but the end of the charge is love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned faith;
It takes all three of these conditions to make service acceptable to God. A man without a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith that is unfeigned cannot do acceptable service to God. Men harden their hearts and sear their consciences by doing what their consciences condemn. A man who thus violates and corrupts his conscience cannot do acceptable service to God. While the good conscience may lead men to violate the will of God, run counter to His teaching, it cannot serve God without it is kept pure. A man’s conscience is defiled, blinded, seared by doing what he knows is wrong or refusing to do what he knows is right. There is no more dangerous condition in which a man can place himself than to habitually do what he knows to be wrong or refuse to do what he knows to be right (126).