how to overcome a condemning heart, a guilty conscience

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God, and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.

And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

1 John 3:16-24; NRSVue

If we take moral responsibility seriously in this life, we’re going to realize there’s always something that we did wrong and something else that we should have done, and something else we may have not done good enough in our minds. There are a host of ways that we can feel guilty and condemned.

We are told that laying down our lives for the believers in our midst means helping those in material need, doing what we can, be it big or little and everything in between. It is then evident that indeed God’s love resides in our hearts. Through adherence to the simple commandment to believe in the name of Jesus and to love one another, we can indeed overcome our guilty conscience (see helpful NET footnotes in link above), and condemning heart which can often plague us.

The commandments we’re to keep are again simple: believe in Jesus’s name and love one another. As we do that and seek to do all that pleases God, not only is our heart set at rest in God’s presence, but we have boldness in prayer that God will answer our simple, humble prayers. Our hearts set free to live in the love of God in Christ, a love intended for all.

holding on to faith and a good conscience

Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

1 Timothy 1:18-20

Paul puts holding on to faith and a good conscience together. Faith is not just about reciting a creed. It is not just holding to something as a belief, whether that’s intellectual, or actually more than that, based on God’s revelation given to us in Scripture. It includes that, but more.

James tells us that faith without works is dead, and Paul essentially says the same thing in his letters. Though Paul makes it clear that justifying, saving faith is apart from works, he also makes it clear that works follow. An expressed faith without a corresponding change of life amounts to no faith at all. Paul makes it clear that we’re to hold on to belief in the gospel message. But he also makes equally clear that this is to lead to a changed life.

Timothy is reminded of prophecies once made about him. We’ve all had a sense from God, hopefully through the church, but sadly, far too often that’s largely absent, but some sense from God at least, that God has set us apart for something. We have a gift, some role to play in love in the body of Christ for each other, and for others, as that work extends into the world. Paul is telling us here that it’s not only important to hold on to faith, but also to a good conscience.

The conscience is in a sense the arbiter between right and wrong. But it’s not the standard itself. The conscience is only as good as what informs it. Paul says elsewhere that people can have a seared conscience, evidently having sinned so often against their conscience that it no longer helps or is much of an arbiter at all between any sense of right and wrong, at least not in the way it should be.

So this makes it incumbent on us as followers of Jesus to do all we can to hold on to both faith and a good conscience. What we do must be informed and formed by faith, the faith as given to us in Jesus through Scripture. Given issues today, that is not an easy task.

It’s incumbent on leadership to be the example in this. The church flock will follow that lead, so this is critical. Remember too that 1 Timothy, the above passage is a pastoral letter written for church leadership, for elders who pastor and lead, along with deacons who serve in special roles in the church. The church, yes individual believers are quite dependent on this leadership. They will largely follow.

Paul had to make an example of two men for their own hopeful good, as well as for the good of others, the entire church. So this begins with church leadership, but each and everyone of us in the body are responsible as well. To prayerfully pay attention to the leadership: are they really exemplifying holding on to faith, to the faith, and to a good conscience? And holding ourselves accountable to do the same. In and through Jesus.

what’s our condition?

“The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:

“‘Go to this people and say,
“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’

Acts 28:25b-27

It’s a scary thought, but we’re not above developing a hard heart or seared conscience (1 Timothy 4:2). When darkness seems light, and what is bad seems good (Isaiah 5:20). I think we’re there to a large extent in our society and world today, although it’s surely nothing new except in the forms it is taking. There does seem to be a sea change in terms of morality. A popular idea is that as long as it doesn’t hurt someone else, whatever one does is fine. But that fails to take into account the truth that sin harms us, and through that harm, ends up harming others. Of course nowadays sin is thought to be an outdated concept, just like good and evil. God is not in all our thoughts (Psalm 10:4), and that explains the condition we’re in.

Christians are not exempt. We’re told that we’re to hold on to faith and a good conscience, otherwise our faith might be shipwrecked (1 Timothy 1:19).

There is recovery of sight for the blind, and hearing for the deaf through Christ. He can open our eyes and ears, so that we might hear his voice and follow. And have a spiritual aptitude we can develop and grow in through the Spirit and the word. Christians need to show the way, and we do so in love for God and our neighbor, and in faithfulness to the gospel in our own lives, so that what we do and say can help others. As we are helped ourselves in and through Jesus.

 

holding on to faith and a good conscience

Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

1 Timothy 1:18-20

It would be nice to live in a world in which there were not challenges to one’s faith and conscience. For myself, I don’t mind doing the hard thing, going the extra mile, etc., although I realize I can be too easily tied into knots and worried about whether I did good enough, or even exactly what I should do. It’s when what I’m facing is up against what others are doing when it can be especially hard. Sometimes one doesn’t really know what to do, and you should always pray to begin with, and actually continue to pray. None of us will get it perfect, but we should try to do what’s right in God’s eyes, as best we can understand it. And remain in the peace God gives.

Fighting the battle well is how Paul frames it, written for us. A pastoral epistle written to a young pastor, so for pastors and Christian leaders today, but by extension for all of us, since we’re to follow their example, as they follow Christ. Just to realize we’re in a battle is helpful; it’s no cakewalk.

If we’re careless in regard to faith and a good conscience, we can suffer shipwreck with regard to the faith itself. In other words, we can lose out entirely. It is interesting though that when the Apostle handed over two who had done so, over to Satan himself, there was the potential that they would be taught not to blaspheme, or so it seems according to this scripture. That was what they were doing when they suffered shipwreck. For others of us it could simply be walking away and never returning without uttering a word.

Hopefully it would be hard for us to leave faith and a good conscience behind. Having a bad conscience is miserable enough. This may seem unrelated, though I think not. I have an interesting habit, especially when I’m at work, or out and about some, to pull out my little New Testament/Psalms and Proverbs, and pick up where I left off, a little metal clip making it easy to find. It reminded me last night of how people especially in times past, but probably more now then we might think, pull out a cigarette out of habit and addiction, and to calm them down, or whatever relief they get from that. For me, it’s a part of how I engage in the battle and in the endeavor to hold on to faith and a good conscience, come what may. God is good and gracious in all of this, understanding our weakness. Christ is right there with us to help us, knowing firsthand what it’s like.

Part of our learning and existence in this life in and through Jesus.

 

holding on to faith, along with a good conscience

Scripture, specifically in the New Testament speaks of holding onto faith and a good conscience. The spiritual warfare we undergo is one to undermine our faith. For the most part the enemy doesn’t succeed in causing us to abandon the faith altogether, and in so doing to abandon faith. Of course when I say holding on to faith it is in terms of the faith once for all entrusted to God’s people. And concerning our trust in God. One has to be careful to make that clear since faith is a word which often is misused, amounting often to nothing more than faith in one’s self sometimes dressed up in new age speak of an inner light.

We end up losing out when we simply don’t stand firm. Instead of radically committing ourselves to trust in God and in his word, in some way we seek to resolve an issue ourselves. We need discernment in this to know when what is approaching us is an attack of the enemy, the spirits of evil, I am supposing ordinarily a demon assigned to each of us. They know our weaknesses and oftentimes we can pick up patterns of how they work along with specifically what they do. One of their foremost tactics is to undermine our faith so that while we hold to the faith, our faith in some given matter is not intact. So that our practice does not line up with our belief.

I’ve noticed too that when we so succumb, we don’t easily get back the traction we had. The Lord may give it back to us sooner than what we could hope for, but by and large we’ll feel the consequences at least immediately after and for a time. It’s not easy, either, and we especially need to be on guard and in prayer during such times. Better yet is to not get their in the first place. And to keep working on that so that we more and more develop a keen eye for what is happening so as not to fall for the bait and be taken in by the scheme sent our way.

A key is simply and radicially to take God at his word. And in doing so to trust personally in him. It will be difficult at first, in fact we may feel bad, it being entirely counterintuitive to what we would automatically do. A test of our faith. But as we hold on in faith, in time God will honor that. With his peace along with whatever we need besides.

Nothing is more important for us than holding on to faith along with a good conscience. As we live in the love of God in Jesus and share that love with each other and the world.

sacred cows

I use them term not in a perjorative sense, as to ridicule those who actually do have sacred cows such as in the Hindu tradtion. This is simply a figure of speech, which with all due respect to our fellow human beings who are Hindu, or some other tradition which may do the same, is simply a way of signifying the worship of anything less than God. Of course I refer to God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I do think of the calf Aaron and the people of Israel made for worship when Moses was up on the mountain. Which Moses promptly destroyed when he came down.

What keeps us from obeying and following Christ? One major factor:  sacred cows. We all can have them. They’re all over the land.

We know we’ve hit a nerve concerning a sacred cow when another follower in Jesus won’t interact with us, or won’t discuss a certain issue, because it is their sacred cow that is at stake. Or when something can’t be challenged. It is right, period. End of story. No room for questions, or discussion.

I find this part of the problem this political season in the United States. I don’t know so much how it plays out among politicians, though American politics is a lot about strategy which in the best case scenario is a part of wisdom in helping others see and be persuaded by their position. Too often though it seems to mean digging in one’s heels and seeing one’s view as nonnegotiable, because it is right on a level which equals the Bible.

In theology we can do the same. I hold to a Christian pacifist view, and am persuaded by it. However I don’t do well if I refuse to take seriously a Christian just war position, or other positions which have been held, as well. Especially when the majority have held such views. Of course majority doesn’t mean it’s right, but it should give one pause enough to know that good people will have differences, and to hear out just how such differences are held.

When we spot a sacred cow, it must come down. But that doesn’t mean what good we held to when we had that idol needs to be given up. There likely is something of truth somewhere to be found in all such traditions. We then do well to find it, hold on to it, and let the rest go, certainly the sacred cow itself.

And we do well to live well with our differences when that’s done. Because even though those particular sacred cows may be gone, what is left may put us in different positions. For example my brother in Christ may enter the military with good conscience, while I would not do so with good conscience. And yet we can love each other and accept each other fully as brothers in Christ, because our faith is intact and our worship full and free, as to what we are doing. And we both do so with the utmost humility that somehow our brother may be right in some way, even while we hold to the understanding we have.

Could I make an idol out of Christian pacifism, or my understanding of that? Of course I could. So that those who don’t follow it are in my view doing something less than following God. This is tricky, because I still will want to persuade my just war Christian friends, even as they would like to persuade me. We have to acknowledge that Christians have followed Christ with good conscience on both sides, and in a sense, let it go at that. Same is true with whatever political stand one takes.

But the main point of this post is that we need to ask ourselves just what sacred cow we are holding on to. What idol, what thing which we think is indispensable for being right, good, the best. And let it go, realizing that there is only one who is good, and that he will help us put first things first, worship him, doing so together in Jesus for the world.

This is a kind of open ended post, dealing with a most challenging subject. This is always true on this blog, but I especially invite response here, to help us think through this better.