"A conscience without God is like a court without a judge."--French poet Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869)
From an article online: "As a compass can be skewed by local magnetic fields, our conscience can be distorted by negative influences. A good conscience requires maintenance."
Paul begins II Corinthians 4 with: [1] Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
[2] But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
“I’ve learned for years that the truth will commend itself to a man’s conscience that wants the truth, and when it doesn’t commend itself to someone, you know why it isn’t? Because what they’re looking for is something different," says Richard Jordan.
"The conscience either 'accuses or excuses,' and people who continuously violate their system of norms and standards learn to excuse sin. The thinking becomes, 'Well, everybody else is doing it, so what difference does it make?'
Paul writes in Titus 1:15-16, “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
[16] They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.”
Southern California preacher John Verstegen explains, “Because individuals are unsaved and operate in the ‘vanity of their mind’ on the basis of false doctrine—the satanic doctrine of this world—what happens over time is they then change that system in their inner man and their conscience goes along with it.
“Sometimes you ask the question how a person could do such a heinous sin and so forth. It’s because, over time, they have been taught that those things are acceptable and they justify it. That’s what Paul says in Romans 2.
“Why would someone do such a thing as murder someone? Well, because they’ve been taught that in certain circumstances it’s okay to murder and that they’re doing it for their god who approves of that type of thing, etc.
“So they adjust and change that system of norms and standards they were born with and replace it with a wrong system. Even though their conscience initially questioned, ‘Well, is this right?’ it’s now said to be defiled.
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Because a newly saved person’s conscience is said to be “weak,” needing to be fortified through a steady diet of biblical truth, as Paul tells us in I Corinthians 8, it can be in a mixed state of confusion.
“On the one hand, it’s recognizing, ‘Hey, this is right and that’s wrong,’ but like this guy (in I Corinthians 8), he still thinks an idol is something real,” explains Verstegen.
“So because his conscience previously bore witness to that thing and sacrificed to idols, now that he’s a Believer—and has a little bit of sound doctrine in his inner man—his conscience is kind of thinking, ‘Wait a minute, I belong to Christ now so this idol is nothing.’
“Now, what’s interesting is that a weak conscience can become defiled again. It can go back to what it was before the guy got saved. That’s the real issue here."
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"The other thing that is true for an errant Believer is that his conscience can become 'seared with a hot iron,' as Paul writes in I Timothy 2:4.
“You ever burnt yourself? When you sear something it’s lost its sensitivity to pain because you’ve actually burned the nerve endings and that’s why you can’t feel it anymore. You actually fried it. It’s a conscience that has been so affected it doesn’t bear proper witness anymore because it’s totally lost its sensitivity to bear proper witness to what’s right and wrong.
“In the context in I Timothy, this actually is talking about a Believer; somebody who was in the truth but then departed from the faith and their conscience has become seared.”