What did the conscience testify concerning Paul? The testimony was that "not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world." In fact, this is the only testimony of the conscience. The conscience strives for and insists that the believer live by the grace of God and not according to fleshly wisdom. The wisdom of the flesh is of no use in the work of God and the will of God. Neither is it of any use in the spiritual life of the believer. Man's mind is of absolutely no use in fellowship with God; even in contact between man and physical things, it also occupies a subordinate position. The conduct of the believer in the world is completely dependent upon the grace of God. Grace means that God does everything and man does nothing (Rom. 11:6). Only when the believer lives by fully depending upon God, not allowing himself to initiate anything, not allowing the mind of man to enter and dominate anything, can the conscience testify that we live in the world according to the singleness and sincerity of God. In other words, the conscience works together with the intuition. The conscience only testifies and approves of the conduct of a believer which is according to the intuition. Any conduct that goes against the intuition, even though it may be very much according to the wisdom of man, will be resisted by the conscience. In short, the conscience does not approve anything other than the revelation of the intuition. The intuition leads the believer, and the conscience urges the believer to obey the intuition when he thinks of disobeying it.

A conscience that is void of offense before God testifies that God is pleased with the believer and that there is no separation between God and the believer. Such a testimony of the conscience is indispensable to a life that walks according to the spirit. This should be the goal of the believer; if this has not been attained, the believer should not be satisfied. This is the normal life of a believer; the apostle Paul lived such a life and so must today's believers. Enoch was one who had an undefiled conscience; therefore, he knew that he pleased God. The testimony of God's being pleased with us can help us to progress. But we should be cautious; otherwise, we will exalt the "self," thinking that we can please God in ourselves. All the glory belongs to Him. We should "encourage ourselves" to keep our conscience void of offense. If our conscience is really void of offense, we should guard against the flesh entering in a subtle way.

If our conscience frequently testifies of God's pleasure, then when we unfortunately fail, we will trust more boldly in the blood of the Lord Jesus to wash us again. If we desire to have a conscience void of offense, we should not depart for a moment from the blood that washes us eternally. We should not depart, because we often give opportunities for offenses in the conscience in small matters, even if we have not slipped in great matters. Therefore, confessing sins and trusting in the precious blood should not be avoided. Since our sinful nature and its many hidden works are still within us, we may possibly have to wait for our spiritual life to grow more before we can know them. This is why there are many things which we now consider to be wrong, but which we once felt were not wrong. If it were not for the precious blood covering everything, we would never be at peace. Once the precious blood has been sprinkled upon our conscience, it functions there continually because of the intercession of the Lord Jesus and the eternal life He gave us.

The apostle told us that he entreated that he would have a conscience void of offense before God and man. These two matters, towards God and towards man, are intimately connected together. If we wish to have a conscience void of offense towards man, we must first have a conscience void of offense towards God, because a conscience that has an offense before God naturally has an offense before man. Therefore, all believers who seek after a spiritual living should continually seek after a good conscience before God (1 Pet. 3:21). This does not mean that our condition before man is unimportant. We not only have to seek for a good conscience towards God, we also have to seek for a good conscience towards man. Many things are acceptable before God but are not proper before man. Only a conscience that is clear before men has a good testimony before them. Even if someone misunderstands, you should have a "good conscience, so that in the matter in which you are spoken against, those who revile your good manner of life in Christ may be put to shame" (v. 16). Once the conscience is unclear, then no matter how good your outward conduct is, it is of no use; once your conscience is without offense, it cannot be affected even by men's slandering.