Acts 26:9-11 I truly thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.… Conscience in your fallen state is as likely to be wrong as your clocks and watches, and you cannot be sure of the time of day unless you go to some infallible standard of time, so you cannot decide upon right and wrong by simple reference to your own convictions. It is not a full justification of your conduct to say your conscience approved what you did. What, my brother, is the state of your conscience? You know that even with the sundial you might take to it an artificial light, and throw from the gnomon upon the figures and lines a shadow that would not index the true time of day. And if your conscience act under the artificial light of the habits and customs of mankind, and not under the power of the light of God's light, it is no guide as to your duty. What is it that governs your conscience? Is it the will of God, or the will of man? If God do not control it, then it is no correct index of what you ought to do, or of what you ought not to do. "I thought," said Saul of Tarsus — "I thought that I ought to do many things contrary to Jesus of Nazareth." These were the things over which, in the course of a little time, he had most bitterly to mourn. (S. Martin.) Parallel Verses KJV: I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. |
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