It came about afterward that David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe. 1 Samuel 24:5

Following your conscience is only as good as what feeds it. It’s possible to be unfazed by an atrocious act if there’s a moral vacuum in your heart.

Once upon a time, there was a generation of Americans, the Greatest Generation as they’re called, who acted out of conscience, doing good things that they said anyone would do. But that was a day when Judeo-Christian ethics were tightly woven into the moral fabric of society. Nowadays not so much.

I want to be a man like David who’s heart is struck by anything done contrary to God’s expressed will. But taking it further, whatever troubles His spirit within me.

Saying this, how much better to have not acted on the view from the rooftop (2 Samuel 11:1-3), or stopped short of snipping Saul’s robe, or pulled the plug on that silly census (1 Chronicles 21:4-6)?

Let your conscience be your guide only if it’s actually God’s not yours. Only then will it be clear.