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Hoy en día parece cada vez más raro escuchar la palabra conciencia. La gente simplemente decide lo que es bueno y lo que es malo según sus propios puntos de vista, y la conciencia parece no influir en absoluto. Pero Dios no quiere que vivamos de esa manera, especialmente cuando hemos sido salvos. Después de todo, Él nos creó con una conciencia, la cual tiene un papel muy importante en nuestras vidas, tanto antes como después de recibir al Señor.
Así que es importante para nosotros ver lo que la Biblia revela acerca de la conciencia, y por qué tener una buena conciencia es tan crucial cuando se trata de nuestra relación con el Señor.
En esta entrada, leeremos algunos versículos claves y notas de estudio de la Versión Recobro sobre este tema importante.
Primero, hablemos de lo que es la conciencia. Muchos versículos en la Biblia hablan de la conciencia. Todo ser humano, sea salvo o no, y sin importar su cultura, identidad étnica o trasfondo, tiene una conciencia. Dios nos creó con una conciencia para que sepamos el bien del mal, lo que Él aprueba y lo que Él juzga.
Romanos 2:14 y 15 dicen:
“Porque cuando los gentiles que no tienen ley, hacen por naturaleza lo que es de la ley, éstos, aunque no tengan ley, son ley para sí mismos, mostrando la obra de la ley escrita en sus corazones, dando testimonio su conciencia junto con ella, y acusándoles o defendiéndoles sus razonamientos”.
En el versículo 14, la nota 1 sobre por naturaleza del Nuevo Testamento Versión Recobro dice:
“La naturaleza del hombre, tal como fue creada por Dios, originalmente era buena y correspondía a Dios y a Su ley. Aunque fue envenenada por la caída, esta buena naturaleza permanece en el hombre. Así que, si una persona vive conforme a su naturaleza y hace por naturaleza lo que es de la ley, el mal que está en ella será restringido”.
Ahora leamos la nota 1 en el versículo 15 sobre conciencia, que explica la relación de esta naturaleza creada por Dios con la conciencia:
“La conciencia del hombre corresponde a la naturaleza humana creada por Dios y le permite saber lo que Dios justifica y lo que Él condena”.
Por su conciencia, la gente puede percibir lo que Dios justifica, o aprueba, y lo que Él condena. Incluso sin conocer a Dios o la Biblia, su conciencia les permite conocer el bien del mal.
Así es como una persona puede saber que es pecadora.
Cuando aún no éramos salvos, en algún momento escuchamos el evangelio de Jesucristo. A través de esas palabras, nuestra conciencia nos condenó de que éramos pecaminosos y necesitábamos ser salvos. Así que nos arrepentimos ante Dios y aceptamos a Jesucristo como nuestro Salvador.
Cuando nos arrepentimos y recibimos al Señor Jesús, Él vino a vivir en nosotros, y nuestra conciencia se volvió más sensible y activa que antes.
Es importante saber que aunque somos salvos, todavía tenemos nuestra carne pecaminosa y naturaleza caída. Esto significa que aún cometemos pecados a pesar de nuestras mejores intenciones. Nuestra conciencia nos permite saber cuándo hemos ofendido a Dios al pecar o al desobedecerlo.
Para ilustrar, nuestra conciencia es como un detector de humo instalado en un edificio. Si hay un incendio en el edificio, el detector hace sonar una alarma. Pero si todo va bien, permanece en silencio. De la misma manera, nuestra conciencia nos alerta cuando hemos hecho algo mal y permanece en silencio cuando Dios no tiene ningún problema con nosotros.
Todos hemos experimentado estas “alertas” de nuestra conciencia cada vez que hacemos algo que no se corresponde a la naturaleza santa y justa de Dios. Por ejemplo, si perdemos los estribos o decimos algo desagradable a alguien, nuestra conciencia cumple su función de hacer sonar la alarma. Y no importa cómo tratemos de razonar, nuestra conciencia persiste en condenarnos.
¡Esto es realmente algo bueno! Si no tuviéramos nuestra conciencia que nos alerta, seríamos como un edificio en llamas sin detector de humo. No nos daríamos cuenta cuando hayamos causado la desaprobación de Dios, y nuestra relación con el Señor sufriría.
Al igual que necesitamos tomar medidas cuando escuchamos un detector de humo, necesitamos responder, no ignorar, la alerta de nuestra conciencia cuando hemos hecho algo mal.
La forma en que respondemos al sentimiento de nuestra conciencia determina si tenemos o no una buena conciencia.
La frase una buena conciencia se utiliza en 1 Timoteo 1:5:
“Pues el propósito de esta orden es el amor nacido de un corazón puro, una buena conciencia y una fe no fingida”.
Parte de la nota 3 de este versículo en la Versión Recobro explica qué es una buena conciencia:
“Una buena conciencia es una conciencia sin ofensa (Hch. 24:16)”.
Esta nota hace referencia a Hechos 24:16, que es parte del testimonio del apóstol Pablo cuando fue llevado ante el gobernador Félix. Pablo declaró:
“Y por esto procuro tener siempre una conciencia sin ofensa ante Dios y ante los hombres”.
Así que una buena conciencia es una conciencia sin ofensa, es decir, una que no nos condena por ofender a Dios.
Entonces, ¿qué debemos hacer cuando nuestra conciencia nos alerta de que hemos ofendido a Dios? ¿Cómo podemos quitar la ofensa que activó la alarma?
Nuestra conciencia definitivamente no se calmará con excusas. Y decidir ser mejores o hacer buenas obras tampoco puede compensar o quitar una ofensa.
Sólo una cosa puede eliminar por completo esa ofensa y purificar nuestra conciencia: la preciosa sangre de Cristo.
Hebreos 9:14 dice:
“¿Cuánto más la sangre de Cristo, el cual mediante el Espíritu eterno se ofreció a Sí mismo sin mancha a Dios, purificará nuestra conciencia de obras muertas para que sirvamos al Dios vivo?”.
Nuestra conciencia sólo puede ser purificada por la sangre de Cristo. Para experimentar esta purificación, debemos confesar nuestros pecados y ofensas a Dios. Cuando confesamos, Dios inmediatamente nos perdona, y la sangre de Jesús limpia la mancha del pecado. Dios está satisfecho con la sangre de Jesús, y nos sentimos en paz porque tenemos una buena conciencia una vez más.
Por supuesto, después de haber confesado nuestro pecado a Dios, también necesitamos disculparnos con cualquier persona a la que hayamos lastimado u ofendido.
Cuando hemos ofendido al Señor, nuestra comunión con Él se interrumpe, y ya no tenemos paz con Dios. Y si ignoramos la voz de nuestra conciencia, no tenemos manera de continuar en nuestra relación con el Señor.
En 1 Timoteo 1:19, vemos la importancia de tener una buena conciencia y las graves consecuencias si no la tenemos:
“Manteniendo la fe y una buena conciencia, desechando las cuales naufragaron en cuanto a la fe algunos”.
Aquí, el apóstol Pablo dice que necesitamos mantener no sólo la fe sino también una buena conciencia. La primera parte de la nota 1 de este versículo explica:
“La fe y la buena conciencia (véase la nota 53) van juntas. Cada vez que hay una ofensa en nuestra conciencia, se produce un agujero por el cual nuestra fe se fugará”.
Ninguno de nosotros quiere que nuestra fe se fugue. Puesto que la fe y una buena conciencia van juntas, el estado de nuestra conciencia afecta nuestra fe. Cuando permitimos que una ofensa permanezca sin ser tratada, nuestra fe se fuga. Este agujero puede hacer que finalmente perdamos la fe en el Señor, incluso hasta tal punto que llegamos a “naufragar” con respecto a nuestra fe.
La nota 2 sobre naufragaron explica lo que esto significa:
“Esto muestra cuán grave es desechar la fe y una buena conciencia. Mantener la fe y una buena conciencia es una salvaguardia para nuestra fe y nuestra vida cristiana. La palabra naufragar implica que la vida cristiana y la vida de iglesia son como un barco que navega sobre un mar tempestuoso, y por ende necesitan ser salvaguardadas por medio de la fe y de una buena conciencia”.
El uso del apóstol Pablo de esta imagen vívida de un naufragio nos muestra cuán terribles son las consecuencias de ignorar el sentimiento de nuestra conciencia. Definitivamente no queremos naufragar con respecto a nuestra fe. Esta palabra tan seria debería hacernos reflexionar.
Así que para continuar con el Señor en nuestra vida cristiana, debemos mantener una buena conciencia al estar bien con Dios y con el hombre. Y cuando fallamos, simplemente necesitamos confesar nuestros pecados para ser perdonados y limpiados, para que nuestra conciencia no tenga nada de qué condenarnos.
¡Gracias al Señor por Su palabra clara en la Biblia con respecto a nuestra conciencia! Prestemos todos atención a nuestra conciencia y aprendamos a vivir nuestra vida cristiana manteniendo la fe y una buena conciencia.Si usted vive en los Estados Unidos, puede pedir una copia gratuita del Nuevo Testamento Versión Recobro aquí. También puede descargar La economía de Dios gratis aquí desde cualquier parte del mundo. Recomendamos encarecidamente leer los capítulos 8 y 10 para aprender más sobre la importancia de mantener una buena conciencia y cómo hacerlo.
Before we were saved our heart was hard and cold toward God. We wanted many things, even sinful things, but not God. We felt little affection for Him and had no interest in the things of God.
But God wants to have an affectionate relationship with us. So when we were born again, God not only forgave us and cleansed us of our sins, He also did something in our heart. Ezekiel 36:26 says,
“I will also give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”
God renewed our heart of stone and made it soft, “a heart of flesh.” Now our new heart loves God and is inclined toward Him and responsive to Him. With this new heart, God wants us to enjoy all He is in a relationship of love.
Since we all received a new heart when we were saved, why is this loving heart evident in the lives of some but barely detectable in others? How can some of our hearts seem to have become cold and hard, like they were before? How can we keep our heart in its new soft and loving condition?
Medical science tells us that for our physical heart to be healthy, we need to exercise, even vigorously. But exercise doesn’t come naturally or easily to most of us. Consider what it takes just to put on our athletic shoes and go for a run. Even while we’re running, we have to exert ourselves to keep going and not quit. And exercise isn’t a once for all matter; we have to do it over and over again. But working out regularly isn’t optional if we want a healthy heart.
Similarly, if we want our new heart to be kept in newness, that is, to be kept loving, soft, and responsive toward the Lord, then regular, continued spiritual exercise is needed. This is what makes the difference between whether our new heart remains in newness or goes back to its old condition.
So what is this regular exercise for our new heart? Since our heart is composed of our conscience, mind, emotion, and will, the “workout” our heart needs involves four parts.
[[Free Study Bible]]
Second Corinthians 3:16 says, “Whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” Everything begins with turning our heart to the Lord. When we were saved, we first repented and received Christ to begin our Christian life. To repent means to turn, to have a change of mind and direction. We realized we were sinful, and we turned to God.
But even after we’re saved, we still need to keep turning. Our minds are easily distracted and can cause our hearts to turn away from the Lord. Whatever turns us away from the Lord becomes a “veil” to us, keeping us from seeing Him. Similarly, Matthew 5:8 says,
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
To be pure means to be unmixed with anything else. When we’re turned away from the Lord, our heart is impure toward Him. Our focus is split between the Lord and something else. We have two goals in mind, two aims our heart longs after, and we can no longer see clearly. Our future, our career, even our work for the Lord can begin to compete with God in our heart and occupy our mind.
So we need to exercise our heart by praying, “Lord, I turn to you right now.” In fact, in the course of a single day we need to turn repeatedly to the Lord. For instance, we might be thinking about a certain thing and suddenly find we’re away from the Lord, so we need to turn. Later, we might see a billboard that sticks in our head, and we have to turn again. Then we begin to have negative thoughts about someone close to us, and we have to turn yet again.
Again and again, when we realize we’re turned away from the Lord, we need to turn our heart back to Him. It takes regular exercise. When we turn our heart from all other things back to the Lord, we’re made single and pure again, and the veils are taken away. This is a daily workout we all need.
For us to have an affectionate relationship with the Lord, we need to exercise the emotions of our heart to love Him. We may not think we’re that capable of loving the Lord, but we can remember, He gave us a new heart specifically to love Him! And according to Romans 5:5, His love has been poured out in our hearts. He even told us in John 15:9, “Abide in My love.” Our heart is ready to love the Lord; we just need to start exercising it.
One way we can daily give our heart a “love workout” is by telling the Lord out loud that we love Him. What an enjoyable workout! Just as a spouses want to hear these words from each other, the Lord wants us to tell Him, “I love You”—the more often, the better. How wonderful it would be if we were to begin and end each day with, “Lord Jesus, I love you!” We can even say it all throughout the day.
Telling the Lord we love Him not only makes Him happy, it also helps to nurture our own love for Him. Exercising our heart this way keeps us in the sweetness of His love and refreshes our love for Him. We enjoy Him and sense His nearness.
We can also exercise our heart to love the Lord by singing to Him. As we sing to Him, our heart warms and we love Him afresh. For example, we can try singing a song like this. (You can hear the tune here.)
Give yourself to love the Lord.
No other way is so prevailing
And no other way, no other way is so safe.
Give yourself to love the Lord.
No other way is so rich,
And so full, oh so full, of enjoyment.
Each morning we must rise up and say to Him,
“Lord Jesus, I love You.”
Give yourself to love the Lord.
Do not care for anything else;
Just love Him! Do not care!
Give yourself to love the Lord!
We are not our own, Lord;
All we have we give to You.
Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus!
Lord Jesus, we love You!
We also keep our heart new by exercising our will to be obedient and submissive to the Lord. We do this by saying “Yes” and “Amen” to the Lord when He speaks to us in our daily life.
Perhaps the Lord speaks to us, “Don’t go to that place.” If we ignore His speaking and go anyway, we disobey Him. Repeatedly disobeying God hardens our heart toward Him. But if we go along with Him and say, “Yes, Lord, I won’t go there,” we obey Him. This may be difficult, but when we obey Him, our heart is kept soft and submissive. We enjoy Him and He becomes so real to us, not in theory, but in our actual experience.
We exercise our conscience by confessing our sins to the Lord. Confessing isn’t saying, “Lord, I won’t do that again.” It’s saying, “Lord, I agree with you, that was a sin. I sinned. I was wrong. Forgive me.” Confessing is simply agreeing with God when His light shines on something.
We shouldn’t be afraid to confess, nor should we try to hide our sinful selves from the Lord. A strong believer is a confessing believer. We may have years of unconfessed sins on our conscience, clogging our spiritual blood vessels and resulting in poor circulation; we’re “sickly,” that is, spiritually weak and lacking in God’s life. Accumulated sins on our conscience can make us insensitive to our conscience, causing us to lose the proper feeling toward sin. Our heart becomes hardened, callous toward sin and unfeeling toward the Lord.
But confessing clears everything away; God forgives us and the blood of Jesus cleanses us. We’re restored to fellowship and enjoy the flow of God’s life in us again. Because our conscience is clear, our heart is untroubled and peaceful, and we can have unhindered fellowship with the Lord. We desperately need this regular exercise of confessing our offenses to the Lord.
The thought that we can live any way we like, do whatever we want, and still experience Christ as our life is harmful to our Christian life. The experience of Christ is something precious; it has a price. In Revelation 3:18, the Lord counseled the church in Laodicea, “Buy from Me.”
To buy something means to pay a price for it. It’s a spiritual reality that to gain the precious experiences of Christ, a price must be paid. Our own wishes, desires, and decisions are the price we pay when we exercise our heart to keep it in newness. But by daily exercise, our new heart is kept pure, loving, right, and submissive. When our heart is in this condition, all the riches of Christ are ours to experience. And the more we go on, the more we realize the price we pay is actually a bargain for the unsearchable Christ we enjoy in return!
If you want to learn more about our heart, take a look at these additional posts: What Is the Heart in the Bible? and What Does It Mean to Love God with All Your Heart?
If you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here.
We believers have an unspeakable blessing—we have God’s presence all the time!
In the New Testament, we find several names for our Lord Jesus. One is Emmanuel, which means God with us. A staff member at Bibles for America was enjoying the Lord as Emmanuel so much that he overflowed in song. He based his song on three verses in Matthew and set it to the tune of the American folk song “Shenandoah.” We hope you enjoy the marvelous fact that God is with us as you hear our staff singing the song.
“Emmanuel—His name men calleth, God with us—with them He dwelleth; I’m in their midst—where saints assembleth, ‘Behold, I am with thee’— ‘til this age hath ended.”
Play it here:
Let’s now briefly get into the three verses the song is based on, Matthew 1:23; 18:20; and 28:20.
[[Free Study Bible]]
“’Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel’ (which is translated, God with us).”
This word spoken by an angel to Joseph is a quotation of the great prophecy of Isaiah 7:14. Jesus’ birth was the fulfillment of that prophecy.
In the New Testament Recovery Version, note 2 for Emmanuel explains its meaning:
“Jesus was the name given by God, whereas Emmanuel, meaning God with us, was the name by which man called Him. Jesus the Savior is God with us. He is God, and He is also God incarnated to dwell among us (John 1:14). He is not only God but God with us.”
Jesus is wonderful! He’s Jesus our Savior and He’s Emmanuel, the incarnated God. Through His human birth God was no longer far away in the heavens, unreachable, and unapproachable. As Emmanuel, Jesus was the very God living, walking, and dwelling among human beings.
The blessing of having Jesus as Emmanuel wasn’t only for those who lived in Judea at the time of His earthly life. After the Lord lived a perfect human life among men, He died on the cross to accomplish eternal redemption for us. Then after three days Jesus rose from the dead and later ascended to the heavens. Yet though He’s now in the heavens, wondrously He’s also with us!
“For where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst.”
The Lord’s pledge here is for all His believers. The two or three in this verse refers to the believers who come together to meet. Whenever we gather together in His name, that is, in His person and out of everything else, Jesus promised He would be with us. Our meeting together isn’t a religious duty but a rich enjoyment because of Christ’s own dear presence. So if two of us come together in His name, three are actually present, because the Lord Himself is among us. What an encouragement and a joy this is!
“Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age.”
The Lord Jesus spoke these words to His disciples, after He resurrected and commissioned them with the gospel. Jesus guarantees with this comforting and strengthening word that no matter what, He is with us now and until the end of the age when He returns. And His promise is for all the days. Jesus is with us today, and He will be with us tomorrow and every single day. As we preach and teach His Word to others in the world, He is with us.
The Gospel of Matthew begins with Jesus being called Emmanuel at His birth, the incarnation of God. It continues with Jesus’ own promise to be with us whenever we gather in His name. And Matthew ends with the resurrected Christ promising us: “Behold I am with you.” Praise God for this incomparable blessing of God with us!
All verses are quoted from the Holy Bible Recovery Version. You can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here.
