Day 9/23 – Commending the Conscience

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Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man by Walter A Henrichsen (“Walt”)
Commending the Conscience
Day Two Hundred Sixty-six

“We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:2

You do not commend the gospel message to the logic or intellect of people, but to their conscience. When God says that people are created in His image, in part that means they have a conscience – a moral gyroscope that allows them to know right from wrong. God created the conscience so that it conforms to His standard. Although people cannot reason their way to God, the conscience can assist in affirming what is right.

The conscience can identify goodness, and it is this goodness that Paul commends. All people know that dishonesty is wrong. All people can identify hypocrisy. People who preach Jesus and live hypocritical lives become the subject of public ridicule and bad characters in movies.

When you communicate the gospel with a life-style contrary to that of the gospel, a life-style that all can identify as wrong, you give the enemies of God an occasion to blaspheme, and you anger God. “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung round his neck and he were cast into the sea.”350 When people observe that your life is in harmony with the message, they may not believe, but they know in their conscience that they have met truth.

350 Luke 17:2

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Song of Solomon 1-3 Galatians 2 (New King James Version)

Song of Solomon 1-3
Solomon’s Love for a Shulamite Girl
1 The song of songs, which is Solomon’s.
The Banquet
The [a]Shulamite
2
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—
For [b]your love is better than wine.
3
Because of the fragrance of your good ointments,
Your name is ointment poured forth;
Therefore the virgins love you.
4
Draw me away!
The Daughters of Jerusalem
We will run after [c]you.
The Shulamite
The king has brought me into his chambers.
The Daughters of Jerusalem
We will be glad and rejoice in [d]you.
We will remember your love more than wine.
The Shulamite
Rightly do they love you.
5
I am dark, but lovely,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
Like the tents of Kedar,
Like the curtains of Solomon.
6
Do not look upon me, because I am dark,
Because the sun has [e]tanned me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
They made me the keeper of the vineyards,
But my own vineyard I have not kept.
(To Her Beloved)
7
Tell me, O you whom I love,
Where you feed your flock,
Where you make it rest at noon.
For why should I be as one who [f]veils herself
By the flocks of your companions?
The Beloved
8
If you do not know, O fairest among women,
[g]Follow in the footsteps of the flock,
And feed your little goats
Beside the shepherds’ tents.
9
I have compared you, my love,
To my filly among Pharaoh’s chariots.
10
Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,
Your neck with chains of gold.
The Daughters of Jerusalem
11
We will make [h]you ornaments of gold
With studs of silver.
The Shulamite
12
While the king is at his table,
My [i]spikenard sends forth its fragrance.
13
A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me,
That lies all night between my breasts.
14
My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blooms
In the vineyards of En Gedi.
The Beloved
15
Behold, you are fair, [j]my love!
Behold, you are fair!
You have dove’s eyes.
The Shulamite
16
Behold, you are handsome, my beloved!
Yes, pleasant!
Also our [k]bed is green.
17
The beams of our houses are cedar,
And our rafters of fir.
A Country Girl in a Palace
2
I am the rose of Sharon,
And the lily of the valleys.
The Beloved
2
Like a lily among thorns,
So is my love among the daughters.
The Shulamite
3
Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods,
So is my beloved among the sons.
I sat down in his shade with great delight,
And his fruit was sweet to my taste.
The Shulamite to the Daughters of Jerusalem
4
He brought me to the [l]banqueting house,
And his banner over me was love.
5
Sustain me with cakes of raisins,
Refresh me with apples,
For I am lovesick.
6
His left hand is under my head,
And his right hand embraces me.
7
I [m]charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the gazelles or by the does of the field,
Do not stir up nor awaken love
Until it pleases.
The Beloved’s Request
The Shulamite
8
The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes
Leaping upon the mountains,
Skipping upon the hills.
9
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Behold, he stands behind our wall;
He is looking through the windows,
Gazing through the lattice.
10
My beloved spoke, and said to me:
“Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away.
11
For lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.
12
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of singing has come,
And the voice of the turtledove
Is heard in our land.
13
The fig tree puts forth her green figs,
And the vines with the tender grapes
Give a good smell.
Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away!
14
“O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the secret places of the cliff,
Let me see your [n]face,
Let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet,
And your face is lovely.”
Her Brothers
15
Catch us the foxes,
The little foxes that spoil the vines,
For our vines have tender grapes.
The Shulamite
16
My beloved is mine, and I am his.
He feeds his flock among the lilies.
(To Her Beloved)
17
Until the day breaks
And the shadows flee away,
Turn, my beloved,
And be like a gazelle
Or a young stag
Upon the mountains of [o]Bether.
A Troubled Night
The Shulamite
3
By night on my bed I sought the one I love;
I sought him, but I did not find him.
2
“I will rise now,” I said,
“And go about the city;
In the streets and in the squares
I will seek the one I love.”
I sought him, but I did not find him.
3
The watchmen who go about the city found me;
I said,
“Have you seen the one I love?”
4
Scarcely had I passed by them,
When I found the one I love.
I held him and would not let him go,
Until I had brought him to the house of my mother,
And into the [p]chamber of her who conceived me.
5
I [q]charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the gazelles or by the does of the field,
Do not stir up nor awaken love
Until it pleases.
The Coming of Solomon
The Shulamite
6
Who is this coming out of the wilderness
Like pillars of smoke,
Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
With all the merchant’s fragrant powders?
7
Behold, it is Solomon’s couch,
With sixty valiant men around it,
Of the valiant of Israel.
8
They all hold swords,
Being expert in war.
Every man has his sword on his thigh
Because of fear in the night.
9
Of the wood of Lebanon
Solomon the King
Made himself a [r]palanquin:
10
He made its pillars of silver,
Its support of gold,
Its seat of purple,
Its interior paved with love
By the daughters of Jerusalem.
11
Go forth, O daughters of Zion,
And see King Solomon with the crown
With which his mother crowned him
On the day of his wedding,
The day of the gladness of his heart.
Footnotes:
• Song of Solomon 1:2 A young woman from the town of Shulam or Shunem, Song 6:13. The speaker and audience are identified according to the number, gender, and person of the Hebrew words. Occasionally the identity is not certain.
• Song of Solomon 1:2 Masc. sing.: the Beloved
• Song of Solomon 1:4 Masc. sing.: the Beloved
• Song of Solomon 1:4 Fem. sing.: the Shulamite
• Song of Solomon 1:6 Lit. looked upon me
• Song of Solomon 1:7 LXX, Syr., Vg. wanders
• Song of Solomon 1:8 Lit. Go out
• Song of Solomon 1:11 Fem. sing.: the Shulamite
• Song of Solomon 1:12 perfume
• Song of Solomon 1:15 my companion, friend
• Song of Solomon 1:16 couch
• Song of Solomon 2:4 Lit. house of wine
• Song of Solomon 2:7 adjure
• Song of Solomon 2:14 Lit. appearance
• Song of Solomon 2:17 Lit. Separation
• Song of Solomon 3:4 room
• Song of Solomon 3:5 adjure
• Song of Solomon 3:9 A portable enclosed chair

Galatians 2
Defending the Gospel
2 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. 2 And I went up [a]by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. 4 And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), 5 to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
6 But from those who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God [b]shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me. 7 But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter 8 (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), 9 and when James, [c]Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.
No Return to the Law
11 Now when [d]Peter had come to Antioch, I [e]withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; 12 for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing [f]those who were of the circumcision. 13 And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, [g]why do you compel Gentiles to live as [h]Jews? 15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 knowing that a man is not [i]justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
17 “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died [j]in vain.”
Footnotes:
• Galatians 2:2 because of
• Galatians 2:6 Lit. does not receive the face of a man
• Galatians 2:9 Peter
• Galatians 2:11 NU Cephas
• Galatians 2:11 opposed
• Galatians 2:12 Jewish Christians
• Galatians 2:14 NU how can you
• Galatians 2:14 Some interpreters stop the quotation here.
• Galatians 2:16 declared righteous
• Galatians 2:21 for nothing