The Kingdom Come

We are told that the human conscience is the internal governor that helps us determine between right and wrong; it is the thing that keeps us from doing unspeakable evil, it is the thing that causes us to feel guilt and remorse. And we are told some people seem to have no conscience. They can do those unspeakable things without blinking an eye. They are pure evil.

The Bible first speaks of the human conscience like this:

"For God knows that when you eat from it [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." -- Gen 3:5

The conscience is both the "opening of eyes" and the "knowledge of good and evil".

Animals operate more instinctively rather than with a conscience, whereas humans seem to innately know what is right and wrong without a rule or law to tell them so.

The Bible seems to speak to this matter here:

(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)" -- Romans 2:14-15

However, Paul seems to counter that general idea in this quote:

"For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me." -- Romans 7:7-11

Without something informing Paul that something is "evil" he seems to be saying he would not have known it was evil. But once he was informed it was evil and restricted, he obsessed on it and transgressed it.

Paul goes on to say:

"Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." -- Romans 7:12-23

Paul seems to be presenting a very unstable, almost schizophrenic person. This is a person that appears to have a split personality. A person who is "warring" against themselves. Is this really the condition of the human heart and mind? Is the human conscience really battling within itself; on a constant verge of giving into base thoughts and actions?

Is this the reason that seemingly superficial people seem happy in an almost "ignorance is bliss" delusion?

Does the "knowledge of good and evil", and even more so, the realization that we are capable of unspeakable evil really cause us "death" if nothing more than the "death" of our blissful innocence?

As Christians, we are to learn of and understand our sinful nature. We are supposed to contrast our fallen state with the grace and mercy that God has bestowed upon us. But how many of us Christians are in the condition Paul describes in Romans 7:12-23? How many of us really have a daily struggle within ourselves? Or have we reached a point where we are "basically good"?

Perhaps some people think they are better off, sort of like Paul in Romans 7:7 before he was told what is right and wrong. As long as they think they can live without knowing "good and evil" but merely living in a gray world of relativity; they can somehow relieve themselves of this inner struggle called the human conscience. Their conscience is replaced by popular or accepted societal "norms". They see their conscience and other people's consciences as merely opinion centers with no real basis except whatever makes a person feel good without harming others.

Biblically speaking, the human conscience seems to be more than popular societal opinion. The human conscience is something God imputed to man, however it seems that it can be numbed.

"Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth." -- 1 Timothy 4:1-3

This verse appears to be specifically speaking of what may be termed as the Judaizers; a group of Jewish converts to Christianity that wanted to impose Jewish practices and dietary laws within Christianity. But generally, this verse speaks of a numbing or searing of the conscience.

I guess the point I'm trying to relate is that whether a Christian or not, a person who appears to have little or no conscience; no internal struggle over right and wrong is a very dangerous person with which to interact.

Seek out people who have a conscience independent of societal influences. I'm not talking simply about a person who seems to "care" about poor children or abused animals or any such thing. I'm talking about a person who at their core is concerned with right and wrong...without being told.