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Cauterized Conscience
Our body contains an elaborate system of nerves which serve, in part, to inform us when an injury is occurring. Electrical impulses are relayed to the brain. It interprets these as PAIN and prompts the rest of the body to respond.
When someone suffers a serious burn injury sometimes both the epidermis and the underlying dermis (including its sensory nerve endings) are destroyed. The result is that no feeling remains in the affected area. It has been “cauterized,” and it can no longer sense pain.
There is an interesting analogy to this in our spiritual makeup. God has equipped us with a conscience. When properly taught the conscience senses when spiritual harm is done by sin and we feel the result – not physical pain, but GUILT.
We all know that we can act contrary to our conscience. In fact if we persist in violating the conscience its sensitivity gradually fades. It is possible to eventually reach the point of those described by Paul “whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” (1 Timothy 4:2)
Just as with cauterized skin, the result of a cauterized conscience is that one becomes like those described in Ephesians 4:19 who have become “callous” (lost all sensitivity). Knowing that such can happen should make us pay careful attention to our conscience while it is still functioning as God designed it.
