Bible Reading: Psalm 33 & 34 Acts 24
“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” 1 Corinthians 11:1 (KJV).
Apostle Paul wrote, by the Holy Ghost, most of the New Testament scriptures. He is worth emulating in many areas. He followed his master, Jesus till the end. He would say nothing else apart from what the scriptures say, and many others. All these he did with a good conscience.
The conscience has been described variously. It has been described as an inward sense of right and wrong. It is an internal alarm that sounds whenever we do something contrary to our internal value system. Our conscience is a part of our God-given internal faculties, a critical inner awareness that bears witness to the norms and values we recognize when determining right or wrong. It serves as a witness to what we already know.
Jesus came to the earth to save the whole world. He never discriminated during the course of His ministry here on earth. No wonder He could speak to a prostitute, a tax collector, and others to the ire of the Pharisees. He did all that in a good conscience. He knows in Himself what is right going by what the Father told him.
Paul is also being persecuted by the Jews for breaking so many of their laws, and for mixing with the gentiles and bringing them into the synagogue. But in his defense, he told the Jewish council in Acts 23:1 (KJV), “… I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” Then he again told Governor Felix when he was on trial that pertaining to the things he had believed and taught, that “I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men” Acts 23:16 (KJV). A good conscience, which emanated from the instructions he received from Jesus to take the gospel to all, made Paul take the gospel to the mixed multitudes of the world.
Persecution will come for the gospel’s sake. But we need a good conscience to keep going. For your conscience to be good you must have internal values and beliefs from the word of God which must form your dominant thought and actions. Apostle Peter confirmed this in 1 Peter 3:16 (KJV), “Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.” Let’s do well to look unto Jesus and imitate the example He and apostle Paul laid if we must spread the gospel to all parts of the earth.
Prayer: Father, I receive grace to keep a conscience void of offense toward man and You in Jesus name.
Bro. Onyema Aghanenu