Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

To mask or not to mask, that is the question.

I’m sure Shakespeare just turned in his grave. Sure, Hamlet had a lot of issues. (Will Uncle Claudius win in the end? How can I exact revenge and not get killed in the process?) But we’ve got our issues too.  Whose data should we believe about COVID?  Is America the land of the free or the country of systemic racism? How can I be a good citizen given all the disagreement in our current civil discourse? It seems there is no fence-sitting on these issues.  Just as with everything in our day and age, camps have emerged and fingers are being pointed.  So what’s a Christian to do?

I am not here to give advice, but I would like to ask you to consider the power of “conscience.” This God-given tool helps us evaluate right from wrong and what’s good from what’s best. It empowers how we think and feel and separates us from the animal kingdom (which acts only according to its instincts.) The conscience is the inner “governor” which each person is born with and which is intended to inform our actions with a moral meter.

Colin Smith, pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church (Chicago), describes conscience as an internal alarm clock.  He describes the job of an alarm clock as two-fold: to go off at the right time and stay silent the rest of the time. Likewise, we need our conscience to go off when we need to be warned about making a wrong decision and we need it to stay silent the rest of the time.

Unfortunately, just like every other part of me, my conscience has been disordered by sin. When I override my conscience, I weaken it making it less effective the next time I need it to go off. When it tells me not to sin but I sin anyway, my conscience becomes trained under the will of my sin nature. The Apostle Paul describes this as a corrupted conscience (Titus 1:15).  If my sin becomes a pattern, ultimately my conscience will become seared (1 Timothy 4:2), rendering it completely powerless over my new habit.

But there’s good news! The Bible says that the Holy Spirit has come to convict us of sin (John 16:8). He does that by helping us contrast our behavior with the incredible holiness of God. The Bible itself renews and reshapes our conscience as we meditate on it, giving us the power we need to make different decisions (Ps 119:11).

But another problem can arise. I can go too far in the other direction, experiencing a super-charged conscience which, due to a weak faith, goes off when it shouldn’t (Romans 14:1).  I am disturbed by the ambiguity of life and want tight controls over the unknown. Driven by fear, I demand moral clarity on every situation. I will create rules where rules aren’t necessary. Unfortunately, if I have a super-charged conscience, my rules aren’t just for me. I want to lay my convictions onto everyone else as well, expecting them to submit their conscience to mine.

But there’s good news! Just as the seared conscience needs the Spirit’s healing and the correction from God’s word, so the super-charged conscience learns freedom in Christ and joy in trusting Him for all things.

The Apostle Paul encourages the diversity of conscience as a means for the church’s growth (Romans 14). Together, let's look for Scripture to speak on issues of importance and learn to be committed to liberty where it is silent. Let's commit ourselves anew to training, protecting and respecting each other’s conscience.

In the meantime, should you wear a mask or not? Let your conscience be your guide.

Nancy Bontempo, Pastor at Friends Community Church in Sturgeon Bay