The politician’s conscience - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2025

These … show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.
Romans 2:15

The politician’s conscience
The party leader thought she could solve the post-election stalemate quite pragmatically. Despite all her protestations to the contrary during the election campaign, she planned to be elected prime minister with the votes of an unwelcome rival party. However, she was not able to count on the support of a member of her own parliamentary group, who refused to follow her and didn’t want to support her breach of promise to the voters. This politician deferred to her conscience.

We hear and read about conscience as a guide less and less these days, while reports of breach of promise and deception often make the headlines. Yet we all know that every human being has a conscience – an awareness of good and evil. This inner voice warns us when we have done something wrong or are about to do it.

However, the conscience itself is not an absolute “standard”, but serves us as a “pointer”. It must not be influenced by the spirit of the times, but must always be aligned with God’s Word and will. God warns us urgently against “calling evil good and good evil” or against making our conscience hard and insensitive. He has “made known to us what is good”, and we are to live by it (Isaiah 5:20; 1 Timothy 4:2; Micah 6:8).

If we have done evil and our conscience is burdened, we may ask God for forgiveness. He sent His Son to die. The sacrificial death of Jesus, His shed blood, has the power to cleanse our conscience completely (Hebrews 9:9, 14; 10:2, 22).

Today’s reading: Ezekiel 30:1-31:18 · Psalms 132:1-18