Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
1 Timothy 4:1-2
In the context of this passage, Paul is warning Timothy of the threat that false teaching is to a Christian. These people had departed from the faith and as a result had their conscience seared. When something is seared it means it is burnt, cauterized, or hardened. As Christians, living with a seared conscience is a very dangerous place to be.
How do we sear our conscience? By doing the things that we know are wrong. Often this happens over a period of time. We venture out into something that we would not usually do, then we feel conviction. It becomes a battle. We may even tell ourselves it won’t happen again but when temptation comes, we give in. Overtime, we become immune to doing this thing so that it no longer seems wrong. We can do it without even feeling bad anymore. That, my friend, is a very dangerous place. It means that our hearts have become hardened to our sin- the very thing that breaks God’s heart.
Just because we don’t feel the guilt doesn’t mean what we are doing is not wrong. In Jonah 1:4-5, we find that Jonah was able to go to sleep even in the midst of a full speed chase away from God. When our conscience becomes seared and we are living in unconfessed sin, our fellowship is broken with God. 1 John 1:6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.” This creates walls between us and God. We may begin to dread spending time with Him as it begins to feel dull. Our prayer life will suffer as a result of these barriers, and we may begin to wonder where God is.
We then have opened ourselves up to confusion. The lines may become blurred because we are no longer hearing from God. We question the things we used to believe. Remember: as we grow in our walks with Christ our convictions should progress, not regress. If you are okay with something that used to bother you ask yourself, “Has God changed, or have I changed?” Spiritual maturity will lead us to making decisions that are not written in a clear “thou shalt not” manner. Romans 15:23 tells us “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” As we grow, God will open our eyes to things that we hadn’t seen before. He will lead us to make wiser choices to live a holy life. When we step back from these choices and create boundaries between us and Him our spiritual eyes become darkened.
How do we recover from a seared conscience? Pray and ask the Lord to break your heart over your sin once again. Repent and turn away from those things. Return to your first love…Him. Be intentional that you are walking in the spirit. I once heard a preacher say, “Victory over sin is not the goal. The answer to victory over sin is walking with Jesus.”