Needed: An Effective Guidance System—2

In my blog titled “Needed: An Effective Guidance System—1” (posted here on 7-11-2026), I told the story of how a few errant links in a log chain led to my driving my father’s John Deere 730 diesel tractor through a fence rather than being able to execute one of the fancy high-speed turns I thought I had honed to perfection. 

I’d been sure I had an effective “guidance system” for those turns, but I hadn’t made allowance for unanticipated factors that could negate my system’s effectiveness. 

In my essay, I implied that my experience was sort of a metaphor that could help us understand life’s even broader need to have an effective guidance system. And I promised to elaborate about that system in my next essay. So here it is. 

To put it simply, I would argue that in the spiritual/moral realm, conscience plays a crucial role in letting us know what is and isn’t appropriate behavior. In other words, conscience is a guidance system. Let’s note what a few scriptures say, starting with Genesis 20.

Ironically, the Bible’s first reference to conscience doesn’t come from a biblical hero but from a pagan king. But first, let me share a protracted prequel that highlights the significance of that pagan king’s understanding of conscience. Keep in mind, what follows in the next few paragraphs is just a prequel to the first use of the word conscience in the NIV.  

A man who the Bible calls “a friend of God”—Abraham—had a super-beautiful wife, Sarah. Sarah was a knock-out. A real stunner. So beautiful, in fact, that Abraham was certain that there were plenty of men in the foreign land where they were temporarily living—Egypt—who would be willing to murder him in order to return her to marriageable status. 

Thus, brave man that Abraham was, he sweet-talked Sarah into a plan in which they would tell everyone they met in their host country that she was his sister. And they did so with at least vague moral cover because she actually was his half sister—as well as his wife.

Abraham had guessed right about the power of Sarah’s beauty. It  turns out it was Pharaoh himself who pursued her. Because she was so beautiful, and because—as far as Pharaoh knew—she was totally available, and because as king he had first pick of all the beautiful women of his realm, she was taken to his palace quick-smart to join his harem. 

I have no idea what was going through the respective minds of Abraham and Sarah during their forced separation. But when viewed through the lens of moral backbone, it certainly didn’t look good for either Abraham or Sarah. But especially for Abraham.

When the king discovered he’d been hoodwinked, he was less than happy. He made it clear in his dressing down of Abraham that he would never have considered making Sarah one of his wives if he had known her marital status. Though not said in so many words, Pharaoh’s declaration makes it at least sound like he had a conscience. He understood the difference between right and wrong—at least the case of female availability. But remember, this story, found in Genesis 12, is but the prequel to the Genesis 20 story, to which I alluded earlier. End of prequel.

I know the mind boggles, but Abraham and Sarah tried the same stunt again in a new place where they were temporarily residing. This time it was Abimelek, king of Gerar, who got misled. Just as had happened with Pharaoh, when Abimelek heard that this beautiful woman was available, he didn’t waste time before hauling her off to his palace.

We read in Genesis 20:3-7 that “God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, ‘You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.’ 

“Now Abimelek had not gone near her, so he said, ‘Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, “She is my sister,” and didn’t she also say, “He is my brother”? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.’”

Let’s pause for a moment of commentary. The heathen ruler, like Pharaoh earlier, seemed to understand the concept of moral propriety. And it was his conscience—no doubt formed by instruction, local custom and life experience—that caused him to draw the line at abducting married women for his own gratification. And, as the next verse shows, God agreed that the king had indeed acted with a clear conscience, for we read:

“Then God said to him in the dream, ‘Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.’”

Note that in the foregoing conversation the king said he had acted with a “clear conscience and clean hands.” No skullduggery on his part. He had operated on a partial truth that gave a totally false impression. Effectively, the king was deliberately told a lie—because, had all the facts been laid on the table, it would have changed his course of action.  

Unfortunately, the “lie” came from a man who God declared to be a prophet. More ironic still, God promises that the truth-distorting  man (who is a prophet, remember) will pray for the king to ensure that he doesn’t get punished for what even God admits the king had done “with a clear conscience.” Oh, but just in case the king refuses to return the beautiful Sarah to her brother-husband, God punctuates the urgency to do so by threatening death to the king and a lot of others. 

I recognize that human thoughts and God’s thoughts often don’t align. But it seems to me that if anyone needed a good talking to about listening to the voice of conscience, it would have been Abraham. Probably Sarah too. And if any warnings or threats were to be issued, it should have been to the two of them. (I couldn’t relay this story without at least highlighting this incongruity.) 

But back to conscience as an effective guidance system and its importance to spiritual living.

In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, chapter 3, he outlines the spiritual characteristics that we should expect of those we appoint as elders and deacons. And for the latter group, he says: “They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience.” In other words, there needs to be full understanding of what it means to be a Christian—and there needs to be congruity between word and action. What you see should be what you get. 

In 1 Peter 3:16 we read that we should “not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, . . . keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” 

The translators of the NIV connect the words clear and conscience seven times. In both the Old and New Testaments, we’re admonished to live in such a manner that we have a clear conscience. There’s no question but what the Bible teaches that conscience is a crucial—an effective—guidance system that must be well maintained so it achieves all that it should.  

But I’m out of time and space. So next week, in “Needed: An Effective Guidance System—3,” we’ll look once again at that guidance system we all have, and which we call conscience.