The conscience is the capacity to discern between good and evil. The conscience is found in the heart or what one might call our spiritual being. Solomon asks God, “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil.” An understanding heart granted Solomon the capacity to discern between good and evil, thus the conscience is connected with the heart.
Category: Christian Character
1 Corinthians 1:18-26 discusses the wisdom of God as contrasted with that of man. This is a fascinating section that forces one to ponder the differences between God’s wisdom and man’s wisdom. In order to better understand I believe a character study of Joab is useful. Joab was the commander of King David’s armies, David’s nephew, and powerful man in his own right. Throughout his life he demonstrated the wisdom of man. Contrasted with David, a man after God’s own heart, 1 Sam 13:14, we can see a good juxtaposition of God’s and man’s wisdom. What follows is a walk through the life of Joab, please crack open your Bibles and follow along. 1 Chron 2: 13-17 | David’s nephew, brother of Abishai and Asahel, cousin of Amasa
In Romans 6:1 Paul asks the following as a follow up to his previous point, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Chapter five explained that through Adam sin entered the world, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Sin is the breaking of law. “For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” There was offense before the covenant given through Moses. Sin was in the world, and death by that sin.
There are seven things that are an abomination to God (Proverbs 6:16). Among them are “a lying tongue” and “a false witness who speaks lies” (Proverbs 6:17, 19). This speaks to us clearly. God hates lying.
In his latter days, Solomon recalled his former deeds: “I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds. So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem” (Ecclesiastes 2:4-9).