“But we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not just please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself, but just as it is written, “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope. Now may the God of endurance and comfort give you unity with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”           Romans 15:1-6

“I must follow my conscience.” Many of us have heard someone or even have made this bold statement ourselves. It appears to be a sound principle — right? In my devotion I shared with you yesterday we talked about how we might go about discovering truth. Although we want to believe that the human community might be able to discover truth, the harsh reality is that the human community rarely acts in a unified way. We all live in communities – each, however, has its own values and commitments.  For example, as Christians we look to scripture to provide the basis for our convictions. But we are also living in the 21^st century with all of its consumerism, materialism, and advertising. Often these communities are in conflict. As such we must make choices every day about which community will direct our choices and decisions in our lives.

It is in this context where our conscience is formed – but this is a lifelong task. Conscience is not that little voice that talks to us telling us to do this or that. It is more complex than that. It is my personal opinion that it is our own “self” trying to make sound judgments about moral questions. Timothy O’Connell, Loyola University summarized the Christian traditions understanding of conscience describing it in 3 dimensions of the self:

• General Moral Awareness
• Search for Truth
• Concrete Judgment

In General Moral Awareness, humans are generally aware that we should do good, not evil.  In the Search for Truth, then, we search to discover what really is the right course of action. As such we use a variety of sources for guidance: scripture, church tradition, the sciences, etc. Finally, the Concrete Judgment is where the individual reaches the point where a decision must be made. This is where the individual says “I must follow my conscience.” What follows then is a decision that comes only after we have done our best in discovering “Truth” – and not just doing what we “feel” like doing. It means doing the hard work of discernment – in the manner Christians should.

Have you tried to answer Pilates’ question?

Pastor Dave