Gathering data
We're all familiar with the idea of conscience. Everybody, it seems, has one. Your conscience speaks to you. It gives you a hard time maybe. Many different writers in many different fields have written many different things about it. We must get our ideas from God's Word.
Old Testament
There are no Old Testament references to conscience, not if you use an old or original version. Modern versions often introduce the word where the idea is present, though the word is not. It appears that the ancient Hebrews had no use for the term, perhaps because they received direct revelation so were, in some ways, less immediately aware of conscience. OT believers spoke more readily of their hearts reflecting on revelation. So, David says (Ps 16:7) I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. Cf Ps 40:8 (your law is in my heart).
Adam The idea of conscience is certainly in the Old Testament almost from the beginning. When, after their sin, Adam and Eve hide in fear at the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day (Gen 3:8, 10) that is surely the earliest example of conscience at work.
Puritan William Bates says Adam's “conscience began an early hell within him”. “Paradise with all its pleasures could not secure him from that sting in his breast, and that sharpened by the hand of God”. Adam's soul was racked “with the certain and fearful expectation of judgement.”
Conscience is still at work a little later when Adam then Eve try to put the blame for their sin elsewhere (Gen 3:11-13). Even today our first instinct when sin is discovered is often the same. First - try to cover it up; if that fails, try blaming others.
Jn 3:20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed Gen 4:14 Cain says he will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me which sounds suspiciously like the terror of a guilty conscience, as several commentators notice.
Joseph and his brothers At the other end of Genesis you have the story of Joseph and his brothers. Several writers single it out as a story where conscience plays an important role.
Gen 37: first Reuben, then Judah, appeal to the consciences of the brothers. Reuben argues against killing Joseph, saying Let us not take his life … Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him. Judah says they will gain nothing by killing their brother and hiding the fact. He suggests they sell him to the Ishmaelites instead, adding a direct appeal to conscience, for he is our brother, our own flesh.
Joseph's brothers act on a common fallacy. They figure it will be enough simply to take suitable precautions against their crime being discovered. What they forget is the conscience.
John King wrote "the one witness whose eyes they could not blind, the one informant whose voice they could not silence, the one judge whom they could not bribe." People tend to make no “careful provision against the subsequent remonstrances” of the monitor conscience foolishly thinking that if they can overcome its protests at the beginning all will be well in the end. They don't expect it to come haunting them after the event, as it so often does.
Despite great efforts to hide their sin, even wickedly brazening it out before their father, the truth eventually comes out. It is a striking story full of interesting twists and turns and it reminds us how dramatic God's providence can sometimes be. Their guilty consciences seem to sleep for many years but it is like a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. When they are unexpectedly forced to return to the very land into which they had sold Joseph and stand before him, unrecognised at first, their consciences suddenly awake again and began to speak at a volume they cannot ignore and with an authority they cannot resist.
Gen 42:21 tells us the very mention of youngest brother Benjamin stirred their consciences so that they said to each other surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that’s why this distress has come upon us. Matthew Henry: Guilty consciences are apt to take good providences in a bad sense; to put wrong meanings even upon things that make for them.
Suddenly, the brothers vividly recollect the all but forgotten scene of yesteryear. Now it is as if it had happened the day before. A long time has passed but suddenly one event, one that took up just one day, looms exceedingly large on the horizon. They are forced to watch the replay in high definition and hear it in surround sound, the button set to replay. “The imperishable records of conscience” are unexpectedly and unwillingly brought into the light of day. A bolt of lightning illuminates the sky as conscience abruptly breaks through the dark clouds of suppression and denial.
Conscience is often active before any other informant, witness or judge speaks. It has the power to connect events in its own unique way, combining things otherwise distant, dissimilar and apparently detached from each other.
Later, a cup is found in Benjamin's sack and they say What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants' guilt. (Gen 44:16). The reaction is prompted not by guilt for having stolen anything but guilt over what they'd done to Joseph.
When Joseph finally reveals himself, they are terrified, a terror again borne of a guilty conscience (Gen 45:3). Even after reconciliation, Jacob's departure again stirs conscience and they are fearful (Gen 50:15). As one writer puts it, a guilty conscience casts a long shadow.
Joseph suffered a great deal after being sold into Egypt but one burden he never had to carry was the burden of a guilty conscience. He knew that he did not deserve to be suffering as he was. Under God, this no doubt gave him a good deal of peace and consolation. In contrast, what a sense of condemnation his brothers laboured under. When Joseph himself was faced with temptation at one point, he stood firm because he kept conscience on the throne. He wisely traced the likely consequences of sin and responded to Potiphar's wife and her advances with a sincere and wise how then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? (Gen 39:9b).
The pain of sin's sting consists very much in the recollections of an awakening conscience. Suddenly, the enchantment is broken, the illusion over. Conscience wakes, like a giant from slumber, and the individual is forced to hear accusations he can't answer, charges he can't counter, reproofs he can't repel.
Other examples There are many other places in the Old Testament where the idea of conscience surfaces. Job (27:6) - ... my heart does not reproach me for any of my days. Gen 20:5, 6 Abimelech tells God he has acted with a clear conscience and innocent hands (NET) and God agrees. The hardening of Pharaoh's heart can be related to the subject of conscience. Moses' own conscience is seen to be at work (Ex 2) when, after killing an Egyptian, he is distraught to find he has been observed. On at least two occasions we see David’s conscience at work. 1 Sam 24:5 he is conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of Saul's robe. 1 Sam 24:10 after he counted the fighting men. In 1 Sam 25:31 Abigail's words.
In the Psalms conscience is seen to be active. Ps 32:3, 4 is highly descriptive of the pangs of a bad conscience. Ps 38:3-5 is similar. Ps 51:10 expresses David’s desire for a good conscience. On the basis that everyone has a conscience the Law was given and the prophets preached. A striking example is how Nathan dealt with David following his adultery with Bathsheba (1 Sam 12).
The idea of conscience is in many places in the Old Testament then. How it may have operated in man as originally created in God’s image is debatable. What was the significance for conscience of the knowledge of good and evil? Puritan Richard Bernard asserts that conscience was in Adam before the fall but did not function as it later would. Instead, it witnessed to his goodness and bore sway so that he was obedient and able to know joy in God's presence. He suggests that conscience will function in a similar way in the glory of heaven.
New Testament
Gospels Turning to the New Testament, we find that the Gospels again make no direct reference to conscience, though the idea again there in the story found in John 8:1-9. In the Gospels, as in the OT, even when the term is not used, there is again reason to believe that Jesus has conscience in mind in some places. Eg Lk 12:57, Mark 3:5.
Paul and also Peter Most New Testament references to conscience are made by Paul. In fact, of the 30 or so that exist, around 21 are in his letters (3 in Romans, 12 in Corinthians, 6 in Timothy) 2 others are in sermons of his in Acts and 5 are in Hebrews [9:9, 14; 10:2, 22; 13:8], which if not by Paul reflects his style. The only other person to use the word is Peter (1 Pet 3:16, 21).
It is very much Paul’s word, then. Where did he get it? Some suggest it was a specialist word taken over from the Stoic philosophers but it has been demonstrated to have been an everyday word among the Greeks, going back, in one form or another, to at least the sixth century BC.
In a 1955 study, Conscience in the New Testament, C A Pierce suggests it was a catchword in the Corinthian church, a popular word used to encapsulate an idea. Paul, it seems, took up the word and used it first in correspondence with them and, subsequently, as part of his usual Christian vocabulary. Certainly Paul and other NT writers took up other Greek words and fill them with Christian meaning. Eg Saviour.
The New Testament, like the Old, is perfectly able to speak about conscience without using the word.
Gal 6:4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else. Conscience is not named but how else does one test one's own actions without making comparisons? 1 Jn 3:19-21 heart is used where conscience would fit equally well. This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
As we shall see, when we speak of conscience, we're really speaking of the heart or soul. The word is useful, however, for speaking of a specific function of the soul, namely its moral workings.
Romans 2:14, 15
The nearest the New Testament comes to a definition of conscience is Rom 2:14,15. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.
A number of things emerge from this statement.
1. That everyone has a conscience, even pagans. The conscience belongs to man as man.
2. These verses help us to distinguish the various elements involved in making a moral decision. Although we use the word conscience in a general way to refer to the whole business of making moral decisions, there are, in fact, at least three clearly identifiable strands in the process.
(1) The requirements of the Law of God, which are written on every man’s heart.
(2) The conscience itself, which makes its judgements on the basis of the preceding element.
(3) There are a person’s thoughts or opinions. These come as he makes a decision on the basis of the mediation of conscience proper.
The Puritans and others noticed the correspondence between this threefold distinction and the practical syllogism, a way of reasoning found in the writings of Aristotle. The practical syllogism is an argument in three propositions.
1. A major premise stating some universal truth
2. A minor premise stating some particular truth
3. A conclusion derived from the two premises
So it may be that a man
1. From his moral record, learns the fact lying is wrong (maj)
2. His conscience, therefore, tells him that to make up a story about why he'd not completed the task he was required to complete would be a lie (min)
3. In his thinking or opinion, therefore, he decides to tell a lie would be wrong (conc)
Similarly, he may have
1. In his moral record he may know that bank robbers deserve punishment (maj)
2. His conscience acknowledges that he has robbed a bank (min)
3. In his thinking or opinion, therefore, he has to see he deserves to be punished (conc)
We will need to say more about Rom 2;14, 15 in a moment but first we simply note the significance of the verses and the fact there is a good deal of material on conscience in the Bible, more perhaps than we expect. This serves to underline the importance of the subject that we are considering.
Definition
Philosophers, psychologists and theologians down the ages have wrestled with the problem of conscience and have arrived at divergent conclusions. It is important to get a clear and accurate definition of what conscience is early on.
Confusion We have noted already that people are fairly familiar with the idea of conscience. They say “my conscience is bothering me”; “my conscience pricked me” or claim to have acted “in good conscience”. They know what it is to have something “on their conscience”. They know about a bad or a guilty conscience and, hopefully, a good one too.
Pierce has pointed out, however, that “of the number that make use of the word 19 in 20 perhaps may be ignorant of its true meaning”. This is no exaggeration. Think how other Bible words are employed in everyday language. People still speak, for example, of a thing being “as ugly as sin” or of being “more sinned against than sinning” but how often is the word understood in its biblical sense? It is similar with the word conscience.
Confusion over what exactly conscience may be is not something new. In the 17th century several authors remark on this. Westminster Divines John Jackson and Robert Harris it has “a thousand definitions and descriptions” is “a word of infinite latitude and great dispute” and “much talked of, but little known”. Other Puritans make similar observations.
There is evidence to suggest that the word has often been given such a wide range of meaning in everyday language that, though familiar with it, people rarely gave it an accurate biblical definition. Writers on conscience disagree, for example, on whether to think of it primarily as a human faculty or power, an act or habit or a created quality.
If it is found in the human soul, where is it found? The understanding, the will, where? Surely it is distinct from these. Not only do we tend to distinguish it from them but so does the NT. 1 Tim 1:5 distinguishes conscience from the heart; Tit 1:15 distinguishes it from the mind. In experience too, conscience demonstrates an independence not observed in those other faculties
.
Clarification – Etymology
New Testament Greek word syneidesis, which appears to be made up of two parts.
1. syn/sun suggests with/together. Synchronised swimmers co-ordinate their movements with each other, a symphony is performed by a number of instruments playing together at the same time.
2. The second part, eidesis, is from one of the Greek words for to know.
Conscience enables a certain knowledge – not the usual sort found in the understanding but a reflective knowledge over and above mere head knowledge.
Richard Bernard "A certain, particular, applicatory knowledge in man’s soul, reflecting upon himself, concerning matters between God and him."
The root meaning, then, seems to be to know together, joint knowledge or knowledge shared (with another). The Anglo-Saxon word for conscience inwit suggests inward knowledge but the Latin based word that superseded it, as in the romance languages, is from con-scientia, made up in exactly the same way as the Greek. Other European languages, though not all, are similar. Eg, Welsh cydwybod, Swedish samvete, Russian sovest.
This does not bring us directly to a biblical definition as there has been much debate over who shares the joint knowledge. Obviously, on one side is the person himself, but who is on the other? Many assume it must be God, a teaching often attributed to Augustine and taught by many others, including several Puritans, nineteenth century Romantic poets and Roman Catholic writers old and new. Eg American philosopher and convert to Rome, Peter Kreeft "the voice of God in the soul". The only biblical arguments advanced for this view are dubious references to Elijah's still small voice and appeals to 1 Pet 2:19, it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. However, Peter clearly has in mind only Christians.
Some suggest the word's etymology proves conscience must reveal a knowledge shared with God. Thus we have definitions such as Ole Hallesby (1933) “that knowledge or consciousness by which man knows he is conforming to the moral law or will of God”. While not without merit, such definitions are premature and potentially misleading.
Clarification – Usage
Salaman Rushdie (Satanic Verses) "Names, once they are in common use, quickly become mere sounds, their etymology being buried, like so many of the earth's marvels, beneath the dust of habit. It is unwise to define a word in light only of etymology. How a word is used is far more important."
There is some disagreement about usage of the word synedeisis and related words but it is clear that these terms were not always in the context of moral judgements.
Christian Maurer (Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the NT) cites a famous example where Socrates' young disciple Alcibiades speaks of being conscious that he could put up no resistance to the power of his teacher’s arguments. There is no moral element involved. Least of all, in Greek thought, is there any necessary connection between conscience and God.
Even in the New Testament we find a related word being used in a context where conscience is clearly not intended. Acts 5:2 tells us Ananias with his wife’s full knowledge kept back money from the Apostles, while claiming it had been handed over. The word is synoida, “to know with another”. Ananias knew what he was doing and his wife knew too.
Then Acts 12:12, 14:6 (ESV) Peter realised and Paul and Barnabas learned a thing (NIV has the thing dawning on Peter, being found out by Paul and Barnabas). Words from the same family are again used. At their most basic, then, such words mean “to become conscious of”, “to realise”.
Heb 10:2 is very interesting. ASV speaks of worshippers who would have had no more consciousness of sins. The word used is the same as that found in verse 22 having our hearts sprinkled to save us from a guilty conscience (NIV. TCNT … purified by the sprinkled blood from all consciousness of wrong). It is only the added words for their sins that brings in the moral element.
Concise Definitions
Several Puritans, tending to lean to a greater or lesser extent on Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas, attempted to define conscience concisely. Eg
- William Ames A man’s judgement of himself, according to the judgement of God of him.
- Samuel Ward (following Perkins) A part of the understanding in all reasonable creatures determining of their particular actions either with them or against them.
- William Fenner. The judgement of man upon himself as he is subject to God’s judgement. Like Ames, Fenner refers to 1 Cor 11:31, which he uses more simply to say, harking back to Perkins, that conscience is “a man’s true judgement of himself”.
- Jim Packer A rational faculty, a power of moral self-knowledge and judgement, dealing with questions of right and wrong, duty and desert, and dealing with them authoritatively, as God’s voice
From what we have already said, however, it is clear that we must not think of the conscience as a department of man’s personality or a faculty of his soul. It can be useful to speak in such terms for the purpose of study but it is important to realise that, in reality, conscience is simply one aspect of man’s personality, one function of his soul.
We have also seen that the “joint knowledge” is not necessarily shared with God himself. In fact, put simply, the conscience is man’s power of self-reflection and, particularly, self-criticism. Rehwinkel noted that the English word consciousness is made up in the same way as the word conscience. Consciousness is “awareness of”; conscience is narrower in meaning and refers to “a moral or ethical awareness”. “Conscience” he suggests “is a moral consciousness accompanied by a feeling of obligation and duty.”
Kenneth Kirk (The conscience and its problems 1933) reminds us that though we may write of conscience as a distinct entity we must recall that it “is myself so far as I am a moral man”.
Milton L Rudnick The self in the process of ethical deliberation and evaluation .... It is not someone or something else working in or upon man, but he moral self at work, involving all of a man’s rational and emotional faculties.
Conscience is an amazing thing, one of the elements in our make-up that distinguishes us from animals, mere brute beasts. Hallesby “very remarkable”, Bernard the principal part of God's image in man and what most resembles God in every man.
Conscience in Romans 2:14, 15 again
Given the threefold division that we saw in Rom 2:14, 15, it is clear that when we use the word conscience, we should really restrict it to the second aspect of making moral decisions, the making of judgements on the basis of what is in the moral record.
Some would suppose that conscience only acts in a negative, condemning way.
Emil Brunner (Divine Imperative) a “sinister thing” that “attacks man like an alien, dark, hostile power”.
Pushkin (Play Miserly Knight) “a sharp clawed animal, which scrapes the heart … an uninvited guest, annoying discourser, a rude creditor; and a witch, which dims the moon and graves.”
This may have been the Greek view but Paul points out that there are times when even the Gentile conscience can provoke thoughts that excuse as well as accuse. The Pagan can have a bad or a good conscience. Strictly speaking, of course, it is not conscience that is good or bad. We do not say a barometer is bad if it correctly predicts stormy weather; we merely say it is accurate. Certainly the Christian can have a good conscience (see 2 Cor 1:12, 1 Tim 1:19). Rom 2:14, 15 teaches the moral responsibility of all men.
Complexity
It is important not to think of conscience simplistically. Perkins talks of mind and memory assisting it, one is the storehouse and the keeper of rules and principles, the other the recaller of omissions and commissions. Bernard A Director or Judge in the understanding, a Register and Secret Witness in the memory. It also works in the will, heart and affections. All the other faculties work with it “as it commands the whole man in the execution of its offices”. Many Puritans pictured it as a court with the roles of registrar, witnesses, prosecutor, judge, executioner all carried out by conscience.
Such pictures are fine, provided that we remember the mysteries involved. The workings of conscience include the whole process of perceiving the requirements of God’s Law, assessing them, then deciding how to proceed or what judgement to give. The over-riding impression is one of “ought” or “ought not” but includes a whole host of mental perceptions and emotional feelings - comprehension of right and wrong; use of memory, mind and will; complacency or disquiet; shame or pride; delight or pain; anticipation of reward or punishment.
The sheer breadth of mental and emotional interplay involved can be gauged from the array of legitimate illustrations employed by different writers trying to bring out the varied character of conscience. Eg spy, watchdog, bloodhound, window, mirror, sundial, compass, barometer, plumbline, sail, lash, sword, alarm bell, GPS system, flight recorder or black box and sense of taste.
Characteristics
Christopher Ash (Pure Joy) helpfully singles out five features of conscience.
1. It speaks with a voice independent of us. It enables us to stand outside of ourselves and look at ourselves objectively. Hallesby “a sort of doubling of our personality”. We are, in a sense, able to stand outside self and pronounce judgement. We can to some extent offer unbiased judgement.
2. It speaks with a voice that looks backward and forward. Indeed, its judgements can concern past, present or future. In this latter role conscience acts more like a guide than a judge. Hallesby it is generally at its weakest during sin, in the present, but at its strongest after the event is past.
3. Other people can appeal to my conscience, as Paul does (Rom 13:5) when he tells believers they must submit to the powers that be, not only not to be punished but also for the sake of conscience.
4. God can appeal to my conscience. Ash's example Isa 5:3, 4 where God, referring to Israel as a vineyard, says And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
5. One does not need a Bible to hear the voice of conscience. Ash notes how Joseph rejected the invitations to her bed extended by Potiphar's wife in Egypt (Gen 39). Even before the law, Joseph knew adultery was wrong. Another example - the opening chapters of Amos where the surrounding nations are declared guilty not on the basis of the law but accepted morality.
Conclusion
Richard Sibbes (2 Corinthians) what is conscience, but the soul itself reflecting upon itself? He says it is “the property of the reasonable soul and the excellency of it, that it can return upon itself.” Samuel Rutherford (Catechism) “the principal part of the soul”. When we speak of the workings of conscience, then, we are speaking, clearly, of the moral workings of the soul itself.
Despite what rationalists may have us believe, the conscience is not the result of evolution or a mere interiorisation of cultural norms or social mores. It undoubtedly bears witness to the culture and morality around us but this in no way explains its origin or function. It is not “the divine spark” or “the voice of God” as such. Spurgeon There is no more atrocious mistake made by divines than to tell people conscience is God's representative in the soul.
Having said this, we must say that it is important to hear it. Raymond Opperwall “the internalised voice of those whose judgement of a person counts with him. It is the inner voice that testifies for the moral authorities that we recognise.” It is not the voice of God but the person's own voice.
Rehwinkel “man himself speaking as a moral being to himself”.
God given, it cannot be removed. God himself has ordained and fixed it as a monitor within. We don't always like its witness. Sometimes we disagree with it. It is important to see, however, that the voice of conscience must not be ignored. We must learn to listen to our soul within.
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