“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” - 1 Timothy 1:5

A healthy conscience is an environment through which faith is nurtured by the power of the Holy Spirit. A good conscience is your ability to respect the body, Property, spirit and the free will of another, and not to do anything likely to jeopardize, frustrate or abuse the sensibility, freedom, good health and sanctity of the other person. For want of proper definition, I want to say that a good conscience is doing what is good while bad conscience is doing what is wrong. But some say they cannot distinguish between good or bad conducts, simply because of cultural and religious biases. This is not entirely correct. Our Lord Jesus Christ has given us a template on how to live a good-natured life devoid of conflicts and biases of all kinds. For instance, the Master preached positively about Love, forgiveness, humility, tolerance, and service to others. All these are examples of good conscience. Although it is not possible to go through life without experiencing an inner conflict between doing what is right and that of doing what is not right, you must learn very fast on how to strike a balance between good conscience and bad conscience. Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 30:21to listen to our inner voice – the voice of conscience when we are confused and desired to take the right direction: “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left”.

The conscience is always there to judge our moral acts, and we have to listen in order to maintain our righteousness before God at all times. An unguided conscience leads us to commit evil acts against the will and commandments of God. All evil disposition and sinfulness pollute us and hardened our hearts from its abilities to express love to ourselves and to others. When we are unable to express love, our faith is hindered from growth and we begin to lose our turn and visibility in the presence of God. This will, in turn, crush our boldness to ascend the throne of mercy to seek power and grace. The reason for this setback is because love is the foundation of all things. According to Timothy, not being able to hold onto faith and good conscience, will ultimately wreck our faith altogether (1 Timothy 1:19), and without faith, it is difficult to please God. Bad conscience has multiplying effects which we must try to avoid. The scripture is telling us today that we have a mission to express unblemished love from the purest part of our hearts, nurtured by good conscience and a sincere faith. Beloved, it is necessary to act in good conscience all the time in order to keep the faith growing stronger. Only a man of faith can express love, and love sets you free from all inhibitions and obstacles to wealth and happiness.