THE WITNESS OF OUR OWN SPIRIT
Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians appears to be an
explanation from Paul answering
charges leveled at him from the Corinthians. And Paul answers
those accusations with what he
terms a clear conscience in the sight of man and God. He states
in 2 Corinthians 1:12;
"For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience,
that in simplicity and Godly sincerity, not
with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our
conversation in the world, and more
abundantly to you-ward." --2 Corinthians 1:12
In other words Paul’s conscience was clear in his dealings
with the Corinthians. As should
our conscience testify that we have conducted ourselves in the
world, in holiness and sincerity that
are from God. We should do so not according to worldly wisdom,
that is not according to what
others say or what is acceptable to others, but according to God’s
grace. This is the voice of every
true believer in Christ, so long as we abide in faith and love.
"He that followeth me," saith our Lord, "shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
-- John 8:12
And while we carry that light, we must rejoice in it. As we
have received the Lord Jesus
Christ, so we must walk in Him; and while we walk in Him, the
exhortation of the Apostle takes
place in our heart, day by day,
"Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice."
--Philippians 4:4
And so we must caution from building our houses upon the sand,
else when the rains
come, and the winds blow, and the floods rise and beat at its
walls, it will fall. To clear our
conscience we need to understand what is the nature and the ground
of our joy. We know, in
general, it is that happy peace, that calm satisfaction of heart,
that arises from a clear conscience,
as the Apostle here describes. But, in order to understand this
more thoroughly, we must weigh all
his words; then it will easily appear; both what we are to understand
about conscience, and how
he that has this satisfaction rejoices.
First, what are we to understand about this thing called conscience?
What is the meaning of
the word? If we could just look it up in any dictionary, there
should be no doubt as to its meaning.
Webster’s Collegiate dictionary defines it as such:
1. Sense of the moral goodness or blameworthyness of one’s
own conduct, intentions,
or character.
2. A faculty, power, or principle conceived to decide as to the
moral quality of one’s own
thoughts or acts, enjoining what is good.
There, that clears it all up doesn’t it? We no longer need
to read the mountains of work
others have produced trying to explain conscience then do we?--All
the psycho-social babblings of
the so-called experts. Experts who contend that our conscience
is a learned response activated
by our desire to conform to society’s rules and accepted
practices.
And yet we still fear it, don’t we. Those in the Truth
still fear our conscience. We fear it
because we know that it goes deeper than that, doesn’t it.
Our conscience is not a learned
response of any form. And we have to ask of these so-called experts
as the angel of God asked
Job
“Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?”
--Job 38:2
In all their writings these experts have only muddied the waters
of truth; "darkening counsel
by words without knowledge."
A Learned response to what is acceptable to society as a whole?
Can it be that easily
understood? But, if we set aside the words of the worldly educated,
the self taught, every man of
an honest heart will soon begin to understand.
For we know that God has made us thinking beings, capable of
perceiving what is present,
and of reflecting or looking back on what is past. In particular,
we are capable of perceiving
whatever passes in our own hearts or lives; of knowing what we
feel or do; both while it passes, or
when it has past. This is what we mean when we say, man is a conscious
being: He has a
consciousness, or inward perception, both of things present and
past, relating to himself, of his
own tempers and outward behavior. But what we usually term conscience,
implies some what
more than this. It is not barely the knowledge of our present
or the remembrance of our past
dealings. To remember, to bear witness of things either past
or present , is only one, and the
probably the least function of conscience: Its main business is
to excuse or accuse, to approve or
disapprove, to acquit or condemn. So while our minds often try
to do the former (Excuse, approve,
and acquit), our hearts and our relationship to God as found in
our conscience often do the latter.
Accusing our actions, disapprove our true thoughts, and condemn
our actions to ourselves in the
sight of God.
And according to the meaning as it is generally used, particularly
in the Epistles of Paul, we
may understand by conscience, a faculty or power, implanted by
God in every person imbued with
the breath of life, of perceiving what is right or wrong in his
own heart or life, in his attitude,
thoughts, words, and actions.
So our conscence does not consists of a list of rules to be remembered
and followed.
Though those rules are written, we should not attend to them as
did the pharisees. We must not
live by the rules alone. The Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans
2:14 that the law is written in our
hearts by the finger of God; this is an inherent quality in all
humans for Paul also writes " whether
they walk by this rule or not.” But our measuring stick
should not be those rules written on our
hearts for then we are no better than the multitude that Paul
speaks of when he wrote
“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature
the things contained in the law, these,
having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the
work of the law written in their
hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts
the meanwhile accusing or else
excusing one another.”
Now the word used in this passage in the King James version is
“Gentiles” but the word is
actually “Ethnos” which means simply a multitude. And
having this law written on the multitude of
hearts it must be disheartening to God to see the present state
of things in the world around us.
For many of us live by the law written on our hearts instead of
by the Word God has given us in
the example of Jesus Christ. In as much as we in this day and
age debase the profession of
attorneys and lawyers, as much as we shy away from the legal system
of this nation, don’t we do
the same thing they do? We argue the law and find ways to circumvent
that which is written to
justify our thoughts and actions. But is this just? Where can
we today find justice. What is just?
That answer was given to us by Our Father in Heaven. In what
was possibly a prophetic
statement found in the book of Deuteronomy we are told that...
” ...thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect
and just measure shalt thou have: that thy
days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth
thee.” Deuteronomy 25:15
That just weight, that just and perfect measure was the life
of Jesus which we all should be
a witness to. He is a lantern unto a our feet, and a light in
all our paths. His life alone we should
receive as his rule of right or wrong, of whatever is really good
or evil. Christ esteemed nothing
good, but what is in the Word of God commanded, either directly
or by plain consequence, He
accounted nothing evil but what was in the Word forbidden, either
in terms, or by undeniable
inference. Whatever the Scripture neither forbids nor enjoins,
either directly or by result, He
believes to be of an indifferent nature; to be in itself neither
good nor evil; this being the whole and
sole outward rule whereby our conscience should be directed in
all things.
And if we allow ourselves to be directed by His manner, then
we will have the answer of a
good conscience toward God. A good conscience is what is elsewhere
termed by the Apostle, “a
conscience void of offense." So, what he at one time expressed
as,
"I have lived in all good conscience before God until this
day;" --Acts 23:1.
He denotes at another time, by the expression,
"Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience
void of offense toward God, and toward
men." --Acts 24:16.
Now in order to this there is absolutely required,
Firstly, a right understanding of the word of God, or his "holy,
and acceptable, and perfect
will" concerning us, as it is revealed in scripture. For
it is impossible that we should walk by the
rules, if we do not know what they mean.
There is, Secondly, required, which how few have attained, a
true knowledge of ourselves;
a knowledge both of our hearts and lives, or our inward tempers
and outward conversation:
Seeing, if we do not know them, how possible is it that we can
compare them with the rule.
There is required, Thirdly, an agreement of our hearts and lives,
or our attitudes and
conversation, or our thoughts, and words, and works, with that
rule, with the written Word of God.
For, without this, if we have any conscience at all, it can be
only an evil conscience.
There is, Fourthly, required, an inward perception of this agreement
with our rule: And this
habitual perception, this inward consciousness itself, is properly
a good conscience; or, in other
phrase of the Apostle, "a conscience void of offense, toward
God, and toward men."
But if we desire to have a conscience void of offense, let us
see that we lay the right
foundation. Let us remember, to build our foundation on the rock
that naught can move. And let us
also be mindful, that no man can build on him except by a living
faith; that no man is a partaker of
Christ, until he can clearly testify, "The life which I now
live, I live by faith in the Son of God; in Him
who is revealed in my heart; He who loves me, and gave himself
for me.” Faith alone is that
evidence, that conviction, that demonstration of things invisible,
whereby the eyes of our
understanding being opened, we see the wondrous things of God's
law; the excellency and purity
of it; the height, and depth, and length, and breadth thereof,
and of every commandment
contained therein. It is by faith that, beholding "the light
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ," we perceive, as in a glass, all that is in ourselves,
even the inmost motions of our hearts.
And by this alone can that blessed love of God be shed abroad
in our hearts, which enables us to
love one another as Christ loved us. By this is that gracious
promise fulfilled unto all His children,
"I will put my laws into their mind, and write" (or
engrave) "them in their hearts;" (Heb. 8:10;)
thereby producing in our hearts an entire agreement with His holy
and perfect law, and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
And, as an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit, so a good
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.
As are our hearts, so likewise are our lives, thoroughly conformed
to the rule of God's
commandments; in a consciousness where we can give glory to God,
and say with the Apostle,
"This is our rejoicing, the testimony of our conscience,
that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with
fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation
in the world."
"We have had our conversation." Expressed this
way the apostle seems to indicate that in
every thing he said he was just, but the original text uses the
word “anastrepho”. The meaning of
this single word translated as conversation is really very broad.
It takes in our whole demeanor, not
just what we say, but every inward as well as outward circumstance,
whether relating to our heart
or body. It includes every emotion of our heart, as well as every
motion of our tongue, or our
hands, and body. It extends to all our actions and words; to the
employment of all our powers and
faculties; to the manner of using every talent we have received,
with respect either to God or man.
And it is this focus that allows us having our conversation, our
“anastrepho”, in which we are
focused with that single eye all of our thoughts, deeds and actions.
This is what our Lord
recommends when he said in Matthew 6:22,
"The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye
be single, the whole body shall be full of light."
The meaning of this is : What the eye is to the body, the intention
is to all the words and
actions: If therefore the eye is focused on a single purpose,
all the converstaion, the “anastrepho”
will be "full of light," of the light of heaven, of
love, and peace, and joy in the Truth.
"We have had our conversation in the world in simplicity
and godly sincerity." First, in simplicity: If
we are simple of heart, and when the eye of our mind is singly
fixed on God; then in all things we
will aim at God alone, as our God, our portion, our strength,
our happiness, our exceeding great
reward, our all and all , in time and eternity. This is simplicity;
when a steady view, a single
intention of promoting His glory, of doing and suffering His blessed
will, runs through our whole
soul, fills all our heart, and is the constant spring of all our
thoughts, desires, and purposes.
"We have had our conversation in the world," Secondly,
"in godly sincerity." the difference
between simplicity and sincerity seems to be this: Simplicity
regards the intention itself, sincerity
the execution of it; and this sincerity relates not barely to
our words, but to our whole conversation,
“anastrepho”, as described before. It is not to be
understood simply, as Paul sometimes used it,
for speaking the truth, or abstaining from guile; but in a more
extensive meaning, as actually hitting
the mark, which we aim at by simplicity, by doing things with
a single eye.
Accordingly, it implies here, that we do, in fact, speak and
do all to the glory of God; that all
our words are not only pointed at this, but actually conducive
to it; that all our actions flow on in an
even stream, uniformly subservient to this great end; and that,
in our whole lives, we are moving
straight toward God, and that continually; walking steadily on
in the narrow path, in the light of
justice, mercy, and truth and in all sincerity.
This sincerity is termed by the Paul as, Godly sincerity, to
prevent our mistaking or
confusing it with the sincerity of others. We see that whatever
does not ultimately tend to God,
sinks among "the beggarly elements of the world." By
styling it the sincerity of God, he also points
out the Author of it, as James 1:17 tells us
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and cometh down from the Father of lights,
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
and he declares this further in the following words,
"Not with fleshly wisdom , but by the grace of God."
Not with fleshly wisdom: As if he had said, “We cannot function
in the world, by any natural
strength of understanding, neither by any naturally acquired knowledge
or wisdom. We cannot
gain this simplicity, or practice this sincerity, by the force
either of good sense, good nature, or
good breeding. It overshoots all our native courage and resolution,
as well as all our precepts of
philosophy. The power of custom is not able to train us up to
this, nor the most exquisite rules of
human education. Neither could I Paul ever attain hereto, nevertheless
all the advantages I
enjoyed, so long as I was in the flesh, in my natural state, and
pursued it only by fleshly, natural
wisdom."
And yet surely, if any man could, Paul himself might have attained
it by that wisdom. I can
hardly conceive anyone who was more highly favored with all the
gifts both of nature and
education. Besides his natural abilities, he had all the benefits
of learning, studying at the
University of Tarsus, and afterwards reared at the feet of Gamaliel,
who was a person of the
greatest account, both for knowledge and integrity, in the Jewish
nation. And he had all the
possible advantages of religious education, being a Pharisee,
the son of a Pharisee, trained up in
the very straightest sect or profession, distinguished from all
others by a more eminent strictness.
And therby he had "profited above many" others, "who
were his equals" in years, "being more
abundantly zealous" of whatever he thought would please God,
and " touching the righteousness
of the law, blameless." But it was not there he attained
this simplicity and Godly sincerity. That was
all lost labor. So vain in fact that he later cried out,
"7But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss
for Christ. 8Yea doubtless, and I count all
things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus my Lord: for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things, and do count them [but] dung,
that I may win Christ, 9And be found in
him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law,
but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:”
So what Paul said was that he was only able to attain Gody sincerity
by the "excellent
knowledge of Jesus Christ" or, "by the grace of God".
By "the grace of God" can be understood
as through His love, through His unmerited mercy. Though we are
sinners, we are now
reconciled to God through His power which "worketh in us
both to will and to do of His good
pleasure." and through the merits of Christ. As soon as
the grace of God, his pardoning love, is
manifested in our hearts, the grace of God, the power of his Spirit,
takes its place in our lives to
give us that single eye. And then we can perform, through God,
what to man was impossible. Then
we can order our conversation aright. We can do all things in
the light and power of that love,
through Christ whom strengthens us. We now have "the testimony
of our conscience," which we
could never have by fleshly wisdom, "that in simplicity and
godly sincerity, we have our
conversation in the world." This is the rock we should build
upon. This is the nature of that joy
whereby we may rejoice ever more.
Now from all this we can see that this is not a material Joy.
It does not arise from any
external cause. It cannot be ascribed to outward prosperity, to
the favor of men, or the acquisition
of worldly goods; for we have record of those who like Paul, had
been tried as with fire, by all
manner of outward afflictions, and they still rejoiced in Him
with unspeakable joy . They "counted
not their lives dear unto themselves, so they might finish their
course with joy." Acts 20:24
This joy cannot be attributed to bodily health or ease; to strength
and soundness of
constitution: For we have seen in those who have passed into waiting
retention of their strength in
spirit through sickness and pain. And perhaps we noted that their
inner strength was far more
powerful than before. I suspect that many of us have never experienced
any joy, to be compared
with that which at the end filled their hearts, as their bodies
were worn out with pain, or nearly
consumed with sickness.
From all of this we see that our joy should be the joy of obedience;
joy in loving God and
keeping his commandments. And not in keeping them because we are
trying to fulfill the terms of
the covenant of works; as if through any works or righteousness
of ours, we were able to procure
pardon and acceptance with God. But because we joyfully carry
the gift of God with us every day.
Should we choose to accept it, we are already pardoned and accepted
through the mercy of God
in Christ Jesus. Not as if we were by our own obedience to procure
life, life from the death of sin:
This also we have already through the grace of God. We are told
in Ephesians that we
"...hath he quickened, who were dead in sins;" and
now we are "alive to God, through Jesus
Christ our Lord." -- Ephesians 2:1
But we can rejoice in walking according to the covenant of grace,
in love and happy
obedience. We can rejoice in knowing that, "being justified
through his grace," we have "not
received the grace of God in vain: "that God having freely
(not for the sake of our acts or even our
faith, but through the blood of the Lamb) reconciled us to Himself.
We can run, in the strength
which He has given us, in the way of his commandments. He hath
"girded us with strength unto
the war," and we can gladly "fight the good fight of
faith." We can rejoice through him who lives in
our hearts by faith, to "lay hold of eternal life."
This can be our rejoicing, that as our "Father
worketh hitherto," so, not by our own might or wisdom, but
through His power , freely given in
Christ Jesus, we can also work the works of God. And may He work
in us whatever is well pleasing
in his sight.
And now as we sit before these covered emblems in our sins,
our sins are remembered.
Our conscience if full of the encumberances that we have taken
on for ourselves. But when this
covering is removed and we sit exposed to the symbolic glory of
our Father’s love, this is the time
for us to hand over those encomberances... stop trying to hide
them in our flesh. This in its
resemblance to our judgement, is the time we need to confess our
sins and hand them over to
God. So that we no longer fear our conscience and that we can
have a clear conscience to
ourselves and to God, allowing us the possibility to say
"This is our rejoicing, the testimony of our conscience,
that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with
fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation
in the world."
Bro. Sol L. Gorrell
Wanatah Christadelphian Ecclesia