I Timothy 1:18-19

1 Timothy 1:18-19New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

I am giving you these instructions, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies made earlier about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, having faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have suffered shipwreck in the faith,

What is conscience?

How do you know what is right?

How do you know what is of God?

I have heard many people claim to do God's will - and yet it seems as far from God's will as I can imagine.

And of course, I'll bet I've thought I was doing God's will at some point and someone else might have thought that was as far from God's will as they could imagine.

What determines it?

How do you know?

What IS conscience?

To answer, we have to know something about who God is.

Something about who Jesus was.

Something about who the Cosmic Christ is.

Something about how the Trinity operates.

And something in there I'll bet has to do with love.

With service.

With compassion.

Does it exclude?

I doubt that is of God.

Does it hate?

I'm betting that's not of God?

When is your conscience clear?

When there is love?

When there is community?

What does conscience tell us?

Lord of compassion, help us to follow our conscience to do your will. Amen.