For as long as I can remember, I have always been a nerd. I have never liked sports, but I have loved books and reading since I was a little kid. I still keep at home a book that my father bought for me some 50 years ago. Talking about my father, he had a job delivering newspapers and magazines. He would come home at midday to take a break, and I had three hours to look at the magazines he had to deliver in the afternoon. I had to be careful because my dad needed to deliver them, but it gave me the opportunity to read a lot.
I had no use for gossip magazines, and I was mildly interested in the comics but there was one that took the prize: Reader’s Digest. For me, as a little kid growing up in a little town in Argentina where we had only two TV channels (and one of them only from 8 PM to midnight) this magazine was pure gold! It was my window to the word! It had fascinating stories from all over the world and it had little sections that were priceless such as “Life in these United States,” “Laughter, the best Medicine” and “Quotable Quotes.” It was in this last section that I read something that has stuck with me over the years: “A clear conscience is the softest pillow.”
Isn’t that true! I just hate it when I’ve had one of those nights when you toss and turn because something in your mind bothers you. I bring this up because we are going through the first letter of Paul to Timothy and in chapter 1 verse 19, we read “Cling to your faith in Christ and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences, as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.” What does this mean?
When we become believers, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us. This is the promise that Jeremiah had made when he told us in chapter 31 of his book. Under the New Covenant, we wouldn’t need to look at tablets of stones to see what is right and what is wrong. Rather, Jeremiah told us that, under this new covenant, the Law would be written in our hearts! In other words, the Holy Spirit would influence our conscience, saying what is right and what is wrong. This means that the Holy Spirit would influence our conscience, would become that voice, a Jiminy Cricket or sorts, that tells us when something is wrong. The people Paul is referring to had put aside that and had driven their lives into disaster, which Paul illustrates as “shipwreck.” By doing so, they had shut out God’s truth from their hearts and were insensitive to sin. And that only led to destruction, like a ship being smashed against the rocks.
Paul’s exhortation to Timothy should be an exhortation to us. If we truly follow God in our lives, sin should bother us, sin should make feel uncomfortable, sin should make us lose sleep. We should be so bothered because of then danger that sin can bring to our lives. The presence of sin in our lives should make us toss and turn, so much that not even a pillow from Mike Lindell (the guy from My Pillow) should help us fall asleep.
May our conscience be so clear that we sleep like babies.
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