Titus 1:15 To the pure all things are pure: but to them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure… That the conscience is so perverted in our present condition, that no confidence can be placed in its decision, is evident. I. From the fact that these decisions can be correct in no other cases but those in which Divine truth is fully understood. II. That the decisions of conscience are not always in accordance with the truth is evident from the fact that sinners are pot always convinced of sin. III. This position is also sustained by the fact that the agency of the Holy Spirit is requisite to convince the world of sin. IV. The faithlessness of conscience is apparent in the fact that hypocrites have not always an appalling sense of their hypocrisy. V. This view of the subject is strengthened by the fact that even Christians do not always detect their own sins. VI. This doctrine is evident from the fact that there is no command in the Scriptures to follow the dictates of conscience. VII. And while there is no direction to follow the dictates of conscience, it is true that the Scriptures designate different consciences, and perhaps different states of the same conscience, by different and directly opposite terms. VIII. This view of the subject is confirmed by the fact that the way to ruin seems to be the way of peace and eternal life. This is a very common and perhaps a general trait of the human family. The light that is in them by nature is darkness. They discern not the way in which they should go.Lessons: — From this subject I infer — I. That God has placed no rule of duty within ourselves. Our reason was never designed to be our guide in spiritual things. Its only office is to understand the things which God has revealed in His Word, and in all cases reverently to bow to His authority. So long as its eyes are not opened by the power of the Holy Spirit, the understanding is in deplorable darkness. And even if it were capable of discerning all the principles of duty, its office is to gather them from the Word of God. II. The subject teaches us that to live conscientiously is not in all cases to live godly. Conscience in its decisions has respect to some principles of life. These principles may be the fruit of our own reason. In this case, the decision will approach no nearer to truth than the principles are according to which the decision is made. Or it may decide according to the maxims of duty which it has learned from others. In this instance, as in the former, its decisions can claim no higher authority or greater correctness than the maxims according to which they are made. Or, if even the Scriptures be the rule according to which the decisions are made, then it will follow that the decisions themselves must be affected by the blindness of the understanding and by the weakness of conscience itself. And hence, to live conscientiously may vary widely from living accordingly to the commands of God. III. The subject teaches what estimate to set on professions of acting conscientiously. IV. The subject suggests the importance of praying for the purification of our conscience. V. The subject suggests that our condition is very deplorable. We are exceedingly inclined to rely on our understandings to discover the way of life, and on the testimony of our consciences that we are walking in it. But not only are our natural understandings too blind to discover it, but our consciences are exceedingly apt falsely to decide that we are walking in it, even while we are wandering in darkness. Thus we are liable to think we are something when we are nothing. The way which we take may seem right unto us, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (J. Foot, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. |
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