Having a Good Conscience and a Pure Heart to Serve God in a Pure Conscience

As believers in Christ who are in the process of being purified to be His holy and pure bride, we need to have not only a good conscience but also a pure conscience; we need to have a pure heart so that we may serve God in a pure conscience.

May the Lord have mercy on us so that our living and work for the Lord would not be disqualified before Him on that day.

In Matt. 7 the Lord says that, when He returns, many will say to Him that they did so many things in His name, but His response is, I never knew you – depart from Me, workers of lawlessness.

Many believers in Christ who are zealous and capable did many things for the Lord, but on that day the Lord tells them to depart from Him.

One of the reasons for this is that they were not pure in heart; they did many things for God, but they also had another aim, another goal, and sought their own glory.

We need to purify ourselves and allow the Lord to purify us through His word so that our heart would be pure in living Christ and in serving the Lord.

If our heart is not pure, if we have an intention or aim that is not the Lord and we do not seek the Lord’s glory alone, our work for the Lord is not pure but tainted, and sooner or later it will cause trouble.

Only those who are pure in heart, single for the Lord and His purpose, can be useful to Him in the church life.

This is true both in the spiritual realm and in the physical realm.

In a certain country, there may be a particular person who wants to do great things for the people in that country, and he also has the capacity to do it; however, if his intention is not pure, he will cause damage.

If his intention is pure and his heart is single for the benefit of the people, not for his own benefit or glory, an entire country benefits; if his heart is not single and pure, he will cause great damage. Oh, Lord Jesus!

We may not be that capable or able to do great things for God, but even in the things that we do in the church life in the name of the Lord, we need to serve God with a pure heart.

We need to have the noble aspiration of serving the Lord and being useful to the Master.

And in serving the Lord, we need to come to His word again and again to be purified in our heart, our intention, our aim, and our seeking.

We may start well but, along the way, our heart may become impure.

May we keep coming to the Lord’s pure and holy word to take in the purifying element of God so that our heart with our mind, emotion, will, and conscience, would be purified.

We need to beware of impurity, for our impurity disqualifies us from working for God. Sooner or later, we will be disqualified from working for the Lord because of our impure heart.

May we allow the Ezras and Nehemiahs of today to apply the word of God and reconstitute us with the truth, and may we allow this word to purify and cleanse our inner being again and again.

All the inner parts of our being need to be purified by the word of God until we are pure in heart and we serve God with a pure conscience.

We need to have a Good Conscience and Serve God in a Pure Conscience

On one hand, we need to have a good conscience, a conscience void of offense; on the other hand, we need to have a pure conscience.

To have a good conscience means that our conscience has no offense toward God and man. Like Paul, we need to exercise to have a conscience without offense toward God and toward man (Acts 23:1; 24:16).

Our conscience is the leading part of our spirit; if our conscience is wrong, we cannot have a proper spirit.

If our conscience is wrong, our spirit cannot function properly – it is as if our spirit is dead, for the conscience is the leading part of our spirit.

Before we can properly exercise our spirit, we must first have a good conscience.

How can we have a good conscience? It is by applying the Lord’s blood and confessing anything that the conscience points out under the Lord’s light.

We need to walk in the light, coming to the Lord to fellowship with Him, and our sins, trespasses, mistakes, and faults will be exposed.

Then, we need to confess our sins, and the Lord is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from any unrighteousness (1 John 1:7, 9).

We deal with the wrongs that we do by applying the blood of Christ and confessing them, and our conscience becomes without offense; in this way, we have a good conscience.

It is so good to have a conscience that doesn’t condemn us in any way!

However, we should not stop here. We need to also have a pure conscience; like Paul, we need to serve God in a pure conscience (2 Tim. 1:3).

What is the difference between a good conscience and a pure conscience?

A good conscience is a conscience without offense, and a pure conscience is a conscience that seeks only God, being single for God and His purpose.

Many times, we are seeking God, but we may also seek something else; we may seek God but we may also seek to preach the gospel as a thing apart from God, not having God as our goal.

If we do this, even the good work of preaching the gospel and saving sinners can become a goal that is different from God, and our conscience is not pure.

Our conscience must first be good, and then it must be pure.

We may meet a brother who loves the Lord and loves the church life, but he is also for the work of the gospel or the work of raising the next generation.

There is something else besides the Lord in his being that he seeks, and that stands out.

Because the work he does for the Lord is not something evil but rather very good and spiritual, his conscience doesn’t condemn him; however, he does not have a good conscience.

It is easy for something good, especially a good work or service for the Lord, to become our goal beside the Lord.

We may do something for the Lord, even take part in something of the Lord, but we may not have the Lord Himself as the goal and aim of our life.

Therefore, we may not have a pure conscience.

Having a good conscience is not good enough; we need to serve God in a pure conscience.

We need to allow the Lord to shine on us through His word and in the church life to expose anything that replaces Him as our only goal and aim.

We need to let the divine light shine on us to expose anything that substitutes the Lord, no matter how good that thing may be.

May we just open to the Lord and inquire of Him,

Lord Jesus, we want to have not only a good conscience but also a pure conscience. Thank You we can come to You to confess our sins under Your light, and the precious blood of Christ cleanses us from any sin. Hallelujah, we can have a conscience without offense simply by applying the Lord’s precious blood. How good it is, dear Lord, to have a good conscience, a conscience that does not condemn us! Amen, Lord, we want to go on from having a good conscience to have a pure conscience. We want to serve You in a pure conscience. Purify our heart. Purify our intentions. May we serve the Lord with no other aim or goal but to please the Lord and for Him to gain all the glory! Amen, Lord, have a way to expose and remove anything in our being that is a substitute for You. We want nothing and no one to replace You as the only One in our life. You are the Lord, the King, and the goal of our living and work!

Having a Pure Heart single for the Lord so that we may have a Pure Conscience

In order for us to have a pure conscience, we must first have a pure heart. What does it mean to be pure? It means that we are single unto the Lord, having Him as our only focus, goal, and aim.

To have a pure heart means that our mind considers nothing else but the Lord, our emotion loves nothing else but the Lord Himself, and our will chooses nothing else but the Lord.

If this is the case, we will have a pure heart, seeking only the Lord.

When we have a pure heart, we will also have a pure conscience, and we can serve God in a pure conscience.

Our heart affects our conscience.

Think about yourself: is your mind fully and wholly occupied with the Lord Jesus and with nothing else?

How about your emotion: is it simply, wholly, and fully loving the Lord more than anything else?

And the will, is it completely for God and for His purpose?

We have to be honest and admit that, sadly to say, our heart is not that pure.

Our mind wanders a lot and is not focused on the Lord and His economy, our emotion loves so many other things besides the Lord, and our will is unstable, not fully one with the Lord.

We need to have a pure heart that is single for the Lord so that we may have a pure conscience.

A pure conscience is a conscience purified of any mixture; such a conscience testifies that, like Paul, we are seeking only God and His will (2 Tim. 1:3).

Paul could testify that he served God from his forefathers in a pure conscience.

This means that he was not only cleansed from sin and had a conscience void of offense, but he was single and pure for the Lord and His purpose in his service.

We need to not only be cleansed from sin and offense but also have only one goal in our service: the building up of the church so that Christ may gain His Body.

It is possible, however, that within us there would be a very fine condemnation; it is possible that our conscience condemns us that we are not so pure.

Such condemnation is coarse or rough, but very fine and tender; such condemnation weakens our spirit.

If we really open to the Lord, He will touch us concerning our impurity; He will shine on the mixture in our heart.

We may even do such a good thing as share a report concerning what the Lord has done in our locality, but we may want our report to sound a little bit better or more encouraging than the report that was before us.

Impurity and mixture are in us, and it is very subtle.

People can taste our spirit when we serve the Lord and function in the church life.

Does God gain all the glory or do we reserve some of the glory for ourselves?

Are all things we do for the building up of the church or do we still have some things that are for ourselves and not for the church?

In ourselves we cannot be pure; we need to come to the Lord again and again to be shined on by Him, and we need to remain in the fellowship and coordination in the church life so that He may expose any impurity and mixture in our being.

May we cooperate with the Lord’s shining so that any impurity and mixture would be exposed, removed, and purged from our being, so that we may serve God in a pure conscience for the building up of the organic Body of Christ.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us. Grant us to be under Your shining in the matter of our heart. We want to have a pure heart, a heart that is single for You and for Your purpose. Expose any impurity and mixture in our being. We say Amen to Your shining and exposing. Purge and eliminate any mixture, any impurity, anything that causes us to be impure. We want to serve God in a pure conscience. May our mind be filled with Christ, may our emotion love Christ above all, and may our will be fully one with Christ. Amen, Lord, purify our heart so that we may have a pure conscience. Keep us in Your purifying work. We want to cooperate with what You are doing in us so that You may gain our heart to be so pure and single for You and for Your purpose!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by Ricky Acosta in the message for this week, and portions from, The Stream, Book One, pp. 306-308, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2022 winter training), week 6, entitled, The Intrinsic Significance of the Purification of the Returned Captives.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – Dealing with Our Conscience, article via, Living to Him.
  – A clean, pure conscience – a portion via, Lessons on Prayer, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee.
  – How Do You Pray Confessing Prayers? Read more via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – What It Means to Have a Good Conscience and Why It’s So Important – article at, Bibles for America Blog.
  – 4 Key Verses About the Blood of Jesus Christ, article via, Bibles for Europe blog.
  – Giving the Lord the first place in all things to maintain the fellowship of life, the flow of life, Article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Oh, for a heart to praise my God, / A heart from sin set free, / With conscience sprinkled by the blood / So freely shed for me…A heart in every thought renewed, / And filled with love divine; / Perfect and right, and pure and good, / A copy, Lord, of Thine. (Hymns #410 stanzas 1 and 4)
  – We need a heart condemning not, / In all things right with God; / A heart which has a conscience purged / And covered with the blood. / Lord, grant us such a heart as this, / Forever fixed on Thee, / That of Thyself we may partake / And Thy true fulness be. (Hymns #744 stanzas 5-6)
  – Lord, make us pure in heart; / For we’ll be not content until / You all our being fill, / O Lord, renew our mind, emotion, will— / Lord Jesus, grow in us. (Hymns #1132 stanza 6)