1 TIMOTHY 4:1-5 THE NECESSITY OF A GUILTY CONSCIENCE
1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
Human history is littered with sordid stories about gifted and talented people of great promise who do incredibly stupid things. As we read the accounts of these ruined people we are lead to wonder how a life could go so wrong. Of course, what is missing in the report is the account of the long years of step-by-step moral devolution leading to the public debacle. Whether it is a secretary who begins by including personal items while buying office supplies and ends up embezzling thousands of dollars from the church or the politician who begins by flirting at social events and ends up abandoning office and family for an affair, it does not happen over night. First comes the deception that an action is inconsequential or innocent, then comes the rationalization that it really cannot be wrong, and then snuffing of the annoying feelings of guilt. Once the conscience is cauterized the perpetrator is essentially free to do the outrageous, and get caught. In some cases the behavior is so crazy that we even begin to think that they wanted to be caught.
As in the world, so too in the Church, the same dynamic is at work. Sometimes there is little difference between the moral demise of secular and church leaders. But, St. Paul warns that this same progression occurs on the theological level. Most of the heresies in the Church started with a small doubt about God’s word, whether he meant or even said what is recorded in the Bible. Adding or subtracting from God’s word are equally dangerous and signs of doubt. They are the first steps away from the faith and as they make “God’s will” fit our lives better we become less and less sensitive to our increasing infidelity to God. Doubting that all that God created was good leads us to the heresy that our physical natures are evil while only what is spiritual is good. Likewise, doubting God’s word about marriage has led us on a progression to our present debate about same-gender unions. During its history the church has often served more as a cauterizer of the corporate conscience than the foundation and pillar of the truth. If we are to truly be the Church, we must repent of all deception and rationalization, the tendency to remake God in our image and reformulate his will according to our will, and turn back to him in humble faith, living in obedience to his revealed will.
O God and Father of all, guide me in the way of faith and truth. Where my understanding is in error correct it, where my life has strayed reform it, where my actions are amiss redeem them. Give me an alive and sensitive conscience that I might not ignore or rationalize my sinful desires. Amen.