1 Corinthians 8:12 “But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.”
A Christian with a weak conscience will remain in that state, and grow weaker if they continue to ignore their conscience. Once we are born-again and our consciences are washed clean in the blood of the lamb, it is still possible for the believer to disobey their conscience by committing sin and thus continue to weaken their conscience. We all still have a free will when we are born-again, and so we decide as an act of our free wills whether we will obey or ignore our consciences. In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul talks about the consciences of weak believers being wounded. In context the apostle Paul is teaching mature believers how to behave around baby Christians so that they do not cause them to stumble in any way. Nevertheless the point remains, that the Holy Spirit reveals to us in this passage that it is possible for the conscience of the believer to become wounded. When someone becomes wounded in the natural they also become weakened. And so we can see that ignoring our conscience is not to be taken lightly, for the resulting weakening of our consciences makes it that much easier for believers to continue in sin. Every time we override our conscience we weaken the neural pathways between the conscience and the rest of the brain, thus making it more difficult for the conscience to have its “voice” heard.
1 Timothy 1:3-20 “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia--remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, (4) nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. (5) Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, (6) from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, (7) desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. … (19) having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, (20) of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul revealed to us that he had delivered two believers to Satan so that they could learn not to blaspheme. In context the blaspheming that Paul was referring to was that these two individuals had begun to teach false doctrine in the church, thus implying that they were in fact ministers of the gospel. So how is it possible that some believers can reach the stage where an apostle of the Lord has to hand them over to Satan so that they can learn to no longer blaspheme? The apostle Paul answers that question for us by telling us that these two had rejected a good conscience. In other words their conscience had been convicting them not to teach false doctrine, but they chose to ignore their conscience and continue in their error to the point where their consciences had become so weakened that they were no longer able to influence their decisions in this area, and they did that as an act of their free will.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments