The experience of all spiritual persons proves that the conscience is like the window to a building. A window itself does not give light; the light comes from the sunshine. Similarly, the conscience derives its consciousness through other factors. First, the conscience functions through the mind. When the mind is darkened, the conscience is also darkened. It is hard for the conscience to have a sense when the mind is darkened. This is why we must preach the gospel to the unbelievers. The gospel enlightens their darkened mind. Through the enlightened mind the light will shine upon the conscience. Then there will be the consciousness and feeling, and the conscience will function.
In the same way, the conscience has much to do with the emotions. A person full of love has a tender conscience, but a person full of hatred has a hardened conscience. The feeling of the conscience has much to do with the tenderness of the emotions. If there is tenderness in our emotion, our conscience will also be tender.
Likewise, if our will is stubborn and hardened, the conscience will also be hardened. The conscience of some people does not function because their will is hardened. If our will is pliable and soft before God, the conscience will function in a proper way.
Moreover, if we have fellowship with the Lord, our conscience will be even more enlightened. Then the more our conscience is enlightened, the more it will function, and the deeper the feeling in our conscience is, the deeper the fellowship we will have with the Lord. In addition, the conscience has something to do with the intuition, and it also relates to the Holy Spirit and the divine life, because in any kind of life there is a sense, or feeling.
The conscience of proper Christians is much more tender than that of the unbelievers. Their mind is darkened, but our mind is enlightened. Their emotion is not proper, but our emotion must be proper. Their will is stubborn and hardened, but ours must be pliable. Their fellowship is killed and their intuition is deadened, but our fellowship and intuition have been made alive. Moreover, they do not have the Holy Spirit and the divine life, but we do. All these things added together give us a deeper, even the deepest, feeling in our conscience.
The function and degree of the consciousness of the conscience depend on two more matters. The first is the growth in life. The more we grow in the divine life, the more feeling we have in our conscience. Perhaps two years ago our conscience did not have a feeling about certain things, but today our conscience does have a feeling about them, because we have grown a little in these two years. When the growth of life increases, the feeling of the conscience also increases.
The last item is the increase of spiritual knowledge. The conscience functions according to the degree of our spiritual knowledge. The more spiritual knowledge we have, the more feeling our conscience will have. With certain things, however, there is no need for education. Even if we train children to steal, for example, they eventually will feel that stealing is wrong.
In summary, the nine factors related to the function of the conscience are the mind, the emotion, the will, the fellowship, the intuition, the Holy Spirit, the divine life, the growth of life, and our spiritual knowledge. Our intention in knowing about our conscience is this: If we do not have a pure and good conscience, if there is an offense in our conscience, our Christian life is bankrupt, we cannot go on, and we are shipwrecked.
The feeling of the conscience can be classified into three categories. The first is the consciousness of sins. When we commit a sin, there is a feeling about it in our conscience. Second, there is the consciousness of worldliness. If we love something worldly, our conscience feels an accusation from the Lord. Our conscience senses the worldliness in our life. Third, there are times that we have neither sins nor worldliness, but our conscience still tells us something. We still have some feeling that we are wrong before God. To be under the government of the conscience is mostly to be governed to know what is right and wrong. To be governed by the presence of the Lord, however, is to be governed not according to right and wrong but according to something deeper. If we tell a lie, for example, the conscience will govern us. This is to be under the government of the conscience, but to be under the government of God Himself is different. We may speak something that is true, but the Lord may govern us by saying, “Don’t say that. You have said enough.” This proves that we are not only under the government of the conscience but under the government of the Lord Himself. However, we still have to pass through the conscience to get into the Lord’s presence.
The feeling concerning matters other than sin and worldliness is the government in the presence of the Lord. As we are speaking, the government of the Lord’s presence may tell us not to speak, but we may still speak. This is a kind of disobedience, but it is different from sins and worldliness. This can even include matters of our character. We are those who are learning to live in the presence of the Lord by building up a proper character. Therefore, for us to throw our coat down is neither sin nor worldliness; it relates to our character. If we do not learn to deal with our conscience, we will not care, but if we do learn the lesson to deal with our conscience, it will give us the feeling to be more careful. Then we will pick up the coat and either put it on or hang it up. To throw down a coat is not sinful or worldly, but the conscience will give us a feeling about it.
The conscience is a great matter and a great subject. We will say more about it in the next message. If we intend to know the inner life and we mean business to live in the inner life, we must know the conscience. If we note how many times the apostle Paul stressed this in his writings, we will see its importance.
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