Once you are reconciled to your conscience—meaning you submit in all things to your present, sincere understanding of what is right and wrong—you will encounter peace of conscience:
And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men. (Acts 24:16)
Because having a clean conscience is such a wonderful situation, one might be tempted to remain in this state forever. Unfortunately, freedom from guilt is not the same as freedom from consequences. Ignorance of how things really work does not protect you from how things really work. Even when you completely align yourself to your conscience, you are still exposed to all the negative consequences of not obeying the knowledge you do not yet have about reality.
Even if you were resolved to remain at the state of understanding to which you are already reconciled, you would find it very difficult to avoid the revelation of things you do not yet know. Life is designed to bombard you with clues that there is more available than what you have. Ignoring these clues—which tend to be anything but subtle in how overwhelming they are—is like a child pretending that covering his eyes makes him invisible.
The Lord said: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) Rest in the Lord means a state of uninterrupted peace and joy. Rest in the Lord requires two things:
- You have to conquer the darkness of which you are aware. When you do this, you retain all the joy available at this level of awareness, but lose the sorrow.
- You have to remain unaware of the darkness beyond the limits of what you have overcome.
That darkness is going to come for you, whether you seek it out or not. You may as well go out to contend with it instead of waiting around for it to contend with you.
Therefore, you should constantly seek to keep learning everything you can about life.