Page 80 To the Strong in Conscience. Exercise your freedom, but do not flaunt it. Neither evangelize or parade it in front of others. Do not criticize or act condescending toward the weak in conscience. Do not call them ,legalistic or look down on them as being less spiritual or inferior in light than you. Enjoy your freedom. Don’t be paranoid about phantom weak-conscience believers who may be lurking around you without your knowledge. If a weaker believer identifies himself or you are aware that such a person is present, then exercise restraint on your freedom lest you make him stumble. Do not try to persuade him to have a stronger conscience either. Love thinks no evil. Believe that the weak in conscience is abstaining ,unto the Lord. The responsibility for maintaining the integrity of the relationship between weak and strong falls on you who are strong. ,We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves (Rom. 15:1). For this is the way of Jesus Christ. As Martin Luther once put it, ,A Christian man is a most free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian man is a most dutiful servant of all, subject to all. To the Legalist. Follow your own standards of conduct. Take heed to your own conscience. But do not force your standards onto others. Do not lobby or politic for them. Do not judge your weaker brethren. Do not criticize them. Do not try to persuade them to your view. Guard against a Pharisaical spirit which puts undue pressure on
Matthew suffered martyrdom by being slain with a sword at a distant city of Ethiopia.
Mark expired at Alexandria, after being cruelly dragged through the streets of that city.
Luke was hanged upon an olive tree in the classic land of Greece.
John was put in a cauldron of boiling oil, but escaped death in a miraculous manner, and was afterward banished to Patmos.
Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downward.
James, the Greater, was beheaded at Jerusalem.
James, the Less, was thrown from a lofty pinnacle of the temple, and then beaten to death with a fuller’s club.
Bartholomew was flayed alive.
Andrew was bound to a cross, whence he preached to his persecutors until he died.
Thomas was run through the body with a lance at Coromandel in the East Indies.
Jude was shot to death with arrows.
Matthais was first stoned and then beheaded.
Barnabas of the Gentiles was stoned to death at Salonica.
Paul, after various tortures and persecutions, was at length beheaded at Rome by the Emperor Nero.
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