jesus is God too. They think God died for them. The world has its ways and the church has its ways, which of these ways do you think are of God ?
Proverbs 1:10 , Romans 13:12 , 2 Corinthians 6:14 , Romans 12:2
Yes, we are to love God and our neighbors but should we love our neighbors more than God. This is a question that should be easy to answer but with a babe in Christ it may not. A babe only recently was converted and needs to grow and God is able to make him Stand or fall as he is the Lords servant not ours. The strong can help the weak in love, careful not to offend their developing conscience in the Lord who in time will strengthen them. Politics and religion are said to be things not to discuss as both have the potential to produce bad results. We know this ,so why open ourselves up to even that possibility. Matthew 7:6 is the chance your taking when you mix it up in the worlds politics or religion. Years ago, before I learned this lesson I got myself into numerous troubles, Jesus was right, they rent me into pieces. Wisdom is learned over time and through experiences. 1 Peter 2:2
When a person is unconverted all they have is carnal consciousness and are only able to operate in man’s wisdom, it is only when converted that a person’s consciousness is linked to YAHWEH. This link enables them to think spiritually, to come to the knowledge of the truth, to be taught of YAHWEH through Christ. The faith carnal people have is carnal, they are carnal minded. The faith of a Christian is spiritual, a gift and a fruit of the spirit of YAHWEH.
Carnal people say they cannot go against their conscience when they make decisions and so their decisions will be carnal. Christians become engaged in a spiritual warfare with this carnal conscience to defeat it, overcome it and become more like Christ.
Christians are to die to their pre-converted self , their carnal conscience and carnal thinking so to be transformed into the spiritual.
Christians are bought with a price and are not their own, they belong to YAHWEH who demands total love and obedience from HIS saints. Christians are not to become involved in this carnal world’s religions, governments, politics or causes. How can anyone claim to be not of this world when they are neck deep in it ? If your consciousness is not linked to YAHWEH then you are not a Christian. The old carnal saying is to let your conscience be your guide , that is your unconverted conscience, but with a Christian YAHWEHS spirit is your guide. Lean not to your own understanding, your own conscience, Proverbs 3:5,6 Christians are to have the mind, conscience, of Christ who had the mind of YAHWEH. Christians must be of one mind, spirit and conscience awareness by being in Christ who is in YAHWEH. The truth of YAHWEH is revealed to our conscience by the spirit of YAHWEH though Christ. A Christians conscience in the truth is confirmed by YAHWEH. Romans 9:1 Galatians 1:20 2 Corinthians 4:2 Romans 2:15 2 Corinthians 1:12
Your human spirit is your mind, your consciousness and when unconverted is totally cut off from YAHWEH. Let this mind which was in Christ be in you, we are to have the mind, the consciousness of Christ who was one with his GOD.
I am very aware that the subject of conscience is ,for a babe in Christ, a difficult thing to grasp but babes are to grow, mature, increase in spiritual knowledge to come to see that they cannot allow their former carnal conscience to guide them, they must become a new creation, not of this world.