Romans 2:14-15 “for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, (15) who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.”
Just as the mind of the Christian needs to be renewed once we come into the kingdom of God (Romans 12:2), so the conscience of believers needs to be strengthened. The way that the conscience of man is weakened is through disobedience to their conscience. In other words when we were in the world each time we ignored our conscience when it tried to convict us of wrong doing, our conscience became a little bit weaker as the neural pathway between our conscience and the rest of our brain became less used. And so it became progressively easier for us to ignore our consciences as they became weaker in their ability to convict us of wrong doing. Therefore the way for the believer to begin strengthening their conscience is to start obeying it once again. So how do we do that? We can more easily understand the concept of strengthening the conscience when we look at memory formation in the brain. For example neural pathways involved in memory can be improved and extended via multiple repetitions. On a daily basis, we train our brain to create a new pathway. We repeat an action over and over again until it is defined in the brain as a new neural pathway. This pathway then becomes part of our brain. According to research, it takes twenty-one days to make or break a habit. This habit formation is dependent on training our brain to create new neural pathways. Therefore one of the ways that we can improve the neural pathway between our conscience and our brain is to obey the commandments of the Lord. When the believer habitually obeys God’s commandments, then their conscience is strengthened in its influence on their decision making, as the neural pathway between the conscience and the rest of the brain becomes improved. The reason for that is because our conscience will always agree with God’s laws which are good, and so they will bear witness with us that what we are doing is good. This truth is revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture; for the Holy Spirit teaches us that our conscience will bear witness with us when we do the things in the law.
Acts 23:1 “Then Paul, looking earnestly at the council, said, "Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.”
2 Timothy 1:3 “I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day.”
Although the bible does not speak of having a strong conscience, it does speak of having a good conscience, and it also speaks of having a pure conscience. In the above quoted passages of scripture the apostle Paul refers to his conscience as being both good and pure. A good conscience and a pure conscience are one and the same thing. The believer that has a good conscience will most certainly not at the same time have a weak conscience. And so a good or pure conscience can also be equated to having a conscience that exercises a strong influence in the life of the believer. When the believer learns to always obey their conscience then their conscience will be pure and undefiled. The apostle Paul learnt in his walk with the Lord to always listen to his conscience and obey it. In doing so he was able to say towards the end of his time here on earth, that he had lived a life before God in all good conscience. Clearly Paul always obeyed his conscience.
Acts 24:16 “This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul tells us that he placed great emphasis on having a good conscience not only towards God, but towards man as well. In other words he did not want his conscience to convict him of offending either God or man. Our Lord Jesus had clearly taught the apostle Paul just how essential it is for His saints to obey their consciences. It is interesting to note that Paul stated that he strove to have a conscience without offense, thus implying that effort is involved in maintaining a good conscience. So why is that? The reason is because the default position of the human brain is toward carnal thinking, which always ignores the conscience. And so, just as the formation of good habits takes effort, so the maintenance of a strong neural pathway to our conscience also takes effort and is not simply automatic.
Hebrews 5:14 “But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
Understanding the concept of strengthening our conscience helps us to more clearly understand what it means to become a mature believer. For in the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit tells us that mature believers (the word translated “full age” means “mature”) have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. The word translated “senses” is better translated as “organ of perception”. And so we see that the senses that the Holy Spirit is referring to in this passage of scripture is in fact our conscience, for it is our conscience that teaches us to discern between good and evil. The Holy Spirit goes on to say in this passage that mature believers exercise their conscience. In other words mature believers have learnt to strengthen their neural pathway to their conscience through the practice of habitually obeying the impulses of their conscience.
Michael E.B. Maher
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