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that might lead them to violate their consci- of wrong-doing, which is not actually wrong. In
ence. Rather, the strong should “pursue what light of Paul’s teaching, we ought also to conclu-
makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” de that an evil, defiled, or seared conscience is
(Ro 14:19), “for whatever does not proceed of much greater concern than a weak one.
from faith is sin” (Ro 14:23). Indeed, to be car- As a result of such malformation, fallen cons-
eless about the “weak” is to “sin against Christ” ciences of all kinds need to be “purified” (Heb
(1Co 8:12). 9:14) or “cleansed” (Heb 10:22), so that they
In these cases, the Apostle Paul was, in effect, accurately reflect God’s values and design plan
teaching that ethicospiritual truth exists in a and no longer accuse or excuse the person, eit-
hierarchy, first, that God’s good creation cannot her truly or falsely. This, according to the NT,
be contaminated by false religious practice, but is made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
second, that such truth needs to be subservi- (Heb 9:14; 1Jn 1:7-9; 2:1-2).
ent to love of the weak (given their scrupulous
consciences). In the process, Paul was pointing The Conscience of the New Covenant
towards what a more mature conscience looks One of the goals of the Christian life, then, is
like and implicitly advocating greater Christi- the attainment and maintenance of a good,
an ethical maturity. But Paul is not willing to clear, and clean conscience. Let us look at an
coerce weak believers with the truth and push important passage from the OT relevant to this
them beyond what their current heart-under- goal, mindful of some of the NT passages we
standing of Christian action grasps. It takes have considered. Through Jeremiah, God pro-
time to internalize the healing and corrective mised to make a new covenant with Israel and
divine word and this internalization process ap- Judah, “not like the covenant that I made with
parently needs to be respected. their fathers on the day when I took them by
At the same time, Paul makes clear that strong the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt,
believers cannot allow their consciences to be my covenant that they broke, though I was their
bound by the weak (1Co 10:29). This former husband. But this is the covenant that I will
Pharisee was very aware of the deadly problem make with the house of Israel after those days,
of condemning others falsely. Indeed, in Galati- declares Yahweh: I will put my law within them,
ans he refers to those who would require the cir- and I will write it on their hearts. I will be their
cumcision of Gentile believers quite differently, God and they shall be my people.” (31:32-33)
for he resolutely rejects such scruples in this Though Yahweh had himself written a summa-
context in no uncertain terms (4:8-20; 5:1-15). ry of his covenant law on tablets of stone and
Such considerations help alert us to the clinical- given it to the people of Israel, requiring that
ly significant “weak-conscience disorders, in- they should obey its commandments, they had
cluding obsessive-compulsive disorders, eating regularly disobeyed that law, a pattern that had
disorders, perfectionism, judgmentalism, spiri- largely continued until the days of Jeremiah. So
tual abuse, and the “inner critic,” the damaged now Yahweh promised to write that law within
conscience that severely, excessively condemns them, on their hearts, guaranteeing that he and
the self or others, usually as a result of the child- they would have a faithful marriage and be
hood internalization of the harsh, chronic criti- committed to each other.
cism delivered by caregivers. We can be thank- The author of Hebrews made this passage cen-
ful for Paul’s complex and nuanced pastoral un- tral to his argument that the new covenant is su-
derstanding, but it has to be relearned, it seems, perior to the covenant made with Israel through
in the churches of every generation. Moses (Heb 8:8-13). One of the main reasons
Scripture, therefore, teaches that the know- was because the sacrifice of Jesus is actually
ledge of good and evil can be disordered in at effective in procuring forgiveness for sin (Heb
least two ways. On the one hand, it can become 9:11-28), in contrast to the sacrifice of animals
calloused and insensitive to our actual wrong- in the Mosaic covenant, which merely poin-
doing; and on the other, it can become hyper- ted ahead to the sacrifice of Christ. Moreover,
sensitive, convicting ourselves or judging others as we have seen, because of human sinfulness,

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