DON'T BE EASY, DON'T BE EXTREME 1. Human conscience! It is the good nature that God placed in each person. Conscience is affected by external and internal factors. Conscience is weak, conscience is hardened. There are problems related to conscience. I Corinthians 10:27, 28. If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no questions for the sake of conscience. 28 But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," do not eat it, because of the one who told you, and because of conscience. I Corinthians 8:1, 2. Now about things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. But knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone thinks he knows something, he does not know it as he should. 2. The devil pushes us to two extremes: easygoing and fanaticism! Accepting our national culture is an inevitable part of life! Whatever affects our faith, we must eliminate, but whatever does not affect our faith, we must accept gently! Numbers 21:9. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole; and whoever was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake lived. Is the story of the fiery snakes and bronze snakes an idolatry of snakes? Fanatics often think that they are prompted by the Holy Spirit to warn others! The story of the man who criticized paintings at an art gallery! 3. Jesus and Paul were not fanatics! John 3:14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up… (The Lord Himself says) Acts 17:23. For as I passed through your city and considered your objects of worship, I found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 1 Corinthians 7:18-20. Was a man called already circumcised? Let him be circumcised. Was an uncircumcised man called? Let him not be circumcised. 19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God. 20 Each one must remain in the condition in which he was called. 1 Corinthians 9:22. With the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Luke 9:53-56. …but the Samaritans did not receive him, because he was going toward Jerusalem. 54When the disciples James and John saw this, they said to him, Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven and consume them? 55But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and said to them, 'You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. Mark 9:38-40. John answered him, 'Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he was not one of us. 39Jesus said to him, 'Do not forbid him; for no one who does a miracle in my name can soon afterward speak evil of me. 40He who is not against me is for me. Matthew 15:6. Thus you have made the word of God void because of your tradition. Romans 12:3. For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according to the measure of faith that God has distributed to each of you. 1 Corinthians 6:12. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not beneficial. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.