A few weeks ago, the check engine light came on in my wife’s car. The car was running well. There did not seem to be any problems, but the light was on. The manufacturer informs us that the light means the engine is not running properly and needs attention. All seemed to be well, but the light begged to differ. Naturally, I had one of the guys in the church hook up his code scanner to the car to inform me of the problem. After the scan, we discovered that the problem was insignificant. In fact, the nature of the problem could be ignored with no harm to the engine. The only issue would be that the light would remain on. If something significant happened, the light would already be on, and I wouldn’t know of the new problem. As this is the car my wife primarily drives, I did not want to risk any issues, so I changed the faulty solenoid. Should the light come back on, I know there is another problem. In short, I listened to the check engine light.

 

I have had vehicles with which I made a different decision. I determined that the light was something I could tolerate. The problem was not a problem, and I continued with life. I relied on other things to inform me of the engine’s performance. I drove those cars for years with the check engine light on. Interestingly, after just a few short days, I didn’t even notice that the light was on. Sometimes, passengers would get into the car and tell me the check engine light was on. I would shrug and go about my day. The light no longer bothered me. The light was not speaking the truth. There was not a problem, so I ignored it.

 

The check engine light serves as an excellent illustration of the conscience. Everyone has a conscience. God placed the conscience in our lives to warn us of impending problems. However, the conscience is not infallible. Sometimes, the conscience warns us of issues that are not problems; sometimes, the conscience does not warn us when it should. Further, we have a choice when our conscience warns us. We can choose to ignore the conscience or listen to the conscience.

 

As we seek to make biblical decisions, the conscience should play an essential role. We discussed the decisions we should make on debatable issues when others disagree with our choices. However, what should we do when we disagree with our decisions? This seems like a weird question. However, many people seek to suppress their guilt and feelings of anxiety and move forward with their choices, giving no thought to their conscience. As we will see over the next few weeks, this is a dangerous decision for people to make. We will seek to balance the advice of Jiminy Cricket to always let your conscience guide you, and the advice of modern psychology to ignore the conscience. Through this middle ground, we will discover the great gift that God gave humanity in the conscience.