The fine old saying goes like this: “A clear conscience is a good pillow.”

No one’s quite sure where the saying came from. Sometimes you’ll hear it as, “A clean conscience is agood pillow” or “There is no pillow as soft as a clear conscience.” Some people believe it’s French, others German, and others African. The fact that it can be traced to so many sources speaks to its universal truth: A clear conscience is one free of guilt, and guilt makes the peace of a good night’s sleep pretty tough.

Paul’s two letters to Timothy speak to the matter of conscience and the state in which we may find ours: clear, clean, or “seared.” Both letters are addressed to Timothy as his “true child in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2), but Paul’s words extend to the churches to which Timothy ministers. The churches are [Read more…]