“If you know the write way to live and you ignore it, it is a sin—plain and simple.”
James 4: 17 (The Voice Bible).
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Here is how the story goes. Peter Rabbit is warned not to go near Mr McGregor’s Garden. And what does he do? The opposite. So, Mr M returns and Petter is trembling like a …like a …well, bunny rabbit. He eventually gets home and is given some treats to shake off the fright and the bad conscience.
But, in real life, ban conscience doesn’t go away with treats. In fact, if you ignore a bad conscience, it will come and get you.
David, the Bible character tried to ignore his conscience after committing adultery. However, along came phase two, a local man, Nathan, came and told King David an interesting story. We can read about it
“There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a great number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food and drank from his cup; it slept in his arms and was like a daughter to him.
Now a traveler came to the rich man, who refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.” https://biblehub.com/bsb/2_samuel/12.htm
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan: “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! Because he has done this thing and has shown no pity, he must pay for the lamb four times over.”
You see, David never saw himself in the illustration. He was the man, but it wasn’t a sheep; it was another man’s dear wife.