The Caregiver's Guilt, Our Conscience: Part 5

Our conscience can accuse us of wrongdoing, of disobeying the word and will of the Lord. A conscience can be evil, corrupted by sin, and yet cleansed by the sacrifice of Christ. A conscience can be disobeyed, ignored, and defiled. Disobeying your conscience leads to compromise, which always multiplies. Compromise never happens in isolation; it produces more of the same. A conscience can be trapped within the pride of dead religious activity; we can imagine ourselves to be something in the family of God when we are not serving the purposes of Christ's Kingdom at all. The conscience can be seared; the gravest condition of all. It can become dull and non-responsive through repeated defiance of its impulses to warn and restrain us.

But most commonly in the church, a conscience can be weak. As mentioned earlier, everyone is on a different growth trajectory in Christ. There are those who are more mature in the Lord, there are those who are less mature in Him, and those who are newborn babes. Each has a conscience that has been informed to the extent of their experience of the Lord and Scripture, and since no two people in a church family are at the exact same place of spiritual growth, this is where the greatest care is needed. The mature have to be careful to exercise their liberty and growth in Christ in a way that does not wound weaker, immature believers. The mature must remember that weaker brothers and sisters cannot just take "our words for it", and go along with us. We don't teach them to deny or defy their consciences, but rather we patiently wait for the Word and the Spirit to grow them to maturity and more fully inform their minds about the truth. Similarly, even though it is difficult food to swallow, immature believers must be instructed to avoid harsh judgments of others in the church who don't agree with their opinions on spiritual matters. We must be patient with younger believers, but that does not mean that we are silent and consent to their improper use of God's Word or the inappropriate judgments of less well-equipped consciences. It's ok to say to a newbie, "hey there, wait a minute; slow down a bit; don't be so hasty or critical. Where did you get that opinion? Where is that idea found in the Scriptures?"

Most important, we must never encourage anyone to violate his conscience. That is devastating. Comply with your conscience to the extent that it is informed in the truth of God, while you wait on Him to grow you further, and by all means, don't ignore your conscience. There is a reason you feel the way you do. Find out why!