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Conscience

“In the original Greek, the word for “conscience” has the root of self-knowledge…The conscience is the witness that compares one’s conduct with the sense of right and wrong. Paul instructs that church leaders have a “good conscience” that does not harbor feelings of guilt or offense against God. A “good conscience” comes from living “honorably”…For example, in 1 Peter, the Apostle teaches that all believers must be ready to witness to their hope. But to give their testimony to Christ, they must have a “good conscience.” Then, if their opponents should charge them with wrong, the accusation will come to nothing, and their accusers will be shamed (1 Peter 3:15-26).” (Fr. Basil)


“A lively conscience guards our love for God and others. On the other hand, a deadened conscience is like a switched off alarm that fails to sound at mortal danger. We must carefully consider whether our conscience has ceased to accuse us, not as a result of purity, but because it is immersed in evil. Many from long neglect become incurable, but with God all things are possible.” (Dynamis 12/13/2021, St. John Climacus)


“He who persuades his conscience to regard the evil he is doing as good by nature reaches out with his moral faculty as with a hand and grasps the tree of life in a reprehensible manner; for he thinks that what is thoroughly evil is by nature immortal. Therefore God, who has implanted in man's conscience a natural hatred of evil, cuts him off from life, for he has now become evil in his will and attention. God acts in this way so that when a man does wrong, he cannot persuade his own conscience that what is thoroughly evil is good by nature.” (St. Maximos the Confessor)


“Because happiness in both this world and the next consists of doing God's will, the Holy Fathers, as experts in the spiritual life, beckon us to pay careful attention to our conscience. If we do so, they tell us, then it will reliably and precisely show us the clear and direct will of God. They term this the ‘guarding of one's conscience.’ ” (Archbishop Averky (Taushev)


“…labor for “a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith” (vs. 5), for these alone secure us in the renewing and refreshing love of Christ. A pure heart commands and directs the soul, dispelling any evil thoughts that enter it, so that we do not receive “[our] soul in vain” (Ps 23:4). Such a heart will draw close to God, and the Lord will dwell within us to help our heart continue in purity (Jas 4:8).” (Dynamis 12/13/2021)


“…there is not one human being that has lost his conscience, for it is something divine and can never be eradicated totally….Always do everything according to your conscience!...it is within this inner stillness that our Father can speak to us most clearly. It is there alone with Him that He becomes real to our inner intuition of spirit. It is there we begin to “see” Him most acutely with the perception of our awakened conscience in response to His Word. There we sense and know His Presence. He interacts with us in our deepening conviction through His wondrous Word and by His gracious Spirit.” (St. Dorotheos of Gaza, Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) of Bogucharsk, W. Phillip Keller)

“The voice of conscience is the voice of God; for it is His vicegerent and representative …Conscience is the authentic voice of God to you…Conscience is God present in man…we cannot please God without a good conscience.” (John Flavel, Rutherford B. Hayes, Victor Hugo, St. Mark the Ascetic)

“It is in our power to either “bury” our conscience, or allow it to shine within us and enlighten us through our subordination to it. Because when our conscience tells us to do something and we ignore it, or when it advises us to do something and we don’t do it, we burden it or, as though, bury it so that its voice becomes fainter from the weight on it. Just like it is impossible to see your reflection in muddy water, so do we cease to understand what our conscience says to us when we sin consciously.” (St. Dorotheos of Gaza)

“For the person who has committed a serious sin, there are two vivid signs—the hope that what one did may never become known, and a gnawing sense of guilt. At least this is the case before the conscience becomes completely numb—which is what happens when patterns of sin become the structure of one’s life to the extent that hell, far from being a possible next-life experience, is where one finds oneself in this life.” (Jim Forest)

“Jesus Himself posed this question several times in various forms: "But who do you say that I am?" (Mark 8:29). "What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?" (Matthew 22:42). The reason this question is important has to do with certain claims of Jesus, which indicate that the answer touches on the nature of God. When Jesus declares, for instance, that He and the Father are one (John 10:30), when He affirms that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him (14:6), when He claims that those who see Him see the Father (14:9)—in all such assertions, Jesus of Nazareth forces Himself on the conscience of every human being who has ever lived.” (Fr. Patrick Reardon)

"God created man in the beginning and placed in him the conscience as a never-silent accuser which cannot be seduced or deceived." (St. John Chrysostom)

“The conscience of every man is a ray of light from the one all-enlightening spiritual Sun - God. Through the conscience God rules over all, as a righteous and Almighty King. And how mighty is His empire through the conscience! Nobody is strong enough to completely silence its voice! It speaks impartially to all and to each, as the voice of God Himself! Through the conscience we are all as one man before God.” (St. John of Kronstadt)

“The law written in their hearts (Romans 2:15) refers to a person's conscience. Because man's conscience is God-given, it has the same power to lead a person to God as the law does. According to St. John Chrysostom, those who are able to follow their conscience to God are more virtuous than those with the law, for they do not have the advantage of concrete instructions yet still desire to please God.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Romans 2:15)

“It is in our power to either “bury” our conscience, or allow it to shine within us and enlighten us through our subordination to it. Because when our conscience tells us to do something and we ignore it, or when it advises us to do something and we don’t do it, we burden it or, as though, bury it so that its voice becomes fainter from the weight on it. Just like it is impossible to see your reflection in muddy water, so do we cease to understand what our conscience says to us when we sin consciously.” (St. Dorotheos of Gaza)

“Thoughts make us do all kinds of things, then we lose our peace and are tormented by our conscience. These pangs of conscience are nothing but the judgment of God within us. And so, we must make peace with our Heavenly Father and turn to Him from our heart, asking Him to forgive us and give us of His Grace and His Divine strength in order that we may always remain in peace and joy, like the angels and the saints.” (Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica)

“Conscience in men is nothing else but the voice of the omnipresent God moving in the heart—the Lord who knows all: thoughts, desires, intentions, deeds; past, present and future." (St. John of Kronstadt)

“That ‘still, small voice within’ actually has its source from without. It’s God the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us by God’s grace. In keeping with free will, the Holy Spirit never forces us into anything but seeks to guide us into the right choices and actions and, if needed, a course correction.” (Sacramental Living Blog)

“The voice of conscience is the voice of God; for it is His vicegerent and representative…Conscience is the authentic voice of God to you…Conscience is God present in man…we cannot please God without a good conscience.” (John Flavel, Rutherford B. Hayes, Victor Hugo, St. Mark the Ascetic)

“Conscience naturally gives men an apprehension of right and wrong, and suggests the relation there is between right and wrong…the Spirit of God assists men’s consciences to do this in a greater degree...” (Jonathan Edwards)

“There is nothing more burdensome and grievous then when conscience accuses us in anything, and there is nothing dearer than calmness and approval of the conscience.” (St. Maximos the Confessor)

“…our conscience is not entirely our own. That little voice in our head prior to a wrong act that warns us not to do what we are about to do, or, after we commit the wrong act, lets us know what we just did was not good, is not entirely from us. If it was it would kick in prior to our wrong acts and control us. It is the Holy Spirit, God in us; and, due to God’s loving gift of free will, He never tries to control, just gently persuade.” (Sacramental Living Blog, John Granger)

“A lively conscience guards our love for God and others. On the other hand, a deadened conscience is like a switched off alarm that fails to sound at mortal danger. “We must carefully consider whether our conscience has ceased to accuse us, not as a result of purity, but because it is immersed in evil…Many from long neglect become incurable, but with God all things are possible.” (OCPM 11/23/2015, Saint John Climacus)

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” (C.S. Lewis)

“A guilty conscience is a warning signal God placed inside you that goes off when you’ve done wrong. The worst step you could take is to eliminate the guilty feelings without eliminating the cause. That would be like using a painkiller but not treating the disease.” (Life Application Study Bible, Genesis 3:7-8)

“…Saint Paul calls us to labor for “a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5), for these alone secure us in the renewing and refreshing love of Christ. A pure heart commands and directs the soul, dispelling any evil thoughts that enter it, so that we do not receive “[our] soul in vain” (Psalms 23:4). Such a heart will draw close to God, and the Lord will dwell within us to help our heart continue in purity (James 4:8).” (OCPM 11/23/2015)


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