The first time I remember hearing the word conscience was watching the movie Pinocchio. You likely remember the story. The word carver, Geppetto, takes a block of wood and carves a boy out of it—a boy that comes alive through the magic of a fairy godmother.
Maybe you’ll recall that just before the fairy godmother departs, she gives Pinocchio a piece of advice, “Be a good boy, Pinocchio. Always let your conscience be your guide.” And then, of course, the great Jiminy Cricket proceeds with fairy godmother’s blessing to be, in a sense, Pinocchio’s conscience, giving him counsel at points of temptation, always steering him in the right direction.
What do you think of when you think of the conscience? Maybe you think about the cartoon angel that sits on the shoulder urging us to do the right thing. (While the devil—a red devil no less!—sits on the other shoulder trying to persuade you to do the wrong thing.) This picture of conscience we’ve seen in cartoons is an enduring one because it resonates so deeply with our personal experience.
It’s no surprise that the conscience is regularly referred to as “an inner voice” for that’s how it comes to us. It’s a voice, a strong assured voice that makes judgments about things and gives instructions about what you should or shouldn’t do. This makes sense when look at the word conscience, which comes from Latin root words that mean to be “with knowledge.” Yes, a conscience is kind of built-into-you knowledge that is shared with you over and over throughout the day in dozens of different circumstances.
In fact, no matter how hard we try, we can’t quite outrun the conscience. When we try to ignore it or, even worse, go against it, it only comes back louder with some reasoning like this: “If you don’t do what I told you to do, you know I’m going to make you feel miserable about not doing what you know you should do, which is going to ruin the joy you would have had in not doing what you know you should do; so you better just go ahead and do what you know you should do!
Do you recognize this voice? I bet you do. We all do. But what are we to do with the conscience? How should we relate to our conscience? Is Jiminy Cricket right, should I always let conscience be my guide? So many good questions. And the Bible has very important instruction about each of these questions and many more.
This past Wednesday during our evening Vesper’s service, we opened a discussion about the presence and purpose of the conscience. It’s a discussion we’re going to continue for the next five weeks. I want to personally invite you to join us. You’re not behind; the conversation has just started. Make plans to join in on the conversation this week. I promise you will learn so many important truths that will positively impact your life on a daily basis.
I’ll see you Wednesday night!