2 The Soul’s Warning System
(2 Corinthians 1:12–14)
For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you. For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand, and I hope you will understand until the end; just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus. (1:12–14)
On the night of November 27, 1983, Avianca Flight 011, en route from Paris to Bogotá via Madrid, approached Madrid’s Barajas airport. The weather was good, and there were no mechanical problems with the 747 jet. The crew was experienced; the pilot had more than 20,000 hours of flying time and had made this same approach twenty-five times before. Yet, with its flaps extended and its landing gear down, the jumbo jet smashed into a series of low hills about seven miles short of the runway. The plane cartwheeled, broke into pieces, and came to rest upside down. Tragically, 181 of the 192 people on board lost their lives. Investigators determined that a series of errors by the crew caused the crash. The crew misunderstood the reality of their location. They thought they knew the truth about the plane’s position, but they did not. Shockingly, the final and fatal error came when the pilot, so sure he knew where he was heading, ignored the computerized voice of the plane’s GPWS (Ground Proximity Warning System), which repeatedly warned him, “Pull up! Pull up! Pull up!” The cockpit recorder had his strange reply to the warning. He said, “Shut up, gringo” and switched off the warning device. The next moment, he was dead with the rest of the victims.
That tragic story is a compelling illustration of the way people often ignore the truth of their life’s direction and the warning messages from their consciences. The conscience is a warning system, placed by God into the very framework of the human soul. Like physical pain, which warns of damage to the body, the conscience warns of damage to the soul. It reacts to the proximity of sin, warning the soul to “Pull up!” before it suffers the terrible consequences of sin.
But today’s culture aggressively and systematically tries to silence the conscience. People have been taught to ignore any and all guilt feelings conscience produces, viewing them as harmful to their self-esteem. They believe their problems stem not from their sin but from external factors beyond their control. Sin and guilt are viewed as psychological issues, not moral and spiritual ones. Thus, people imagine that their guilt feelings are erroneous and harmful attacks on their self-esteem. But the voice of conscience cannot be safely rejected; those who attempt to do so face spiritual ruin (cf. 1 Tim. 1:19; 4:2; Titus 1:15).
The conscience is the soul reflecting on itself; both the Greek word suneidēsis (conscience) and the English word “conscience” have the idea of knowing oneself. According to Romans 2:14, even those without God’s written law have an innate moral sense of right and wrong: “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves.” The conscience either affirms right behavior or condemns sinful behavior.
The conscience, however, is not infallible. It is neither the voice of God, nor His moral law, as Colin G. Kruse helpfully observes:
The conscience is not to be equated with the voice of God or even the moral law, rather it is a human faculty which adjudicates upon human action by the light of the highest standard a person perceives.
Seeing that all of human nature has been affected by sin, both a person’s perception of the standard of action required and the function of the conscience itself (as a constituent part of human nature) are also affected by sin. For this reason conscience can never be accorded the position of ultimate judge of one’s behavior. It is possible that the conscience may excuse one for that which God will not excuse, and conversely it is equally possible that conscience may condemn a person for that which God allows. The final judgment therefore belongs only to God (cf. 1 Cor. 4:2–5). Nevertheless, to reject the voice of conscience is to court spiritual disaster (cf. 1 Tim. 1:19). We cannot reject the voice of conscience with impunity, but we can modify the highest standard to which it relates by gaining for ourselves a greater understanding of the truth. (The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995], 70–71)
Since the conscience holds people to their highest perceived standard, believers need to set that standard to the highest level by submitting to all of God’s Word. As they continually fill their minds with the truths of Scripture, believers clarify God’s perfect law. Their consciences will then call them to live according to that law.
The conscience functions like a skylight, not like a lamp; it does not produce its own light, but merely lets moral light in. Because of that, the Bible teaches the importance of keeping a clear or good conscience. “The goal of our instruction,” Paul wrote to Timothy, “is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5). A few verses later Paul stressed the importance of “keeping faith and a good conscience, which,” he warned, “some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith” (v. 19). A necessary qualification for deacons is that they hold “to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience” (1 Tim. 3:9). Peter commanded believers to “keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame” (1 Peter 3:16). Both Paul (Acts 23:1; 2 Tim. 1:3) and the writer of Hebrews (Heb. 13:18) testified that they had maintained good consciences.
At salvation, God cleanses the conscience from its lifelong accumulation of guilt, shame, and self-contempt. The writer of Hebrews wrote that “the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, [will] cleanse [the] conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14). As a result, believers have their “hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience” (Heb. 10:22). The cleansed conscience no longer accuses because of past sins, which are pardoned (Pss. 32:5; 103:12; Prov. 28:13; Mic. 7:18–19; Col. 1:14; 2:13–14; 1 John 1: 9) through the blood of Christ (Eph. 1:7; 1 John 1:7; Rev. 1:5).
Believers’ must guard the purity of their cleansed consciences, winning the battle for holiness on the inside where conscience works. Paul gained victory at that point, so that he declared to the Sanhedrin, “I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day” (Acts 23:1), and to the Roman governor Felix, “I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men” (Acts 24:16). He wrote to Timothy, “I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience” (2 Tim. 1:3). He reminded his young protégé that “the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5) and exhorted him to keep “a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith” (1 Tim. 1:19). As noted above, Paul instructed that deacons must hold “to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience” (1 Tim. 3:9). Christians must also be careful not to cause other believers to violate their consciences (1 Cor. 8:7–13; 10:24–29).
Paul wrote 2 Corinthians to defend himself against the assaults of the false apostles at Corinth (2 Cor. 11:13). Those lying deceivers sought to discredit him, undermine his authority, and then replace the truth of God with their satanic lies. They attacked his integrity, falsely accusing him of not being honest and sincere in his dealings with the Corinthians. The false apostles also portrayed Paul as a manipulator, scheming to defraud the Corinthians and to promote his personal agenda. In short, according to the false apostles, Paul’s motives were corrupt, his words untrustworthy, and his actions devious.
As he answered those outrageous lies, Paul’s primary concern was not to defend himself but protect the people from the deceivers. He knew that before they could peddle their demon doctrines to the Corinthians, the false apostles first had to destroy the Corinthians’ trust in Paul. Thus, their savage personal attack on Paul was merely the prelude to an all-out assault on divine truth.
In his defense, Paul did not call on friends to verify his spiritual integrity; rather, he appealed to the highest human court: his own conscience. The apostle’s proud confidence was in the testimony (witness, evidence) of his conscience. Paul frequently used kauchēsis (proud confidence), the related noun kauchēma, and the verb kauchaomai in this letter—twenty-nine of their fifty-nine uses in the New Testament are in 2 Corinthians. Negatively, kauchēsis describes unwarranted boasting in one’s achievements and merits (cf. Rom. 3:27; James 4:16). It can also be used, however, of legitimate confidence in what God is doing in one’s life (cf. 2 Cor. 7:4, 14; 8:24; 11:10; Rom. 15:17; 1 Cor. 15:31), as it is here. Boasting in the Lord and what He accomplishes in His people is proper; in fact, God Himself delights in such boasting:
Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord. (Jer. 9:23–24; cf. 1 Cor. 1:31; 2 Cor. 10:17).
In proving his integrity, Paul’s clear conscience was a source of peace, comfort, and joy to him. Others might falsely accuse him of heinous sins, but Paul’s conscience did not accuse him. It exonerated him of their charges and protected him from false guilt.
The false apostles had launched a three-pronged attack on Paul’s credibility. On the moral level, they accused him of secretly being a wicked sinner, justly suffering all the time because of the chastening of God. On the relational level, they accused him of being insincere, deceptive, and manipulative. They charged that he was not what he appeared to be on the surface; that in reality, he was using the Corinthians for his own selfish purposes. On the theological level, they charged that Paul misrepresented God’s Word and was a liar and a false teacher. What hurt Paul more than those baseless, slanderous lies was the sad fact that many in the Corinthian congregation believed them.
In this passage Paul appealed to the supreme human court, his fully informed conscience, to overturn the false verdicts of Satan’s messengers. His conscience exonerated him of moral, relational, and theological wrongdoing.
PAUL’S CONSCIENCE
EXONERATED HIM OF MORAL WRONGDOING
that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you. (1:12b)
The first false charge was that Paul’s suffering was God’s chastening for his sin. But Paul’s conscience affirmed that his conduct had been in holiness and godly sincerity. Later in this epistle, Paul responded in detail to their lies about his character, noting that he was careful to give
no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things. (6:3–10)
Paul’s life was above reproach. The false apostles’ allegations were nothing more than slanderous lies, and his conscience testified to that.
Holiness is from hagiotēs, a word that describes moral purity or pure motives. (Some English versions, reflecting a reading with less support in the Greek manuscripts, read “simplicity” instead of holiness.) The writer of Hebrews used hagiotēs in Hebrews 12:10 to describe the holiness of God. Paul’s holiness, confirmed in his own mind, contrasts sharply with the immorality and corruption of which he was wrongly accused.
Sincerity translates the Greek word eilikrineia, a compound word made up of eil? (“sunlight”) and krin? (“to judge”). It pictures something held up to the light of the sun for inspection. In Paul’s day, unscrupulous potters would fill the cracks in their pots with wax before selling them. Careful buyers would hold the pots up to the sun, by which light the wax-filled cracks would be clearly visible.
Paul’s sincerity flowed from his holiness and purity of life. He characterized it as godly because God was its object and its source. In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul acknowledged that God’s grace was the source of his spiritual power: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” To the Colossians he wrote, “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me” (Col. 1:29; cf. Eph. 1:19; Phil. 1:6; 2:12–13). Paul was a sincere man, a man of integrity. His life would stand up to the closest scrutiny; there were no skeletons in his closet.
Lest anyone think that Paul achieved holiness and godly sincerity by his own efforts, he added that they came not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God. They did not stem from Paul’s wisdom or his insights into religion and spirituality. Fleshly wisdom cannot produce holiness and godly sincerity, because it is nothing more than the manifestation of sinful man’s rebellion against God. It consists of the fallible insights of the sin-darkened heart apart from God’s revelation in Jesus Christ and in Scripture. In 1 Corinthians 3:19 Paul described it as “the wisdom of this world [that] is foolishness before God. For it is written, ‘He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness’” (cf. 1 Cor. 1:20–21; 2:5–8). Such humanistic rationalism cannot produce spiritual growth, which comes only by the grace of God.
As further proof of his integrity, Paul declared that he had conducted himself properly throughout the world. There was no place where he had ministered from which a legitimate accusation against him could come. At all places and at all times, he had consistently lived a life above reproach.
Paul’s integrity and godliness should have been especially evident to the Corinthians. They had observed him firsthand during the eighteen months that he ministered in their city (Acts 18:11). The shining purity of his life was set against the dark, ugly backdrop of Corinth’s immorality. Corinth was corrupt, even by the pagan standards of that day, as R. C. H. Lenski notes:
Corinth was a wicked city even as larger cities of the empire went at this period. The very term “Corinthian” came to mean a profligate. Korinthiazomai, “to Corinthianize,” meant to practice whoredom; Korinthiastēs = a whoremonger; Korinthia kor? (girl) = a courtesan. (The Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles [Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1961], 744)
There was nothing in Paul’s life or conduct that would have confirmed any such accusation against him.
Paul’s conscience exonerated him of the false charges leveled against his personal life. Yet his clear conscience did not mean that he was without sin. In 1 Corinthians 4:4 Paul wrote, “For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.” Though conscience is the highest human court, it is not infallible. Sin is so deceitful that believers sometimes sin without their conscience being aware of it. Thus, they must constantly examine themselves in light of Scripture, allowing God to be the final judge. Like David, they must constantly pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Ps. 139:23–24).
PAUL’S CONSCIENCE EXONERATED HIM OF RELATIONAL WRONGDOING
For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand, and I hope you will understand until the end; just as you also partially did understand us, (1:13–14a)
This simple statement offers the powerful testimony of Paul’s conscience regarding the second allegation against him. Not only was Paul innocent of moral wrongdoing; he also was not guilty of relational wrongdoing. He had defrauded no one; he had used no one for his own selfish ends; he had deceived and manipulated no one. Later in this letter he pleaded with the Corinthians, “Make room for us in your hearts; we wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we took advantage of no one” (7:2), while in 11:9 he reminded them, “When I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brethren came from Macedonia they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so.”
Nor did Paul write his letters to the Corinthians with a hidden agenda; he wrote nothing else to them other than what they could read and understand. There was no deception involved; Paul wrote what he meant, and meant what he wrote. His letters were clear, straightforward, consistent, genuine, transparent, and without ambiguity. Both read and understand are compound forms of the verb ginōskō (to know), forming a play on words in the Greek. Philip E. Hughes notes, “The play on words anaginōskete … epiginōskete, cannot successfully be reproduced in English. Anaginōskete refers to what they read in his letters and epiginōskete to what they know through personal contact with him. They are being assured that the two are in complete harmony” (The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992], 27, n. 3).
Until the end translates telos, which in this context means “completely,” or “fully.” Paul wanted the Corinthians to understand him completely, just as they also partially did understand him. He wanted them to gain an ever-deeper understanding of God’s Word, and of himself and his motives. Then they would trust Paul and would not be swayed by the lies of the false apostles.
Paul’s conscience once again exonerated him from the false charges against him. Later in this epistle Paul wrote, “For they say, ‘His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.’ Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also in deed when present” (10:10–11). What Paul wrote in his letters was perfectly consistent with who he was in person.
PAUL’S CONSCIENCE EXONERATED HIM OF THEOLOGICAL WRONGDOING
that we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus. (1:14b)
The last and most serious charge against Paul was that he was a false teacher. The false apostles alleged that he was guilty of spiritual wrongdoing because he taught errant theology. Like the two previous charges, Paul replied to this charge throughout this letter. In 2:17 he wrote, “For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.” In 4:2 he reminded the Corinthians, “We have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God,” while in 13:8 he insisted, “For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.”
Paul was no spiritual con man, no huckster twisting the truth of God for his own ends, as the Corinthians well knew. They should not have been ashamed of Paul because he allegedly mishandled and twisted God’s Word. Instead, he should have been their reason to be proud, as they were his. They should have boasted in the Lord about how God had so mightily used Paul, both in Corinth and elsewhere. The Corinthians should have been so proud of Paul that they eagerly looked forward to the day of our Lord Jesus, when they will embrace him in eternal and perfect fellowship. Paul looked forward to that day, when the presence of those to whom he had ministered would bring him great joy. To the Thessalonians he wrote, “For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy” (1 Thess. 2:19–20).
The day of our Lord Jesus is not the Day of the Lord, the time of God’s fierce and final judgment on the sinful world (cf. Isa. 13:6–22; Joel 1:15; 2:11; Acts 2:20; 1 Thess. 5:2–4; 2 Thess. 1:10, “that day;” 2 Peter 3:10). Instead, the day referred to here is the time when glorified believers will appear before the Lord Jesus, when their salvation will be completed and made perfect (1 Cor. 1:8; 3:10–15; 4:5; 2 Cor. 5:10; Phil. 1:10; 2:16). Paul was able to look forward to the day of our Lord Jesus with great joy. He did not fear the false accusations against him, because his conscience verified that he had not perverted divine truth, and he would gladly stand before his Lord with no fear.
Paul was able to endure difficulties of all sorts—physical abuse, false accusations, disappointments, defections—with absolute contentment because his conscience did not accuse him. How can believers enjoy a clear conscience like Paul did?
First, by learning God’s word. In Psalm 37:30–31 David wrote, “The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.”
Second, by meditating on God’s Word. In Psalm 119:11 the psalmist wrote, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.”
Third, by continual watchfulness and prayer. In Matthew 26:41 Jesus warned, “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Fourth, by avoiding spiritual pride. Paul cautioned the Corinthians, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).
Fifth, by recognizing the seriousness of sin. It was sin that caused the death of the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 4:25).
Sixth, by purposing not to sin. In Psalm 119:106 the psalmist resolved, “I have sworn and I will confirm it, that I will keep Your righteous ordinances.”
Seventh, by resisting the first hint of temptation. James 1:14–15 graphically shows the rapid progression from temptation to sinful act: “Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”
Finally, by instantly confessing and repenting of sin. “If we confess our sins,” John wrote, “He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Those who heed Solomon’s charge, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23) will, as did Paul, enjoy the encouraging blessedness of a clear conscience.