{"id":95621,"date":"2026-05-14T11:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=95621"},"modified":"2026-05-14T11:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:33:13","slug":"perfectly-good-conscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/perfectly-good-conscience\/","title":{"rendered":"Perfectly Good Conscience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, &#8216;Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day&#8217;<\/em>&#8221; (Acts 23:1). Paul will say in Acts 24:16: &#8220;<em>In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.<\/em>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p><strong>How<\/strong>\u00a0does that work? The simple answer is, if you think it is wrong, do <strong>not do it<\/strong>. If you have done something you think is wrong, and thus your conscience is bothering you, <b>repent <\/b>and ask God to forgive. Do not ignore the &#8216;voice of your conscience&#8217;! At the same time, <strong>educate<\/strong> your conscience so that you <b>know <\/b>what the good and perfect will of God is concerning how you should live.<\/p>\n<p>How is your conscience?<\/p>\n<p>For further study, see this list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Romans 2:15 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>Romans 9:1 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>Romans 13:5 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;not only because of wrath, but also for conscience&#8217; sake.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>I Corinthians 8:7 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;and their conscience being weak is defiled.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>I Corinthians 8:10 &#8211; &#8220;.<em>..will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>I Corinthians 8:12 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>I Corinthians 10:25 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;without raising questions for conscience&#8217; sake.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>I Corinthians 10:27 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;without raising questions for conscience&#8217; sake.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>I Corinthians 10:28 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience&#8217; sake.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>I Corinthians 10:29 &#8211; &#8220;<em>I mean not your own conscience, but the other man&#8217;s; for why is my freedom judged by another&#8217;s conscience?<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>II Corinthians 1:12 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity&#8230;<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>II Corinthians 4:2 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;commending ourselves to every man&#8217;s conscience in the sight of God.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>II Corinthians 5:11 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>I Timothy 1:5 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>I Timothy 1:19 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>I Timothy 3:9 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>I Timothy 4:2 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>II Timothy 1:3 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>Titus 1:15 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>Hebrews 9:9 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>Hebrews 9:14 &#8211; &#8220;.<em>..cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God<\/em>?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Hebrews 10:2 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;would have had no very consciousness (conscience) of sins?<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>Hebrews 10:22 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience&#8230;<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>Hebrews 13:18 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;for we are sure that we have a good conscience&#8230;<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>I Peter 2:19 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows&#8230;<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>I Peter 3:16 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered&#8230;<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>I Peter 3:21 &#8211; &#8220;<em>&#8230;an appeal to God for a good conscience-through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Hugh DeLong &#8220;Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, &#8216;Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day&#8217;&#8221; (Acts 23:1). Paul will say in Acts 24:16: &#8220;In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[810],"class_list":["post-95621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-conscience"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31874,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-support-conscientious-objection\/","url_meta":{"origin":95621,"position":0},"title":"Do you support conscientious objection?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you or your church support selective conscientious objection and conscientious objection? Answer: Registering for the draft is a government law that does not violate any teaching of God. \"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1296,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-boy-girl-relationships-not-advisable-at-a-young-age\/","url_meta":{"origin":95621,"position":1},"title":"Why are boy-girl relationships not advisable at a young age?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why are boy-girl relationships not advisable at a young age Answer: Youth is a time of impatient desires. They want the things available to adults, but adulthood seems so far away. The typical teenage boy enters puberty around the age of 11. The typical teenage girl enters puberty around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32196,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-a-sin-to-take-out-insurance\/","url_meta":{"origin":95621,"position":2},"title":"Is it a sin to take out insurance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it a sin to take out medical insurance or legal insurance? Are we rather expected to put our faith in the Lord to take care of those things? Answer: We were taught to pray, \"Give us this day our daily bread\" (Matthew 6:11), but God still commands us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37138,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-lost-the-surprise-somewhere\/","url_meta":{"origin":95621,"position":3},"title":"We Lost the Surprise Somewhere","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I remember watching Mayberry RFD and related shows most of my childhood. Poor ignorant Gomer Pyle who worked as an auto mechanic was a notable character. But I can still recall my shock when I found out that Jim Nabors, who played Gomer, could sing --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Gomer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":61889,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-book-of-my-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":95621,"position":4},"title":"The Book of My Life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Job 19:23-27 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Each week the paper publishes its list of top selling books \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes the books are biographies, fictional stories, or fiction placed in historical settings. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They hope that others will also purchase the books, if for no other reason than curiosity. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many author\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Audio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6988,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-passages-that-refer-to-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":95621,"position":5},"title":"Are there passages that refer to THE Lord&#8217;s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have been studying the Lord's supper issues and one of our main concerns is about a second offering in which only a few partake, for the reasons you listed in your article (not doing it together). 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