Conscience (or Co-perception). Hebrews 10:22

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I’ve been considering Hebrews 10:22, which teaches us about fellowship with God and partly how our conscience or co-perception affects that fellowship; to start with I’ll read the verse:

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

This verse from Hebrews is part of the description and explanation of the change from Jewish Mosaic practices of law, to the fulfilment of the law on our behalf by Jesus who’s blood has redeemed God’s children and given us personal access to God the Father. The curtain which hung in the temple to separate the people from the Holiest place of God’s presence, was torn from the top by God rather than from the bottom by man, after Jesus said from the cross “It is finished.“, and we’re told in verse 20 that as the curtain no longer separates us from drawing near to God, Jesus is the way to the Father “By a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;“, so God kindly tells us through the writer of Hebrews to draw near to Himself through Jesus, He doesn’t say here in what form we’re to “draw near“, whether it’s by reading or meditating on His Word, or praising Him, or thanking or requesting of Him, but were told to do it “with a true heart“. God shows us in John 7 that one characteristic of having a “true heart” is humility, which is a form of acknowledging our sinful state and His Holy righteousness.

He that speaks from himself seeks his own glory: but he that seeks the glory of him that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him

John 7:18

If we’re drawing near to God through prayer and we understand that He knows us better than we know ourselves _{^{(Jeremiah 17:10 I the Lord search the heart and test the mind,)}}, possibly the first thing we should say after addressing Him reverently, is “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us“, just as Jesus taught us to pray, or we may need to be specific in confessing a sin, or we may have to go and apologise to someone first, or there may have been a wrong thought in our heart even while we’re approaching Him that needs to be confessed; Through confession before drawing near to Him, we will have a true heart, rather than ignoring or attempting to hide our sin. Through this we’re forgiven, cleansed from unrighteousness and have fellowship with God through Jesus, it’s not a matter of repenting again to eternal salvation, but as we are still housed in an earthly corrupt body, we need to be regularly sanctified/ cleansed from our sins. We’re told in verse 14 of the same chapter in Hebrews that “… by one offering (Jesus) He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”. When we draw near to Him with a true heart, we are “being sanctified” by means of Holy Spirit’s application of His Word which, subject to our obedience to it, is effective in sanctifying us through His blood, as we’re told by Jesus in His prayer in John 17:17 “Sanctify them through your truth: your word is truth.”,

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 

Hebrews 4:12

Holy Spirit applies the Word like a sword dividing the corrupt old man of flesh from the New Man in Christ, The Truth reveals every corruption of our souls as distinctly different to the purity of the new creation spirit, it’s as if when the carnal/earthly soul has grown over the new creation sprit, the Word of God has like a knife cut away the obscuring growth and revealed the extent of corruption that was taking over, then through confession God takes the sinful corruption away as far from us as the east is from the west. This on-going process of sanctification is achieved in likeness as to how Moses sanctified the implements used in the temple, by sprinkling with anointing oil to make them suitable for service to God, but the sanctifying done by men was only momentary, not like the ongoing work of the blood of Jesus Christ, as we read in the previous chapter Hebrews 9;

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Hebrews 9:14

so it is with His elect children as we’re told in 1 Peter 1, we’re:

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood:…

1 Peter 1:2

By the sprinkling of His blood He helps us to be obedient for His service by the work of Holy Spirit and we can have fellowship with Him in full assurance of faith.

It’s this God granted faith which first brought us to confess Jesus as the Christ of God and which now still continues to be the base of the hope (knowledge) of our eternal salvation, and which gives us a view of this life that is God centric instead of it being a “me” or earth centric perspective.

With further consideration of the opening verse from Hebrews we read: “having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience”, the word “conscience” (in a brief etymology glance) comes from the Latin verb conscire, from con- meaning ‘with’ & scire meaning ‘know’, the word ‘know’ then developed to ‘knowledge‘ and later to the word ‘science‘ which when coupled to con- of course is con-science, which is similar in dynamic to co-operate expressing two or more working “with” each other, so conscience is expressive of their being 2 sources of knowledge or perspective at work in the one body, similarly the Greek source word for conscience is suneidēsis, which is understandably described in Strong’s concordance as “co-perception”, again expressing the point that there are 2 perceptions or wills’ at work in the Christian, one is the mind of the new man and the other which desires to influence or govern the body is the old man of the flesh. But we’re not alone in our battle with the old man of flesh, we’re assisted in our discernment and resolve to govern our thoughts, words and actions to be pleasing to God by a third influence present as Holy Spirit who dwells in us, as we’re told in 2 Timothy 1

Guard the treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

2 Timothy 1:14

Though there are 2 beings + God affecting the words and actions of our earthly selves, there is of course a 4th intending influencer, who we only need to consider briefly because we should “…be wise in what’s good and simple concerning evil” (Ref. Romans 16:19) so this influencer can be quickly rejected with God’s instruction in Jesus name; “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (Ref. James 4 :7).

While the Christians’ co-perception is inclusive of the old man of the flesh trying to govern the body, we know that he predominantly and ultimately loses to the New Creation Man who has the help of Holy Spirit as well as “the mind of Christ” which desires to do the whole will of God. (ref. 1 Corinthians 2:16)

Having briefly considered the way co-perception works in Christians, it’s good for our own sake to also consider what the scenario is for non-Christians; they clearly still have a conscience (co-perception), but given that we know Holy Spirit doesn’t live in them and we know they don’t have the mind of Christ because they haven’t yet become new creation’s, what is the conscience or co-perception that they live with which was also our state before the work of God changed us? The answer to this is found in Romans 2:

For when the Gentiles, which have not the law,
do by nature the things contained in the law,
these, having not the law, are a law to themselves:
¹⁵ who show the work of the law written in their hearts,
their conscience (syneidēsis) also bearing witness,
and between themselves their thoughts (logismos) accusing or else excusing them.

Romans 2:14-15

Here we have a description of co-perception or conscience in a non-Christian in the form of their own will plus the will of God’s law which is written in their hearts, and of course as mentioned earlier there are external evil influences who at times may also even occupy the non-Christian’s body. We can see the reality of the presence of the accusing law of God in the heart of non-Christian’s in it’s action as a morally beneficial presence in society, which is utilised by God to restrain the flesh from fully expressing it’s evil selfish desires. As non-Christians predominantly choose not to include God in their reckoning, it’s understandable that they predominantly deny that their honourable morals are from God, instead they may humanise the existence of right and wrong by saying that respect for other peoples rights is the result of evolution of human rationalised process of regulation to maintain reasonable conditions of life, or they attribute it to what they phrase as “natural response” which they argue is even evident in numerous less intelligent creatures of the earth, or they may speak of it in “spiritual” terms such as yin and yang or as some sort of invisible universal “force” or “energy”, or they may attribute it to one or more of their deities. But despite their present blindness to the truth, God uses the preaching of the gospel to save some of all types of sinners such as we were.

In the passage where it tells “their thoughts accusing or else excusing them” the Greek word for “thoughts”, is transliterated logismos, and it’s defined by Thayer with 3 meanings each subject to context:

1. reckoning, computation
2. reasoning: such as is hostile to the Christian faith
3. a judgment, a decision: such as conscience passes.

Application #2 stands as notably relevant to consideration of co-perception in non-Christian’s, as Hebrews 10:22 tells that when their reasoning is opposed to God it’s evil, as He says: “having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience“; this is another of the many blessings we have through Jesus, we’re being saved daily from slavery to that evil conscience so that we live in the New Way through the mind of Christ and the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, for His glory. In Romans 13, we’re told:

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts.

Romans 13:14

and in Romans 8:

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:1

But we’re told by many of the worlds authorities, influencers and influenced Church leaders & “pastors”, that we need to be less critical of what is described as sin, and to question whether some of these sins identified in scripture are actually to be treated as such, and are sometimes even bluntly told that they are not sin at all, or that they’re to be viewed as only historically culturally relevant, or that as long as they’re only in the mind they are just a part of life that we can live with, we’re taught now to be more inclusive in our perception and to apply many scriptural instructions less critically if they are to be applied at all. This doctrine (teaching) is something we have minimal authority or power to rebut in the world unless the Lord calls us to act, because from at least 1 point, “the world is passing and it’s ways“, and another we’re told that God judges those outside the church:

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. ¹⁰ Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world,
or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 
¹¹ But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
¹² For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 
¹³ But those who are outside God judges.
Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”

1 Corinthians 5:9-13

In the process of considering one of the many practical applications of what we can learn about our conscience or co-perception from the bible, I reviewed a study I was part way through which I had began after being prompted by someone who shared their thoughts on “professing Christian’s same sex relationships”, one word that came up in the discussion was “judge”, and a comment I have often heard is “we shouldn’t judge each other”, but God’s word does actually instruct us to apply judgment in the Church as we just read in 1 Corinthians 5; Context of course plays a key role in discerning meanings of words, so also does discovery of the pre-translated word, in this case the word “judge” is krinō pronounced kree’-no, in its use in 1 Corinthians 5:12 it’s described by the bible scholar Joseph Thayer as “of the disciplinary judgment to which Christians subject the conduct of their fellows, passing censure (disapproval) on them as the facts require,“, this is notably different to it’s meaning in Matthew 7:1-2 which says “Judge not, that you be not judged.² For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged:…” here Thayer explains that the word means “of those who judge severely (unfairly), finding fault with this or that in others,” . So, although we’re told not to judge those outside the church, we are told to judge those inside the professing church population, and in regard to this instruction I read and considered the matter of co-perception in relation to the following excerpt from Christopher Asmus on the desiringGod website regarding Same Sex Attraction :

I am a husband, a father, and a pastor. And for as long as I can remember, I have experienced same-sex attractions. Although I have always been physically and romantically attracted to women,
I also have never been without deep emotional and sexual attractions to men…
Often Christians experiencing SSA feel hopeless and helpless to its power. As attractions intensify, temptations deepen, and fantasies — like a mirage of cold water in a desert — look more and more appealing, the desire for a same-sex relationship can be so potent that it seems nearly impossible to overcome.

Article from “desiringGod” by Christopher Asmus
Pastor, St. Paul, Minnesota https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/longing-for-intimacy

Whether the flesh expresses SSA, NSA, NPA or LOM… (Neighbour’s Spouse Attraction, Neighbour’s Possessions Attraction or Love Of Money…), They’re all sin and were told in James 1 that “every man is tempted (peirazō), when he is drawn away of his own lust (that is epithumia: desire, craving, longing, desire for what is forbidden, lust), and enticed (deleazō: to bait, catch by a bait). Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin: and the sin, when it is fullgrown, brings forth death.

Adam and Eve soon found out that God’s Words were literal both spiritually and physically, the darkness they experienced immediately they consumed the fruit, was evident in their realisation of their moral condition which had changed from sinless to sinners and so their response was to hide from God in the garden. They couldn’t draw near to God with true hearts in that condition. But contrary to Satan’s encouragement to question and disobey God, God says:

… put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness (which is idolatry),

Colossians 3:5

And if your eye offend you, pluck it out: it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where the worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.

Mark 9:47-48

Christopher also wrote on the same desiringGod site in his article titled “Satisfied in the Arms of Another…four lessons for SSA Christians” “…opening up about your same-sex attractions may come at a significant cost to you. Bringing your SSA to light will affect you in a thousand different ways, and some of those will be incredibly painful. But it’s worth it.“. this advise isn’t from God who said in Ephesians 5:12 “ For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.“, the world cares very little for discretion and Satan uses that indiscretion in video, audio and print media to grow sinful desires and produce subsequent actions in the viewers and listeners. We’re also told in the Word “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” (ref. Matthew 15:11) meaning that the type of food that we eat, such as pork to a Jew,,, doesn’t make one unclean, but the words that come from our mouths can pollute us. In considering the advice from Christopher, I’m reminded of another biblical occasion when Jesus said to Peter “get behind me Satan” Peter wasn’t “Satanic” or “evil”, any more than Christopher is, but what Peter said to Jesus was evil, In Ephesians 6:12 we’re told “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.“

I have no problem recognising that the mind of the flesh in me is a constant wicked will that desires to bind me to its corruption, but the Word of God teaches how Christians are saved daily as we reckon ourselves dead to sin but alive to God through Jesus Christ. As mentioned earlier, the term “saved” that I’m referring to isn’t “eternal salvation through faith in Jesus and repentance”,
it’s salvation from the earthly discipline of God that comes because of disobedience,
it’s salvation from the subsequent darkness of grief that comes from the sin of sowing to the flesh which when conceived eventually “brings forth death“,
and it’s salvation for our families and church communities so that they don’t have to bear the subsequent effects of our sin.

Allowance of any degree of the flesh’s desires will never result in us having the true heart that God requires for us to be Holy as God is Holy, I’m not dismissing what we understand from Romans 7 that we will continue to battle with the flesh until after our last breath, but we have responsibility and ability through God’s help as considered earlier to commit our minds and subsequently ourselves, to thoughts and works that glorify God. It only takes a few moments of allowing undisciplined sinful thought to conceive and develop as described in James 1:15 “Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.“, then comes loss of fellowship with God, just as happened with Adam and Eve in the garden, but self denying disciplines including having our minds think on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—(and) anything (that) is excellent or praiseworthy, which brings holiness, peace, a true heart, fellowship with God and spiritual productivity, as we’re told in Romans 8:

The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8:6

You may have noticed that the verse of Hebrews 10:22 is composed of 3 sections, with the first and second sections speaking about matters of our heart, then the 3rd section refers to our bodies, but remember that the focus of the Word is not us, It’s the revelation of Jesus Christ, so in each of these sections we’ve found that Jesus is the answer to our need. in the last section we read that our bodies have been “washed with pure water“, but how are we to understand this statement? I found it easy to read aloud as if I knew what it was saying, but I didn’t really know enough to be able to explain it with scripture, and a preacher had told me a while ago that it was speaking of water baptism and this stuck in my head, with my mind saying “it’s not, so look into it”, so with a little bit of research, If we go back to the occasion of Jesus washing the disciples feet in John 13:10, we read “Jesus said to him, ‘He who is washed, needs only to wash his feet, but is wholly clean…‘”, a highlight of this topic is “He who is washed…,is wholly clean“, the word “wholly” is translated from the Greek word holos which means all, whole, completely, it’s speaking about our condition of having been eternally saved through the “washing of regeneration” by the work of Holy Spirit through Christ as is spoken of in Titus 3:5

³ For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. 
⁴ But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 
⁵ not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 
⁶ whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 
⁷ that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:3-5

two words stand out here concurring with the Hebrews 10:22 metaphor of being “washed with pure water“, they are again “washing of regeneration” and “poured out on us” this is the eternal saving work of God which wasn’t by our own effort, as it was “poured out on us” by the will and work of God through Jesus Christ, as compared to Jesus’s instruction us through the disciples to wash each others feet, which is a metaphor for “being sanctified” from the sins we commit as we walk through this world.

So we’ve heard God kindly tell us through the writer of Hebrews…

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Hebrews 10:22