The title of our blog is taken from the Scriptures. First, we find, “And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day” (Acts 23:1). The English Word, conscience is latin in origin and literally means “with knowledge.” Paul explains both the meaning of “conscience” and “good” in Acts 26:9. There is explains that he verily “thought” with himself that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 26:9). His conscience was good because he acted out of sense of “ought” that motivated him to act consistent with his knowledge (“good”). It is what he was taught and he was acting in accordance with it. He writes to Philippi “. . . If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless” (Philippians 3:4-6). This self-ascribed “chief of sinners” persecuted (or pursued) those of the way, “breathing out threatenings and slaughter” and “making havoc of the Church, entering into every house, and, haling men and women” (Acts 9). He tore them from their homes, and “committed them to prison” (Acts 8:3). He “punished” that is, scourged them “in every synagogue” where they had joined fellow Jews for the public reading of the Law. He used all efforts to to make them “blaspheme” or revile the sacred name, becoming “exceedingly mad against them,” and drove them from town to town and away from their own homes “to strange cities;” he was present when they were sentenced to death, and “gave” his “voice against them” (Acts 26:10-11). It was not without reason that, in later years, he remembered with deep repentance how he had “persecuted the people of God (ekklesia) and wasted it. And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers” (Gal. 1:13; 1 Tim. 1:13; 1 Cor. 15:9).
He engaged in this work under the influence of conscience, as a service which he thought he was giving God. In Acts 24:16, he explains, “And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.” He didn’t violate his conscience when he persectuted those Christians because he had so trained or adjusted his thinking that it was the right thing to do.
Two lessons stand out from this study. First, we must always remember that honesty is the best policy so that we never violate that built in governor set by our training and education. It’s task is to convict us when he act outside the bounds of our training. It is the standard equipment given to every human being that should never be ignored. Second, the conscience must always be checked to ensure the accuracy of the data because Paul’s honesty did not justify his actions. Having a good conscience may require us to act consistenetly with our education, but it does not guarantee that the education is accurate. The conscience is “our view of appropriate action, not necessarily the correct one. Conscience stems from our training; truth stems from God’s revelation. If we think our conscience is a safe guide, then we will always follow the same rut without investigation and examination. The truth of God’s revealed will is the standard, of course, and Paul was confronted with this new revelation. When that occurred, his conscience was reset. Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and readjusted his convictions. But, with the same zeal he had had while a persecutor, he continued as a preacher of Jesus and the resurrection. As both a persecutor and preacher, he had maintained a “good conscience.”