P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

EXPECT TO DEVELOP A NEW CONSCIENCE

In 1984, an Avianca Airlines jet crashed into the mountains in Spain. One of the first things crash investigators do is try to locate the "black box" cockpit recorder, which, by the way, is not black but usually a bright yellow, which makes it easier to spot. When the box was found and the recording was played, the investigators made an eerie discovery. The recorder revealed that several minutes before the crash, a computer-synthesized voice from the plane's automatic warning system repeatedly told the flight crew in English, "Pull up, Pull up."

The pilot must have thought the system was malfunctioning. The black box recorded his voice saying, "Shut up, Gringo," and then he apparently switched the system off. Minutes later, the plane plowed into the side of a mountain and everyone on board died. This is a tragic story, yet it's a perfect parable of the way many people today are treating the warning messages of their conscience.

Our conscience is our internal warning system. The Avianca pilot thought he was right and the warning system was wrong. The voice of the warning system was designed to point out his error so he could correct it. But the pilot didn't want to be corrected. He knew how to fly the plane. Nobody needed to tell him he was heading for a crash.

The irritation he felt was like the guilt we feel when conscience points out our errors. But we're uncomfortable with guilt, and so, like the airline pilot, in an effort to turn off the guilt, we too turn off our conscience.

Nobody likes to feel guilty. And even when we know we are guilty, we sometimes try to cover it up or make excuses.

Nobody likes to feel pain, either. But pain like guilt, serves an important purpose in your life. If you touch a hot stove, you feel pain. Is that fun? No. But does the pain serve a purpose? You bet. As the saying goes, "Once burned, twice shy." You'll stay away from a hot stove in the future. It's your body's way of trying to keep safe. In fact, if you didn't feel pain, you would burn, cut, scrape, poke, and smash your fingers until they would soon be gone. You need to feel pain in order to correct your actions.

Now, think about guilt. Suppose you do something wrong. You know it's wrong, and you begin to feel guilty. Is that a fun feeling? No again. But is it useful? Absolutely. If you didn't feel guilt, you'd do wrong things over and over again. So, guilt is necessary. Guilt is not a cause, it is an effect.

But where did that guilty feeling come from? That little, nagging feeling we have when we have done something wrong is our conscience.

Some people's idea of conscience is a good angel whispering in one ear and a bad angel whispering in the other. Although there is some truth to that concept, the conscience is more than hearing voices.

God created us in His image. We could almost say then that conscience is where we are connected to God. You see, it is the conscience that separates mankind from the rest of God's creation. It's the ability God has given us to know right from wrong. Unlike the rest of the animal creation, conscience is that part of man that reflects the image of God. Animals don't naturally have a conscience. When a snake bites or a lion kills, they're not violating their conscience. Dogs don't feel bad about barking all night. A cat thinks nothing of jumping on the mantle and breaking your favorite vase.

Though we may sometimes act like animals, God created us to be more noble than animals, to be responsible moral beings, capable of speech and thought and reason. So that this growth could take place, God planted a conscience within every human being.

In writing to the Romans, Paul explains about the conscience in Chapter 2: verses 14 and 15. I’ll read verse 14 first, “Those who are not Jews do not have the law, but when they freely do what the law commands, they are the law for themselves. This is true even though they do not have the law.” Now listen to verse 15, “They show that in their hearts they know right from wrong, just as the law commands. And they show this by their consciences.” (NCV)

Here are some interesting things you should know about the conscience:

First of all, the conscience can be educated. Actually, not just CAN be educated, but it IS being educated every moment. Although the best teacher for our conscience is the Word of God, the first to one to educate our conscience was probably our mother. Early on our mothers taught us right from wrong. It's right to drink your bottle, it's wrong to bite your brother. It's right to share your toys, it's wrong to kick and scream when you want something. It's right to come when mother calls, it's wrong to take something that's not yours.

Secondly, it’s important to realize that the conscience is not the voice of God, nor is it the law of God. The conscience simply judges our actions and thoughts in the light of the highest standard that we happen to understand at the time. A baby in a highchair will spill food on the floor and not think anything of it. But a 10-year-old should know that this is unacceptable behavior.

It’s important to remember that the conscience itself doesn’t decide what's right and wrong, it only reminds us what's right and wrong according to the way it was programmed.

The conscience is influenced even when you're not aware of it. Children raised in a violent and abusive home often tend to become violent and abusive themselves, because their conscience has become blunted by frequent exposure to such behavior. Law enforcement constantly deals with the large numbers of repeat offenders. What we become accustomed to quickly loses its revulsion.

The conscience should not be influenced by what others happen to be doing. We should not look to society to set our moral standards. The conscience is like a skylight, not like a light bulb. Though it lets light into the soul, it doesn't produce its own light. Therefore, the effectiveness of our conscience is determined by the amount of pure light we let in and by how clean we keep it.

Sometimes we hear it said, "Let your conscience be your guide." But this is not always safe. Just like a fine instrument must be calibrated from time to time, so our conscience must be kept well calibrated with the Word of God. There are people whose conscience has become so corrupted that they commit terrible crimes and afterwards they say their conscience never bothered them.

It’s dangerous to try to run our conscience backward or pretend that it isn’t there. Jesus himself has warned us, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62 NKJV. It is more serious to have know what is right and not do it than to not have known at all. The Apostle Paul speaks of this phenomena in 1 Timothy 4:1, 2 NKJV: “Now the Spirit expressly says, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits, and doctrines of devils’ Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.”

If we ignore or blunt our conscience, we will end up being like a ship without a compass. The warning signals that previously made us feel guilty are gone, but the danger remains. Without a way to detect moral problems, we will find ourselves in greater danger than ever.

The Word of God in effect must be the operating system of the conscience. Psalms 119:11 says it best: “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.” (NKJV)

What can we expect in the Christian life? Among other things we can expect to develop a new conscience. Why do we need a new conscience? Because we are frequently exposed to sin and bad behavior, which blunts and sears our conscience and makes it difficult to tell right from wrong. Therefore we must become sensitive to moral danger by hiding God’s Word in our hearts.

It was God's plan that the conscience would be man's early warning system of trouble ahead. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah has written, “If you go the wrong way- to the right or to the left- you will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the right way- you should go this way.” Isaiah 30:21(NCV)

I want my conscience programmed and always well calibrated to the Word of God. Some may think this will mean I will always be on a guilt trip. Not really. Whether we’re on a guilt trip or not depends on what we do when we know something is not right in our lives. When the oil gauge on my car says the pressure is low, I don’t resent it, I do something about it. The conscience is a gift that God has given us to detect the engine problems that come into our lives.

The conscience is the voice that says, "Pull up, Pull up," before we crash and burn. When we do right, the conscience is clear and untroubled. But when we do wrong, the conscience should prick us and bother us until our guilt drives us to correct the matter. I’m thankful that God has given us a conscience, and I’ve discovered that a sensitive conscience can be a practical asset and one of the best features of being a follower of Jesus.