Should we always follow our conscience?

Yes, obviously.

“Conscience” is simply a way of referring to “What you think is the right thing to do.” So it’s certainly wrong to disobey your conscience. Equally, it’s wrong to ignore or silence or suppress your conscience. You ought to do what you think is right.

But if this is all we ever say about our conscience, we’re only telling half the story. To illustrate the problem, consider what happens to the Christian whose conscience tells him that it’s always wrong to drink alcohol, or that abortion is OK because every woman has the right to choose, or that (as someone once famously said) evangelism is unnecessary because when God is pleased to convert the heathen he’ll do so without your help or mine?

Clearly there is something wrong with the Christian’s conscience in these instances. And this highlights that we have a two-fold duty in relation to our conscience: not merely to follow it, but to educate it. It’s not good enough to say simply, “I’m following my conscience, so that’s fine,” because your conscience may be wrong.

If you’re not open the the possibility that you may have read the route incorrectly, you’ll walk off the edge of a cliff convinced that you’re heading in the right direction.

Psalm 25 says the same thing using the imagery of the “ways” and “paths” of the LORD. Clearly, we must walk in (what we think are) the ways of the LORD. But the Psalm doesn’t stop there. David prays that God would “Make me to know your ways, teach me your paths, lead me in your truth and teach me” (vv. 4-5; cf. vv. 8-9). David wants help not just in following God’s ways, but in knowing what those ways are. If your conscience is pointing in the wrong direction, following it will simply lead you into trouble.

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