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In America today, we're seeing something tragic happening with people's consciences. That inner moral compass that God gave us is being silenced, corrupted, and in many cases completely killed off. If we're going to stay spiritually healthy in 2025, we need to understand what the conscience is, what it does, and how we can protect it.
The Story of Joseph's Brothers
Let's set the scene from Genesis 42. Some twenty-one years had passed since Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery. In that time, much had happened - the boy had become a man, the slave had become Prime Minister of Egypt. Now a severe famine had brought his brothers to Egypt seeking grain, though they didn't know their brother Joseph was in charge.
When Joseph saw them, he recognized them immediately, but they didn't recognize him. The last time they'd been together, Joseph was the one at a disadvantage - they'd treated him roughly and thrown him into a pit. But now the tables had turned. This time, they were the ones treated roughly and thrown into prison for three days.
God would use this encounter to work in these ten brothers' lives, resurrecting the conscience they'd silenced many years before. Their story shows us exactly how God deals with dead consciences.
What the Conscience Is
Let's start with understanding what we're talking about. The dictionary tells us the conscience is "the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action." In Greek, it literally means "to know together." God gave this gift to all humans as a power of moral judgment, and it shows up some 31 times in the New Testament.
Dr. John MacArthur really nailed it in his book "The Vanishing Conscience" when he said, "The conscience entreats us to do what we believe is right and restrains us from doing what we believe is wrong." But here's what's crucial to understand - the conscience isn't the voice of God. It's a human faculty that judges our actions and thoughts by the highest standards we know.
Think of the conscience like a rudder for your soul. It's not a guide, but an early warning system telling you danger is ahead. When we go against those warnings, it punishes us with guilt, shame, and regret. But when we honor our conscience, it rewards us with peace, happiness, and joy.
How the Conscience Gets Seared
Let's look at what happened with Joseph's brothers. They sold their own brother as a slave, killed an animal, put its blood on Joseph's coat, and brought it to their father. They watched Jacob assume the worst and enter into over twenty years of mourning. At first, it must have tugged at their hearts. But as time passed, the feelings of remorse and guilt were silenced. They may have even started believing their own lies.
This is what First Timothy 4:2 talks about - people "having their conscience seared with a hot iron." That word "sear" gives us the word "cauterize" - when a wound is cauterized, heat seals off blood vessels to stop bleeding. It originally meant "to brand," and what branding does is cause a scar. Scars have no nerve endings - they can't feel. A seared conscience is one that's ceased to feel.
How God Jolts the Conscience
When God decides to wake up a dead conscience, He knows exactly what He's doing. In Joseph's brothers' case, God used:
- Problems: A worldwide famine that forced them to go to Egypt
- People: Joseph's harsh treatment and accusations
- Pain: Three days in prison
If you belong to the Lord and you've allowed your conscience to become hardened, you need to know something - you're going to wander off into sin. Your conscience will stop warning you of evil and you'll fall away. But if you're His, He won't let you stay there forever. He'll come get you, and He'll use whatever it takes to wake up your conscience.
Look what happened with Joseph's brothers - they finally reached the breaking point. They said to one another, "In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us." A secret buried for twenty years came bubbling to the surface. When they found their money returned in their grain sacks, they were filled with fear and conviction, saying "What is this that God has done to us?"
How to Revive Your Conscience
So how do we restore a conscience that's been damaged? Let me give you four practical steps:
- Confess and forsake all known sin. Deal with your sin God's way and get it out in the open through confession. And by the way, the only confession you need is between you and your heavenly Father.
- Make restitution to those you've wronged if possible. The Old Testament commands this in Numbers 5, and the New Testament refers to it as well. When possible, do what you can to right a wrong.
- Don't wait to clean a wounded conscience. Acts 24:16 says, "So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man." If you allow guilt to remain, it'll fester and your spiritual life will only deteriorate.
- Educate your conscience. Feed it the pure word of God, not the teachings and traditions of men. As Psalm 119:11 puts it, "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you."
A Final Warning
Let me bring this home. People may silence their conscience in this life, but one day - listen to me now - one day it will speak up loud and clear. When you stand at judgment, your conscience will agree 100% with every judgment God hands down.
Take a good look within today and examine the condition of your conscience. If it's telling you to "pull up, pull up," what's your response been? Maybe your conscience hasn't spoken to you in a long time. Today would be a good time to come before the Lord and start that process of reviving your seared conscience.
When you watch the news this week and see people acting with depraved minds, know that their conscience has been seared. When you pray for these people, don't pray for wisdom - pray that God would save their soul, give them a new outlook, and make them a new person. That includes a new conscience.