1 Corinthians 4:3-5 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yes, I judge not my own self.… It is then possible that a man's conscience may think that all is well with it; and yet all may be very ill. St. Paul had declined all judgments of men. One only can judge the heart, He who made it. Man can judge from the surface only. In the very plainest cases he may be mistaken. Human praise and blame are mostly valueless, because men know not the whole which they praise or blame (1 Corinthians 2:11). But neither must man trust wholly his judgments of himself. Since even an apostle said, that although he "knew nothing of himself," he was not thereby justified, what a vast abyss then must the unexamined conscience of a sinner be! I. THERE ARE TWO SORTS OF PEACEFUL AND OF TROUBLED CONSCIENCES. 1. There is a good conscience which is peaceful, because it mourns its past sin for love of Him who loved us; it resists present temptation, in His might who overcame the evil one; it trusts in Him who never fails those who trust Him. This is a foretaste of paradise (Philippians 4:7). 2. But peace, as it is the blessing of the good conscience, so it is the curse of the bad conscience. A troubled, remorseful conscience has life. There is hope of a man amid any mass of sins, if he hates them; but a conscience wholly at peace and yet sinning is not alive, but dead. The eye of the soul is blind; the ear has been stopped; the heart has been drugged (1 Timothy 4:2). II. HOW THEN MAY WE KNOW WHETHER OUR PEACE IS THE FALSE OR THE TRUE? 1. False peace needs but that a man should follow his passions; true peace requires that a man should have resisted them. True peace rests on the knowledge and love of God; false peace relies on ignorance of God and of itself. 2. It is something to see that there is such a thing as false peace. It is something to know that all is not, of a necessity, well with a man, because he is at peace with himself. For this is his very delusion. "I have nothing against myself; my conscience does not reproach me." Take some instances. (1) How was David at rest for a whole year after his sins of adultery and murder! His conscience was alive as to the injustice of taking away a poor man's ewe-lamb; it was dead to his own. (2) How did Balaam blind his conscience! He did speak God's words in his office as a prophet; as a man, he gave the devilish counsel to seduce Israel to idolatry by the beauty of the daughters of Midian, and fell in the battle with the people whom, in the name of God, he had blessed. (3) How did Simeon and Levi blind their conscience by their passion in their treacherous vengeance! Yet they themselves had no doubt that they were justified (Genesis 34:31). (4) Esau justified himself by looking away from himself, and calling Jacob a supplanter. (5) Saul, in his first act of disobedience, did violence to himself; in the second he justified himself. When he consulted the witch it was on the plea of necessity, and when he murdered himself, religion was still in his mouth, "lest the uncircumcised should abuse me."(6) Samson deceived himself by tampering as to the secret of his strength, making as though he had betrayed it, when he did not, until at the end, when he did betray it. (7) Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard, and held himself justified, while he inquired not how Jezebel would give it to him. 3. But since there has been such a large reign of self-deceit, how may any of us know that we are not deceived now? (1) Men have thought they did God service while they murdered God's servants. It is not enough, then, to think that we do God service. (2) A conscience, healthfully at peace, has been kept in peace, through believing in God, loving God, serving God, and, by the grace of God, conquering self for the love of God. A conscience, falsely at peace, arrived at its peace, through ignorance of God and of itself, amid the dislike to look into God's Word or to compare its own ways with it, persuading itself that what it likes is not contrary to the law of God, stifling doubts, that it may not be according to the law of God. (3) That is a false peace, which would be broken, if man knew the whole heart and the whole life. Any moment might break it; if not broken before, it will be broken more terribly in the day of judgment. (4) A false peace is founded on false maxims, such as — "Why should I not do what others do? Why should I be singular?"(5) A false peace is gained by looking at this or that fault of another. "This thing cannot be so bad, because such an one does it." These may be tests to you. Has thy peace come to thee, while looking into thyself, or looking away from thyself? by taking up with corrupt maxims of the world, or while looking into the law of God? while listening to conscience, or while escaping from it? while encouraging thyself by the sins of those around thee, or while looking to Jesus to forgive thee the past, to keep thee by His Spirit and give thee power over thy sins?Conclusion: 1. Look well then whether, at the beginning, thy conscience followed thy desires, or thy desires thy conscience. Granted that there is nothing about which you reproach yourself, that your desires and your conscience are at one, how was the peace made — which gave way? People begin mostly in little things. They take some little thing which is not theirs, or which seems of no great value to its owner, or which, it is thought, he will not miss. Conscience remonstrates, "Thou shalt not steal." And then the will cozens the conscience, and says, it is but "this and that." The deed is done again. Conscience again forbids. Then it is put off. "Only this once; I cannot help it now. I have begun. I cannot draw back," Conscience is thrust back again, wounded, murmuring. When next conscience forbids, it is put off to a more convenient time, or the passion turns away from it, or tells it to its face, "I will do it." And then, to avoid conscience, the soul buries itself amid any tumult of pleasure, or thought, or care. In this way does the soul inure itself to break every commandment. The conscience is first dulled; then drugged to sleep; then stupefied; then seared and past feeling. Look at the first step and the last! Who in the first act of self-indulgence could picture the bloated drunkard? Who could picture the remorseless hardened sinner in the first forced stifling of remorse? 2. But conscience has an inextinguishable life. It cannot be destroyed. It will awake again once; here, or in eternity. Pitiable it is, when it wakes on the death-bed, and says to the dying sinner, "Behold thyself." Miserable and pitiable as this would be, it would be a great mercy of God. If the soul is awakened even on the death-bed, it may yet be saved by the grace of God. Too often, if it has slept till then, it seems then to sleep the sleep of death. But miserable and pitiable as this awakening of conscience would be then, at the the last, there is what is more miserable still, that it should not awaken, What would it be if your conscience were to awake first at the judgment-seat of Christ? (E. B. Pusey, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. |
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