The conscience is the leading part of the spirit. We need to have a good conscience. When our conscience condemns us, we are unable to exercise our spirit properly. We must also have a pure conscience (3:9; 2 Tim. 1:3). Our conscience may be good because it is cleansed from anything sinful, dirty, or evil, but it may not be pure because of our self-seeking motive. A pure conscience is a conscience that is within a heart that cares for nothing but God. As we pointed out in the previous message, a brother may be very good; morally there may be nothing wrong with him. From another angle, however, he may not be pure. His conscience is good, but it is not pure because he is not for God alone but also for something else, such as the mission field, a congregation, a position, or his own glory, honor, and respect. There is nothing morally wrong with his work, but he has no purity because of his many motives. Without a pure conscience, a conscience that is absolutely for God, it is difficult to serve God. In order to serve God, we must have a pure conscience. In 2 Timothy 1:3 Paul said, “I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure conscience.” For Paul to say this meant that he was seeking only God. We need this kind of a pure conscience.
First Timothy 1:5 also speaks of a pure heart. The heart is a composition of the mind, emotion, will, and conscience (Matt. 9:4; Heb. 4:12; John 16:22, 6; Acts 11:23; Heb. 10:22). This means that our mind, emotion, will, and conscience must be pure. Every part of our being needs to be pure. Many Christians today like to study the Bible according to its doctrinal teachings, but they have many differing opinions and concepts concerning these teachings. This indicates that their mind, emotion, and will are not pure; that is, they do not have a pure heart. Since their heart is not pure, their conscience also is not pure. In order to have a pure conscience, we must have a pure mind, emotion, and will.
A pure heart is a heart that is single and simple for the Lord. This means that our mind considers nothing but the Lord, our emotion loves nothing but Him, and our will chooses only Him. In our mind, emotion, and will we are for nothing but the Lord and seek only Him. This is to have a pure heart and a pure conscience. Is our mind fully and wholly for God? Does our emotion simply and fully love the Lord? Is our will wholly for God? If we check with ourselves, we will admit that we are not pure. In our mind there is much “traffic” in many directions. Likewise, in our emotion we love the Lord, but we also love many other things. Similarly, our will may be for the Lord in the morning, but at noon it will be for something else, and in the evening it may be for yet another thing. This means that we are not pure in our mind, emotion, and will; that is, we do not have a pure heart.
When all our inward parts are pure, our heart is pure and our conscience is also pure. A pure conscience is vital for the exercise of the spirit. If our conscience is not good, if there is condemnation in our conscience, our spirit will be deadened. If we have condemnation, then regardless how much people encourage us to exercise our spirit, we will be unable to do it. However, we may have a good conscience but not a pure one, so once again our spirit is unable to be strong. Within our conscience there may be the testimony that we are not pure and single for the Lord. What we are seeking is not evil, but it is not the Lord Himself. This kind of condemnation is not rough and coarse but deep, fine, and tender, pointing out to us that we are not fully and purely for the Lord. Even this kind of condemnation weakens our spirit. We may tell others that we are right, but we cannot tell this to our conscience. The more we argue that we are right, the more troubling we will have in our conscience. The wise way is not to argue with our conscience.
We need to be pure in all our inward parts—in our conscience, heart, mind, emotion, and will. If we deal with these inward parts, we will have a pure conscience in a pure heart with a pure will, pure emotion, and pure mind. Then we will be able to exercise our spirit. Otherwise, it will be difficult to exercise our spirit. To exercise our spirit requires a preparation. We must have a spirit of power in our will, of love in our emotion, and of soberness and soundness in our mind. These three inward parts must be under the control of the spirit. Then our heart will be pure, and our conscience will be transparent and crystal clear. It will be easy for us to exercise our spirit, and there will be a free way for our spirit to be released.