See also: Conscience
📖 Biblical Definition
Conscience is the God-given faculty of the soul by which a man judges the moral quality of his own thoughts and actions, bearing witness within him, accusing or excusing him according to a standard of right and wrong. The word means “a knowing-with”—the self’s knowledge of itself measured against a law—and Paul describes its working in the Gentiles, who, not having the written law, show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. Conscience is therefore a witness to the moral law that God has inscribed on the human heart, part of the abiding image of God in man, and evidence that man is an inescapably moral and accountable creature. Its verdict is felt as guilt when it accuses and as peace when it excuses. Yet conscience is not itself the moral law nor an infallible voice of God; it is a faculty that judges according to the light it has, and that light may be true or distorted. A conscience may be good and pure, rightly informed by the Word and cleansed by the blood of Christ; it may be weak, overly scrupulous about things indifferent; it may be defiled, corrupted by sin; or it may be seared, hardened past feeling by persistent rebellion. Therefore conscience must be educated and bound by the Word of God, not followed blindly, for a misinformed conscience can both excuse what God condemns and condemn what God permits. The duties regarding conscience are several: to keep it good and void of offense toward God and men; to inform it by Scripture; to obey it when it speaks according to the Word (for he that doubteth is condemned if he eat); and to find its only true cleansing in the blood of Christ, which purges the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. A clear conscience before God, founded on the gospel and informed by His Word, is among the choicest of earthly blessings.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Webster 1828 defines CONSCIENCE as the internal knowledge or judgment of right and wrong; the faculty by which we judge the moral rectitude of our own actions.
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CONSCIENCE, n. — Internal or self-knowledge, or judgment of right and wrong; or the faculty, power or principle within us, which decides on the lawfulness or unlawfulness of our own actions and affections, and instantly approves or condemns them. Conscience is called by some writers the moral sense, and considered as an original faculty of our nature.
📖 Key Scripture
Romans 2:15 — "Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another."
Acts 24:16 — "And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men."
1 Timothy 1:5 — "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."
Hebrews 9:14 — "...purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Conscience is corrupted by being enthroned as an infallible autonomous guide—“let your conscience be your guide,” “follow your heart”—detached from the Word that alone can rightly inform and bind it.
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The characteristic modern corruption of conscience is to enthrone it as an autonomous and infallible guide, severed from the Word of God. ‘Let your conscience be your guide,’ ‘follow your heart,’ ‘do what feels right to you’—these slogans treat the individual conscience as the final arbiter of morality, a private oracle that may never be questioned and that justifies whatever it approves. But conscience is not the moral law; it is a faculty that judges according to its light, and that light is often dim or distorted by sin, upbringing, and the spirit of the age. A conscience can grow so misinformed that it condemns the innocent and excuses the wicked—Paul persecuted the church in good conscience, and our Lord warned of those who would kill His servants thinking they did God service. To follow such a conscience blindly is to be led by the blind.
The opposite error treats conscience as nothing—to be overridden, silenced, and trampled whenever it is inconvenient, until it is seared past feeling. Both errors miss the biblical doctrine, which neither deifies conscience nor despises it. Conscience is a real and precious gift, a witness to God’s law and a guard of the soul, and it must be heeded when it speaks according to truth (he that doubteth is condemned if he act against it). But it must be informed and bound by the Word of God, educated by Scripture so that it judges by God’s standard and not by mere feeling or custom. And it must be cleansed by the blood of Christ, for no informing can remove its accusations of real guilt—only the gospel purges the conscience from dead works. The believer’s aim is a good conscience: tender, well-instructed by the Word, void of offense toward God and men, and at peace through the blood of Christ.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
The faculty is suneidēsis (a knowing-with), the inner witness bearing witness (summartureō) to the law written on the heart, accusing or excusing.
Usage
"Conscience is the faculty that judges one’s own actions—a witness to God’s law, accusing or excusing."
"‘Follow your conscience’ deifies a faculty that must instead be informed and bound by the Word of God."
"Only the blood of Christ can purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living God."