A Good Conscience – Uses of the Law: To Engage God’s Spirit (6)

A Good Conscience

Uses of the Law: To Engage God’s Spirit (6)

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience.… 1 Timothy 1:5

The third facet of sound doctrine is a good conscience. The conscience is that aspect of the soul that nurtures and houses our values and priorities. It is thus the seat of the will. If our values, priorities, and will are good, then it follows that our walk will express that which is pleasing to the Lord, Who is good.

The Law of God, being holy and righteous and good (Rom. 7:12), is thus a valuable resource for the reformation and nurture of our consciences. By an abundance of examples, promises, and warnings, the Law teaches us to value what God values and to make obedience to His will the priority of our lives. We would not be able to know that God deplores coveting—or even what it is to covet—without the Law of God to instruct us (Rom. 7:7). The same is true with everything else that is necessary to foster sound doctrine in the form of love for God and neighbor.

We will not be likely to bring love to expression—no matter how well we understand it nor how pure our motives and desires may be—if our will is not shaped for goodness as God intends. Exposure to the Law of God, by which we learn the character of God and understand the magnitude of Christ’s mercy and grace, can help to ensure that our values will be the same as God’s, so that, mind, heart, and conscience working together, the fourth facet of the jewel of sound doctrine can be achieved, and we will be firmly established in the true teaching of our Lord.

That fourth facet is a sincere and unhypocritical walk of faith.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Bookstore, then Church Issues.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.