Therefore I always exercise and discipline myself [mortifying my body, deadening my carnal affections, bodily appetites, and worldly desires, endeavoring in all respects] to have a clear (unshaken, blameless) conscience, void of offense toward God and toward men. Acts 24:16 (AMPC)
The conscience is the sense of right and wrong with the accompanying response of accusation and condemnation for wrong and being excused and defended for right.
Everyone has a conscience whether they know God or not.
Romans 2:14-15 (NLT) 14Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. 15They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.
There’s an inbuilt voice deep in every human being that says yes to what’s right and no to what’s wrong. When we pay attention to it and follow it we choose and walk the right path and have no sense of blame, accusation, or condemnation. This is what’s meant by a clear, conscience void of offense toward God and men.
But unfortunately many disregard and reject this voice. Through prolonged ignoring, resisting, and opposing of this voice in us we can get to the point where we continually do evil and worse evil without a second thought, without the least bit feeling of being uneasy or bothered. This is called a seared conscience where one is hardened to what’s morally right, good, and godly, – like hard core criminals, religious and cult extremists who murder in the name of their beliefs, and terrorists.
Make it your practice to always exercise and discipline yourself to have a clear, blameless conscience, void of offense toward God and toward men.
Be it in simple daily life decisions, be it in relationships, work or business deals, don’t just go by what’s convenient and pleasurable but choose what’s acceptable and pleasing to God. Mortify your body, deaden your carnal affections, kill so to speak your bodily appetites, and worldly desires. In whatever you do, in the decisions you make, what ought to bother you most shouldn’t be “is this the good thing to do that suits my interests?” Rather your uttermost concern should be “is this right, is there peace and life in it, does it please God?”