Clear Your Conscience

Acts 24:16
“So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.”

In the mountains of Montana, a man who became known as the Unabomber lived an almost hermit like existence. There, Ted Kaczinsky, Ph. D, planned his bitter, murderous, revengeful rampage of package bombs on the academic and scientific community that he felt had mistreated and exploited him. The Unabomber eluded capture for nearly twenty years, striking at random, killing and maiming unsuspecting victims.

In an attempt to publicize the Unabomber’s views, and hopefully identify, capture, and prosecute him, the New York Times took an unprecedented step and printed the Unabomber’s Manifesto. A man named David Kaczinsky picked up the Times and read some strikingly familiar words. He knew that he had heard these sentiments previously. David began a struggle of conscience. What should he do? To report the truth, meant that he must turn in his own brother to legal officials, risking his brother’s prosecution and perhaps his death. David Kaczinsky made the choice. Too many people’s lives were at stake. He had to be truthful. He had to clear his conscience.

Are you living with a clear conscience? Your conscience, once cleared from guilt through repentance and restitution, will benefit your walk with God. The Apostle Paul said, “So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man” (Acts 24:16). The Hebrew writer wrote:

“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22).

“The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, the, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (Hebrews 9:13-14).

What is the Conscience? “The sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one’s own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or bee good” (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary).

How does the Conscience become defiled? The Conscience becomes defiled through sin and abandoning truth.

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron” (I Timothy 4:1-2).

When my conscience is clear, I know peace with God and others. A clear conscience lays the foundation for me to experience freedom from guilt over sins against other people and the restoration of broken relationships.

I read a news story several years ago about an elderly man who visited a Sears store in downtown Seattle. He hand-delivered an envelope that enclosed a note and a $100 bill. The note told how he had stolen $20 or $30 from a cash register in the 1940s. The guilt had remained with the man until he made restitution in 2011.

I once attended a conference that sought to ask and answer the question, “How Can I Gain A Clear Conscience?” This basic advice was offered.

• Identify whom you have offended.
• Identify what you did wrong and express humble repentance.
• Apologize face to face if at all possible.
• Your apology should be as public or private as your offense.
• Accept responsibility.
• Avoid embarrassing, blaming, or exposing another.
• Keep short accounts with others. 

Perhaps God is talking to you about some restitutions you need to make. If so, follow these simple steps, and make them. Live with a clear conscience.

“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22).

As you walk in faith with Jesus, your conscience, now cleared from guilt through repentance and restitution, can prove of great benefit to you. Live with a clear conscience.