Re: The Golden Rule is the entire bible of Jesus

The purification of conscience (Hebrews 9:14) is virtually unknown in Christianity. Conscience has never been an overriding principle in the operation of society (especially in modern times). Conscience is thought of as somewhat of an abstract concept, but God mentions it in the bible just about as many times as the word "love". Considering that "God is love" and the frequency of the mention of "conscience", it would seem that it would not just be wise, but necessary (or for those so inclined,..."an admirable ambition") to understand more about conscience, for if there is no realization of "conscience" in a person, there really is no meaningful "PERSON" at all. It is only the desire for a deeper relationship with The Creator that will yield the enthusiasm for an understanding of "conscience". Unfortunately, that desire has always been traded for the bureaucratic, textual, and intellectual status of knowing how to simply recognize words on the pages of the bible and invent some kind of fanciful interpretation without really considering the intention of the author or that we have the options to either LEARN (with a warm/contrite heart) or simply CONFORM (with a heart of stone). It seems that it has always been satisfactory to many people all throughout history to simply develop a personality of love (in order to impress, deceive/ego) instead of letting love be their true [altruistic] NATURE (The Lord is "no respecter of persons"/personalities). Love will not become our true NATURE without first establishing (acknowledging and paying attention to) a CONSCIENCE.


The reason that the frequency of the words "love" and "conscience" in scripture are similar is that they are a package deal (dependent on each other). The sorrow that is produced by conscience (sorrow that things are not better) enables love (ambition to cause things to be better). Our ability to have a "clear" conscience (as opposed to an INDIFFERENT conscience) will undoubtedly INCLUDE (but not BE BASED ON) what we have done in the past, but since guilt feelings (and regrets) are unproductive and do more harm than good, conscience should serve more as a determination factor (approval/disapproval) of our behavior in daily life (continuous present/daily use of a good conscience and a contrite heart ensures true righteousness, not self-righteousness). Using CONSCIENCE to reflect on the past is counter-productive after we have already chosen to be progressive ("Jesus said to him 'No one who puts his hand to the plow and [then] LOOKS BACK is fit for the kingdom of heaven'" Luke 9:62). Our attitudes (plural) of right and wrong are the result of a lifetime of dealing with situations that are often beyond our control, have extenuating circumstances, many people involved, deadlines, financial or property loss, and other considerations. Because of this, we get in the habit of accepting "sneaky" and "naughty" variations of what is right or wrong and think of "excuses" as [justified] "reasons" for doing whatever we wish to do. We also look at scripture as having "variations" of truth (interpretations). For the sake of comfort, we obligate ourselves to forever making excuses (in order to uphold "interpretations") so that scripture will remain comfortable and intellectually pleasing to ego and conscience. We enjoy the result (status), but apparently have no concept (let alone really care) of The Lord's "enjoyment"/pleasure, "reaction to" or approval of our complacency. It should be no mystery that He does not "enjoy" knowing that any of us prefers the refuge of a "comfort zone" (He is a jealous God and yearns jealously, James 4:5).


When first introduced to The Lord, we learned only to repeat what we were taught by the elders. Eventually, the more sincere who had the courage to break away from the institutions of Christianity learned to work diligently in order to expose the fallacies of what has been taught, yet God is still deeper than courage. Our personal relationships with Jesus should be based on love alone, works for your fellow human being are a gift for your fellow human being, God is not needy of "gifts" ("For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love you showed for His sake in serving the saints, as you still do" Hebrews 6:10). The misunderstandings that are passed from generation to generation are due to the fact that the common reference point ("what we were taught") is based on hundreds of years of the worlds "comfort zones". We must realize that discovering the genuine and complete objective truth of scripture and it's heavenly author requires a new reference point for devotion to include understanding "what we were NOT taught". It is naive to believe that this world's status quo is able to provide us with a firm foundation (reference point) in understanding what is Godly, but it is not just that the teachings were tailored to "the world" (and therefore riddled with misunderstandings/interpretations), it is our attitude of disrespect to The Lord (The Lord should be held in higher regard than the "scholars" and "teachers" of the world) that keeps us from realizing that we are trying to win the favor of MAN, not God.


Good and evil must be seen as absolutes, not philosophically as a continuum that contains different degrees of "naughty" and "sneaky", or "excuses" in defense of "comfort zones". It is only the true/genuine human being (endowed with a CONSCIENCE) that will have the ability to offer anything of value to The Lord (what He really desires is a warm heart formed by conscience,...so that His spirit can be "ONE" with you, "God is ONE", Galatians 3:20).



All verses are from the Revised Standard Version.