Surrender： Through the Eyes of Radical Christianity — Dean Taylor

So today I am going to continue in the Corinthians series and today we get to chapter 8 of 1st Corinthians. Now it's sort of an archaic, a little outdated passage it would seem, dealing with eating meat sacrifice to idols.

So why don't we just take a moment and I'm going to pray and ask the Lord to give us wisdom from this passage. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father we thank you for chapter 8 of 1st Corinthians and we thank you for all the rich treasures you have for us there.

And so God I pray that you would illuminate your word and illuminate all of us to have in us the kind of heart that you inspire the Apostle Paul to write about. About the relationship with the church, with fellow brothers, for the weak, for the strong.

I pray you would give us wisdom in these things. In Jesus' name, Amen. So I asked the Lord for, you know, what am I going to use for a theme for this passage. And you know the whole the whole series is through the eyes of radical Christianity.

I'm kind of been, to those who are a visitor here today, I've been going through kind of reflecting upon my 25 years in radical Christianity through the eyes of 1st Corinthians because I think 1st Corinthians reminds me a lot of first-generation churches, you know, and I can, there's a lot of things I relate to.

And so today I'm going to call this, this is a German word, I think we all know it, Glossenheit or surrender through the eyes of radical Christianity. Glossenheit or surrender through the eyes of radical Christianity.

I mentioned before, just a second ago, that this passage seems a bit archaic, a bit outdated, but it's funny. Years ago, a few years ago, when I was visiting ancient Corinth and I was going there with a, my guide who was a convert from Islam, and as we toured the whole of ancient Corinth and we walked through the Agora, the marketplace, and we got to the to the outside of it, we were sitting in a restaurant.

And it was, and it was interesting because I had ordered some sort of pork steak or something, I can't remember what it was, and he ordered fish. And somehow the conversation started talking about, he didn't just order fish because he liked fish, there was something about it, still about the idea of pork being unclean.

So we started talking about this and all of a sudden I said, wait, this is strange, we're talking about the ideas of foods and things and we're right outside Corinth. And here we were literally right on the outside of the Agora in Corinth.

And so it just makes me think of how timeless these passages are. When we were trying to say, is there anything, you know, about this steak or whatever those things, and it was an interesting conversation that we were having.

So I do think there's a lot of things packed into into 1st Corinthians chapter 8. Let's look at it. So it starts off with this passage, and there's a lot of things that are miss, we there were recognizable quotes, but they're used probably wrong most the time.

And this is one of them, right at the beginning. Verse 8, now concerning things offered to idols. So here's the topic. Remember we have a topic change now in the book of Corinthians. We know that we all have knowledge, but knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.

And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing, yet as he ought to know, but if anyone loves God, this one is known by him. If I could think of, you know, particularly in the college business and everything that I, my job, and the idea that constantly gets brought to me is this, is this passage.

Well Dean, knowledge puffs up, love edifies. And my first instinct is to just go to this and say, you're missing what the scripture is talking about. But I don't want to go too far from that, because regardless that that's oftentimes used wrong, it's still true.

And there's still something that we need to look at in this passage. But first of all, where it's wrong. The irony is, what's being argued here is not about some knowledge about Jewish histories, or some kind of high-level theology, but it's about practical things, about daily life.

It's about what to do with meat, and whether you know this sacrifice had, was over this meat when it was sold in the marketplace. And so it's a very practical thing. And so it's odd that it's usually used against study, or scholarship, and that type of a thing, because it kind of can brought the other way.

It's, it's that this kind of, it almost comes off late, maybe like, oh just local customs, or local standards, or local something that would have an influence. It's almost more the direct, and the direct interpretation.

But the idea though still, I think, needs to be looked at. And so, but first of all, is it okay to have this kind of knowledge that also comes with love, and to discern through that? Because there is something that he's getting at here that's very wrong.

There's something also that he says is very good. And, and I look at the passage in Proverbs, you know, Proverbs you just go through, and all these incredible passages about knowledge. I just picked out a couple.

Proverbs 1 -7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Or Proverbs 15 -14, the discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.

So this idea of seeking knowledge, of finding God, and especially particularly with the fear of God, brings a carefulness, brings something in us that is, is, is healthy, and it comes out in the right way.

And so I think that that's, I pushed back a little bit on this passage. Then I'm gonna get to where it does sting, but continually push back on it, because there sometimes is in radical Christianity, and this is this series, almost a piety to remain ignorant.

Almost a piety to, to boast that, well, I don't study. I, you know, I, I think that that puffs up. So I'm gonna almost intentionally leave myself in ignorance. And I, I get the humility. I'm gonna let it sting here after what I'm about to share, but I think this is really a wrong interpretation of the Scripture, and it's very dangerous.

As a matter of fact, one of my favorite passages in the whole script, in the whole New Testament, is there in 2nd Peter chapter 1, and it has some really important stuff about the type of knowledge, and what this knowledge will actually do in our sanctification.

Here it is in 2nd Peter chapter 1, I think it is verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. So watch now how many times he talks about having this understanding of God.

As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him, who gave us by glory and virtue, who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceeding great and precious promises that through these, that is claiming those promises, you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, through lust.

And then he continues, but also for this very reason, giving all diligence add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self control, to self control, perseverance to perseverance, godliness to godliness, brotherly kindness, and brotherly kindness to love.

So it is good for us to see that knowledge is something we're supposed to add to our faith, but it does supposed to lead somewhere, and it leads to brotherly kindness, it leads to love, it leads to, that's the direction of it.

So that part does need to sting. For if these things are yours, and ask yourself this evening, are they yours? If these things are yours, all that he, that beautiful stuff he talks about, if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he has was cleansed from his old sins. So again, I think that this passage is mostly used wrong, and that this sort of piety of ignorance is something that I think is sometimes found in radical circles, that I think is very dangerous, and this is the kind of wisdom, this is the kind of thing that we should seek after.

However, besides the fact that it's, that it's usually, it's out of context, it's still something for us to understand, that if we have the kind of knowledge that isn't leading to brotherly kindness, and love, and that kind of a thing, it actually gets very ugly, and I think that comes in verse 2 here, because this next kind of knowledge he's talking about is not a sanctified knowledge, and he's got a point with it.

Verse 2, and if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing, yet as he ought to know, but if anyone loves God, this is the one who is known by him. So this idea of a false kind of knowledge is what he's getting at.

Now, I, again, this is the whole series is addressed to radical Christianity, and I don't know, but there's, there are, there is something that's common amongst us that can sometimes just get nasty, ugly, not with brotherly kindness, not led to love.

It comes off sarcastic, it comes off, it's just, you can, there's not the spirit of God there, and so I do give this caution. As a college, and I work at a college, and obviously, and in that, it's been a burden for me, even to our young people that often come there, that it comes off in the right way.

Sometimes I hear about trips back home, and different things, and my heart, you know, skips a beat a few times as I hear these stories. My mentor college has been Eternity Bible College, and with Francis Chan started in California, and I called up, as I was talking with their president, I had a talk with him once, and I said, so here you've got this Bible college, and your founder is sort of this, you know, he's an evangelical, but he's pretty eccentric, you know, in this, in your world, and how do you deal with these challenging things that you're getting taught, and then what you get brought home, because you see, we're kind of in the Anabaptist world, but I've got this founder, and he's like kind of eccentric, and you know, he stretches, and I got, I could, I could use some wisdom, and so it was, it was a very good talk with him about all this, and he said, you know, Dean, I always, first of all, he said, what does the word a drawn-and quartered mean anything to you, you know, there's a pressure that he feels from his constituency, and I said, yeah, I get it, and he said, you know, I tell you what, I every term, I close the term off with the don't be a jerk talk.

Every term, I said, oh wow, okay, he said every term, and I remember talking with Daniel Kinison, who was just here, he apparently, he does that with Sent, with Sent One, and, and sends it back, and it's just something about when you learn something, you want to tell someone, you get excited about it, and you kind of have the feeling that no one else quite understands this, but there's just a maturity that needs to be there, that, that, that I think the Scriptures will help us, and I think it could apply, although a little bit out of context, with what Paul is saying there.

Psalm 1 says this, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, we know those part, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.

There's a, if, if it's, if in radical Christianity you find yourself being kind of scorning, kind of mocking, kind of that kind of a spirit, it may be not right. Maybe it's a righteous indignation, I'm not to judge that, but watch yourself if this could be something that's in there.

You know, Proverbs also 15 says, a soft answer turns away wrath, and, and Colossians 3 13, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven us, so also you must forgive.

And, and 1st Peter 2 1, put away malice and all deceit and hypocrisy. James tells us there's different kinds of wisdom, right? There's wisdom that comes from where? Above, and there's wisdom that come from where?

Below. And the kind that from above is, he makes very clear, but in James 3 16, he says, for where envy and self-seeking exists, confusion and every evil thing are there. I'll tell you, if you're ever in a situation, if you're ever in a radical church, if you're ever in a situation that's just confusion and every evil work, maybe you should do your reverse algebra and see maybe there's a problem in the type of wisdom that you're swimming in.

But the wisdom that is from above, verse 17, he says, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, watch this one, it's, it's in German, you could say Golossenheit, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy.

That's a tough one. So that's the kind of thing that wisdom from above looks like, but wisdom from below is self-seeking. You're talking about yourself, your own particular radicalness, your own particular thing.

Is there confusion in every evil thing and work around you? This is a guide for us to be able to see. The C, understand. I tell you, the older I get, the older I get, I understand John 8, 9. And they went out one by one, dropping their stones, beginning with the oldest, even to the last.

There's something about just getting older in life that makes you a little slower to throw stones. I think Paul is getting a little bit to some of this in all of Corinthians, not just this particular passage.

All right. So he says this, now concerning things offered to idols, we know this, that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. What does edify mean? Yeah, build up. And if anyone thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing, yet he ought to know.

But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him. All right. Now, this next little passage about God and the Trinity, I almost spoke of it as a parenthetical. It almost could be a whole sermon on the Trinity, and maybe I'd like to do that sometime.

But I think he's going deep for a reason. So I didn't want to just treat it as a parenthetical thought. He makes some pretty bold statements here about God. So in the context now where he's talking about knowledge, look how he gets in and breaks into this little doxology, if you would, or this little praise of God in verse four.

Therefore, concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. Did you catch that strong Trinitarian statement? For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or earth, as there are many gods and many lords.

In chapter 10, we're not going to get to that in particular, but he takes all of this more and really gets spiritual with this whole thing that's going on about these guys who think they're being strong and how they're offending people.

In chapter 10 verse 8, it says, Observe Israel after the flesh. Are not those who eat of the sacrifice partakers of the altar? What am I saying then? That an idol is anything or what is offered to idols is anything?

Rhetorically, I would say no. Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, he's going to get spiritual here, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the Lord's demons and the table of the demons, excuse me. Or do you provoke the Lord to jealousy?

Are we stronger than he? And so this idea of this part of this is a spiritual thing, I didn't want to just treat as a parenthetical thought, as a parenthesis, as something on the side. So let's look at this.

Verse 4, at the end of it, No other God but one. And he goes on verse 5, and this is beautiful. It's just tucked in there, but it's awesome. For even if there are so-called gods, many in heaven or on earth, whether in heaven or earth, for there are many gods and many lords in this passage.

Yet for us, but for us, there is one God, the father of whom are all things and we from him and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through whom we live. Now, I am a classic Nicene, Homiocene Trinitarian.

And that's the way I teach it in school is just your classic Nicene Trinitarianism. And I think that there's sometimes in a radical circles, just a sense to just kind of challenge everything and to walk away from some of these very profound and ancient doctrines.

And I think that the one thing that I wanted to stress about this little tucked away passage is the ancient concept, more Cappadocian, Nicene concept, that every act of God, every act of God originates from the father.

It happens through the son and perfected by the Holy Spirit, everything. And as you look at that, it flows with the Trinity in a powerful way. Now, in this particular passage, he doesn't mention the spirit and others he does.

But here you see it here in this passage and don't miss this little point. Yet for us, there is one God, the father of whom are all things and we for him and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through whom we live.

Everything is from the father, through the son, by the Holy Spirit. And that's powerful. Maybe do a whole talk on that if it fits into Corinthians later on. But it's like so like in Genesis one story.

So the example in God created the world through his eternal word, the son and the spirit hovered on the waters. When the incarnation happened, the father sent the Logos to the world that's through the son and the Holy Spirit was there as the scripture also tells us.

And this concept is a beautiful thing that Paul is giving us just a little nugget of. It's good, rich, robust, Trinitarian language, which I think is beautiful. And here's a doxology, a worship that comes through it.

It also works the same way in reverse in our worship to God. I have a habit and I think David Rousseau probably knocked it into my head years ago. The idea that when I pray, I pray in the name of Jesus to the father.

So by the spirit, I pray to the father through the son and the same kind of thing of how God operates to us. We bring our worship back to him. And this is beautiful for. And for us, there is one God, the father of whom are all things.

And we for him and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live. Ephesians 218 for through him, we both have access in one spirit to the father. You see how this is just beautiful.

And this, this, this beautiful Trinitarian language comes out with Paul. And I think it's, it's, it needs to not be lost. Galatians 4 .4 is one of my, I got to stop saying it. It's a great passage. Galatians 4.

But when the fullness of time had come, watch how this all works. God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying Abba father. Therefore you are no longer slaves, but a son. And if a son than an heir of God through Christ. So every act of God originates from the father is executed through the son and is perfected by the Holy spirit.

Beautiful little, I don't think just a parenthetical statement, but a beautiful, Paul does this a lot, just worship that comes out in the middle of a deep argument that he's making. All right. Verse four, let's get back to the, I guess the main argument.

Let's go there. Verse seven, but I'm going to verse four says, remember therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols. We know that an idol is nothing in the world. Now verse seven, it says this, however, and this is where I really think the point of his message comes out really strong.

However, there is not in everyone that knowledge for some with consciousness of the idol until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol and their conscience being weak is defiled. But food does not commend us to God for neither.

If we eat, are we the better? Nor if we do not eat, are we the worse? Paul thinks the Corinthians are being way too cavalier with the way they're, they're receiving that the way they're treating these meats, but it's a careful tight rope that he's walking on.

I was looking up some of the ancient commentaries on this and Christosom is, seems pretty bent on saying that Paul's intention is to rebuke both parties. He wants to try to correct the weak and understanding, but he also, he's really concerned about the way that the cavalier attitude that these people are having with this treatment of this doctrine.

But here's the thing. We treat it kind of like an odd little side thing. Christosom is like these people could both lose their souls. It's very serious, and it's actually a really big deal of what's happening here.

It's no light thing, and if you read the text much more carefully, if you read it much more in the context, and don't just read over the words too quickly, I think it'll come out in that way. All right, let me give you some examples.

The whole topic of eating meat sacrifice to idols was not new here in the Corinthians. It was something that the early church was dealing with. Writing in Acts 21, after the whole Acts 15 council on what to do with the Gentiles, it says, but concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrifice to idols, and from blood, and from what is strangled, and from fornication.

So, it says specifically that they shouldn't do this. So, Paul's on a little tight rope here. Now, back to Corinth. When I was in Corinth, it was an interesting view, and if you remember it's been a while now, but on the first episode, I showed some slides that I took, some pictures of the Agora, of the marketplace in Corinth, and you could literally see the market where they would have sold these meats, and right behind it is the temple of Zeus, and they would have had this, and so you could literally see people saying, praise be to Zeus, or something, and then this blasphemous type of thing, and they're cutting this meat, and they're bringing over, and they're selling that in the marketplace.

That's the practical of what's going on, and so I'll be honest. I mean, you know, if I was there, I'd be like, it would feel odd for me to buy that steak and go home with it, but Paul is wanting to make something clear, and I'm going to show you an important point why he was walking such a tightrope, because our conscience is very important to Paul.

It's very important to Paul, and we know that, so we already have that you're not supposed to eat meat sacrificed to idols. There's, particularly if there's somehow you are participating in the sacrifice.

We know from Jesus himself in Revelation 2 that churches are losing their lampstand over this issue. Look at Revelation 2 14, but I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality, and then Revelation 2 20.

Again, nevertheless, I have a few things against you, because you allow the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

So somehow, seduction, bit by bit, it seems to be applied, and how this whole practice of just getting loose with this stuff apparently led to people losing their lampstand in the book of Revelation. So it's really serious, and it keeps coming up in the New Testament, and Romans, so here's in Corinth, and then way over in Rome, Paul's writing to them, same issue, you can imagine the same marketplace, now instead of Corinth, we're in Rome, and he says this, and he, and watch, we usually just kind of read over these passages.

Well, that's kind of an archaic thing from the past. I'm going to ask for a minute of how we can apply this to our day, and so listen to, though, how seriously he takes it. In Romans, he says it this way, I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself.

Paul's on this tightrope. He doesn't want to create some new law, some new, he doesn't want to defile more consciences by creating something that's not scriptural, if you would, or from the Holy Spirit.

So he does set it clear that nothing is unclean of itself, but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean, yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love.

So wait a minute, it's not my problem. I have a clear conscience. I'm eating the meat, so what's wrong, Paul? I mean, but he's saying, look, if you've got brothers in your church, and sisters, if you have people in your church that are getting offended by this, you're not walking in love.

Is that a big deal? It's a big deal. For you're no longer, do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Chris Austin, when he's talking about this passage, he really hits on this, like how serious it is, and goes on and on about Jesus dying for sin, and now we can't do away with something.

You can't lay something down for your brother. All right, verse 16 in Romans, here again, 14, 16. Therefore, do not let your good be spoken of as evil, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. Therefore, let us pursue the things which make for peace, and the things by which one may edify another. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.

He's talking about souls. He's talking about people that were saved. Don't destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure. Yes, I'll grant you that. But it is evil for a man to eat with a fence.

It is good neither to eat meat, nor drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles. Did you hear that? It's good neither to eat meat, or drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak.

That seems awful. I don't know. Don't you think that's a little over the top? Let me read it again. I mean, let's not just read over this. It is good neither to eat meat, nor drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak.

Do you have faith? Have it of yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself and what he approves, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith, and whatever is not from faith is sin.

So back to our Corinthian text. It's a big deal. It's not a little thing. The kind of language that Paul is surrounding this whole butcher market in Corinth and Rome is a big deal. Verse 7. However, there's not in everyone that knowledge.

There's not everyone the understanding that there's nothing in this. For some with consciousness of the idol until now eat it as if a thing offered to idols, and their conscience being weak is defiled.

And again, that's not a light thing for him. But food does not commend us to God, for neither if we eat are we any better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. So how do we apply this? Fortunately, today we don't have these sacrifices and things.

How do we apply it? On one hand, it helps me with somewhat, sometimes on my journey of writing to radical Christians, sometimes all of us, don't we, when we start to get really serious, your mind can almost go crazy about, well, if I do this, that's associated to that, and that's associated to this, that's that.

You can almost go crazy about feeling defiled by so many things. I know I do. It's particularly, and so it's good to understand that I can be at peace and just receive things as blessing from God without trying to dig things just too crazy, deeply with all.

You know what I mean by that? There's a sense that there's a strange sense of Paul recognizing that even though something as that graphic was happening, at the end of the day, there's nothing really to it.

They were offering it to demons, but to you, that doesn't count. And even seems to be saying that's generally okay if somebody would accidentally or whatever give you that meat. But that's not, so that helps me, but that's not the thrust of his argument.

The thrust of his argument is the way you're using your liberty. That's what he's rebuking in Romans. That's what he's rebuking now, and in the verse, the chapter a little bit more in 9, he goes a little bit more 10.

You're saying it's not a sin. It's not a sin. So what's the problem? And that whole mentality, it's not a sin. What's the big deal? Is what he's getting onto is something that he's trying to have a fine line about it.

He doesn't, so let's say going to a movie theater, or I'll get practical here. I just couldn't hardly stand going to a movie theater. I just, granted, I would be like, using this application, I don't think there's anything necessarily sinful about a theater and a film and that kind of a thing.

But if somebody was to see Dean Taylor going to a movie theater, and I'm walking out and everything, and there's all these movies that they show that they have on there. Let's say I'm going to see, I remember telling you once and I years ago, we went to see the Gospel of John on one of our anniversaries.

But if I'm walking out and people see, I don't know, some other thing that's playing in that movie, oh, just see Dean's at the movie. Oh, well, Dean can do that. It must be okay. Is that a stretch of this application?

I think he's saying that you just got to be careful that we have a sense of carrying the burdens of the weak, as he says, in some of these passages. But he's on a tightrope. And the tightrope is fascinating to watch because of this.

He hits on our conscience. And here's the interesting thing. The conscience can get messed up by carelessness or law. Both law and carelessness can mess up your conscience. And so I think that that's why Paul is walking such a tightrope when he goes with it.

Let me give you a couple examples of each the other for carelessness. In Romans 1 21, where he's talking about the Gentiles and just how they live their life. He says, for although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.

But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. So in other words, they came to a point where their idolatry and everything just seared their conscience. And although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Another one I think that kind of represents carelessness searing our conscience is Titus 1 15. To the pure, all things are pure. This is so Pauline, right? But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure.

But even their minds and conscience are defiled. So it's saying that a depraved person, a person who's given himself to sin and wickedness, it actually works to sear your conscience, to mess you up, that you're not going to be able to discern things correctly.

And so that's a concern. And many of the things in the New Testament try to help us with that. But the scary part, it works the other way too. In 1 Timothy 4 1, he actually says that these excessive laws can sear the conscience.

Now the spirit of 1 Timothy 4 1, now the spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with hot iron.

Wow, what were they doing? Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word and God through prayer.

Wow, so both living a loose life can mess up your conscience, or adding a bunch of extra laws can mess up your conscience. So you can see the tightrope that Paul is doing about this whole eating meat sacrifice to idle things.

He doesn't want to go there and start to create some things that's going to make people feel guilty about walking past the agora. But on the other hand, he's got a big problem with how loose the church is behaving and letting people literally lose their soul over your liberty.

I can do what? I'm free. And I'll tell you this part about this this law part. I'm a radical Christian. You know, radical Christians can really mess people up. I've been in radical Christianity ever since my conversion.

And here's the way it can happen. If the way that you're perceiving yourself, that you're adding these little things, that you're getting a bunch of extra biblical thing, or you're convinced on this type of a thing, we have to be very careful and walk in humility.

And because if we create this whole world that then falls apart, people are just... I've seen it. People just break into pieces. It's like when people leave a cult. If you ever hear... I was talking to David.

David Rousseau has a teaching on Jehovah's Witnesses, and he says, you know, when people leave something like Jehovah's Witnesses, or Mormons, or something like that, they're usually pretty messed up.

They don't just go to down the evangelical church and plug in and start singing in the choir. Because their entire life they've been told that everything is wicked, except this. I've said this before.

I'll say it again. There's two ways to rule the world. The one way is to be like Alexander the Great or Napoleon and raising might and conquering power and to roll over the whole world with tyranny. That's one way.

The other way is to create a world so small that you remove all the competition. And I have found that in those people around that world, it can be just as destructive. So in this way, to be able to walk righteously with conviction, to not to be a slave to the things that there's so much of the broad way that wants to tear us down to destruction.

And I want to walk with the radicals. I want to walk with in that road that is the narrow way. One of my favorite quotes from The Martyr's Mirror is, they press through a gate so straight that they left their flesh on the post.

They press through a gate so narrow that they left their flesh on the post. I want to be amongst the radicals. But in that, Paul is pleading with us be charitable towards brotherly love, towards edification, towards watching if you're making your brother sin, and in particular now, your freedom and what it's doing to others.