# The Christian Citizen with Francis Beckwith, and Q&A

An episode of [Bible Answer Man Podcast with Hank Hanegraaff](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/569236334), 22 Jul 2026, 28 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73069400/bam20260722.mp3

On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (07/22/26), Hank interviews Francis Beckwith on his article in the Christian Research Journal titled, “The Christian Citizen*” Hank also answers the following questions: How to best present Philippians 2:5-8 in a relevant and engaging way to a Sunday school class? Richard - Lexington, KY (15:14) We all sin, and sin is fun in many instances. If we are certain about going to heaven, why stop? Al - Calgary, AB (20:41)

## Transcript

[0:07] Speaker 1: Heard all across the United States, Canada, and around the world.
[0:11] Speaker 1: This is the Bible answer Man Broadcast with Hank Annagraph.
[0:15] Speaker 1: Hank as President of the Christian Research Institute at CRI.
[0:19] Speaker 1: Our desire is to equip you not only to defend
[0:22] Speaker 1: the historic Christian faith, but to become a winsome witness
[0:26] Speaker 1: to a spiritually hungry but skeptical world, because life and
[0:31] Speaker 1: truth matter. To learn more or to find resources to
[0:34] Speaker 1: help you grow in grace, call eight eight eight seven
[0:38] Speaker 1: thousand CROI, or go online to equip dot org. That's
[0:43] Speaker 1: equip dot org. The following program was pre recorded and
[0:49] Speaker 1: now here's Hank Cantagraph.
[0:51] Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Randy.
[0:52] Speaker 3: In just a few moments, I want to talk to
[0:54] Speaker 3: Frank beck With about an article that he wrote for
[0:57] Speaker 3: the Christian Research Journalists titled The Christian Citizen. And I
[1:02] Speaker 3: want to talk with Francis Beckwith about this article because
[1:06] Speaker 3: I think it is very important for us to recognize
[1:11] Speaker 3: our rights but also recognize our responsibilities.
[1:17] Speaker 4: Hi, Frank, Hey Hank, it's great to be on.
[1:20] Speaker 2: Well.
[1:20] Speaker 3: I want to talk about three points you make in
[1:23] Speaker 3: this article briefly, the first being that we are to
[1:26] Speaker 3: render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God
[1:31] Speaker 3: what belongs to God. Caesar, however, has to be concerned
[1:38] Speaker 3: with the good of his citizens because they are marked,
[1:41] Speaker 3: as you point out, by the image of God. Does
[1:45] Speaker 3: that mean that as believers we are called to resist
[1:48] Speaker 3: the evil of an unjust government? In other words, is
[1:52] Speaker 3: there justification for resistance to evil by the government?
[1:57] Speaker 1: Oh?
[1:57] Speaker 4: I think there is, although you know, we talk about
[2:00] Speaker 4: things like resistance, there's obviously it depends on the context
[2:03] Speaker 4: and the situation that one is in. You know, we're
[2:06] Speaker 4: fortunate in this day and age, at least in the
[2:09] Speaker 4: United States and in most of Western Europe, to live
[2:11] Speaker 4: in liberal democracies where we can resist at the ballot
[2:15] Speaker 4: box rather than take up arms, which is not something
[2:18] Speaker 4: that obviously Christ is addressing in that passage. But yes,
[2:21] Speaker 4: I do think we have an obligation to do good,
[2:25] Speaker 4: to advance the good. And you know, that passage, which
[2:28] Speaker 4: I talk about a little bit at the beginning of
[2:30] Speaker 4: the article, is one that often I think is misunderstood.
[2:32] Speaker 4: People look at it as Jesus sort of saying, you know,
[2:36] Speaker 4: the state deals with all these sort of secular matters,
[2:39] Speaker 4: and theology deals with all these sort of abstract soul matters.
[2:46] Speaker 4: And that whole idea, though, is something that somebody in
[2:49] Speaker 4: that day and age, at least in the early Church,
[2:51] Speaker 4: would have thought very odd. That's actually a modern idea.
[2:54] Speaker 4: What Jesus is saying is that in fact there are
[2:57] Speaker 4: two spheres, but they overlap one another. That is, Caesar
[3:01] Speaker 4: in fact does have jurisdiction, but ultimately God's jurisdiction is everything,
[3:05] Speaker 4: and so the power that he has Caesar is ultimately
[3:08] Speaker 4: derived from God himself, which is something Paul talks about
[3:12] Speaker 4: in Romans as well. But yeah, that particular passage is
[3:15] Speaker 4: something that struck me years ago when reading it. The
[3:18] Speaker 4: fact that the word image is used, and you know,
[3:21] Speaker 4: the word some translations actually have picture, and I think
[3:24] Speaker 4: that's actually a bad translation. Image corresponds rather nicely to
[3:29] Speaker 4: the whole idea that we're made in the image of God.
[3:33] Speaker 4: And of course it sort of begs the question if
[3:36] Speaker 4: in fact Caesar's jurisdiction includes this finite limited realm, Well,
[3:41] Speaker 4: there are creatures in it who in fact bear the
[3:44] Speaker 4: image of their maker, and which means that Caesar can't
[3:48] Speaker 4: do anything he wants.
[3:50] Speaker 3: Talk about the mandate to use the communication tools of
[3:54] Speaker 3: the twenty first century or social media to shape the
[3:57] Speaker 3: beliefs of not only our generation but the next generation,
[4:01] Speaker 3: and not just in terms of what we are against,
[4:05] Speaker 3: but the love and the righteousness and the equity that
[4:09] Speaker 3: we are called the champion as Christians.
[4:12] Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think you know our responsibilities today.
[4:15] Speaker 4: I mean the principles in scripture and what our predecessors
[4:20] Speaker 4: have taught us in church history apply today, but we
[4:23] Speaker 4: have to apply them obviously under different circumstances. And when
[4:26] Speaker 4: you have something like social media, you think about the
[4:29] Speaker 4: enormous responsibility that we have in that venue to communicate
[4:34] Speaker 4: the Gospel in ways that are both winsome and intelligent.
[4:38] Speaker 4: And I will tell you that it's sometimes very difficult
[4:40] Speaker 4: to do that given the way in which people will
[4:43] Speaker 4: write things, and it's much easier today to sort of
[4:47] Speaker 4: act in an unchristian manner in that venue. Then maybe
[4:51] Speaker 4: it was twenty years ago when you'd publish something and
[4:54] Speaker 4: you'd have an editor look at it, right, And so
[4:57] Speaker 4: if you'd written something that you may wish the had
[5:00] Speaker 4: not been published, you at least nail it early right.
[5:03] Speaker 4: But with social media and the quick way in which
[5:06] Speaker 4: we communicate, it kind of forces us in some ways
[5:09] Speaker 4: to be more virtuous, in ways that perhaps we weren't
[5:12] Speaker 4: disciplined to do in the past.
[5:15] Speaker 3: You point out that as citizens in a liberal democracy,
[5:19] Speaker 3: we have privileges that are just unimagined, but certainly our
[5:23] Speaker 3: first century counterparts, we have unprecedented access to levers of
[5:29] Speaker 3: power and influence. So I need you to take just
[5:33] Speaker 3: a moment to speak to our audience about the issue
[5:35] Speaker 3: of accountability for what we have been given as Christians.
[5:39] Speaker 3: In this regard, we have an opportunity to shape, influence
[5:44] Speaker 3: and impact people in a way that first century believers
[5:48] Speaker 3: could only have imagined.
[5:49] Speaker 4: Think about it this way. Imagine you take somebody not
[5:53] Speaker 4: just from the first century, but from like the thirteenth
[5:56] Speaker 4: century or the fourteenth century. You transport them to the
[6:00] Speaker 4: twenty first century, and you tell them that, in fact,
[6:03] Speaker 4: we can write virtually anything about our elected officials and
[6:08] Speaker 4: not be persecuted for it, not be punished, not be
[6:11] Speaker 4: put in a stock, not be put in a prison,
[6:13] Speaker 4: not be putt in a dungeon, not be killed. Think
[6:16] Speaker 4: about what Sir Thomas Moore faced when he challenged Henry
[6:20] Speaker 4: the eighth people. In those days, it would have been
[6:23] Speaker 4: unimaginable for them to conceive of a society where people
[6:26] Speaker 4: were free to speak about their elected officials, but not
[6:29] Speaker 4: only that, but to be in a position to actually
[6:32] Speaker 4: elect them, to put them in places of power, and
[6:34] Speaker 4: to hold them accountable. And so that puts us in
[6:37] Speaker 4: a different sort of position, let's say, in comparison to
[6:40] Speaker 4: Christians in earlier eras. We have to now think more
[6:44] Speaker 4: clearly and more scrupulously about who we're voting for what
[6:49] Speaker 4: laws are passed. And not only because we care about
[6:52] Speaker 4: our neighbors, we also because we care about the Church.
[6:55] Speaker 4: We have to think about the consequences that laws have
[6:59] Speaker 4: for fellow believers and how that affects or limits the
[7:05] Speaker 4: way in which we can express our beliefs to others
[7:08] Speaker 4: in ways that others in the past would have never
[7:11] Speaker 4: conceived as possible.
[7:13] Speaker 3: Francis a couple more questions. One is a more general
[7:18] Speaker 3: question in terms of living with eternity in mind, what
[7:22] Speaker 3: we do right now makes a difference for all eternity.
[7:27] Speaker 3: We're called to proclaim the Gospel, to be good citizens,
[7:31] Speaker 3: to make a difference, and there's a responsibility associated with
[7:37] Speaker 3: that that we're going to be called to account for.
[7:39] Speaker 3: In the finalist size that's right.
[7:42] Speaker 4: I mean something that you know. I don't know how
[7:44] Speaker 4: many times I've read the New Testament. Every time I
[7:47] Speaker 4: read it, I find something that I don't know how
[7:51] Speaker 4: I missed before. Try to read the New Testament several
[7:55] Speaker 4: times a year. And one of the things that reading
[7:58] Speaker 4: the Sermon on the Mount it hits me all of
[8:01] Speaker 4: a sudden, or even when Jesus talks about the Last Judgment,
[8:04] Speaker 4: this sort of connection between the faiths we have and
[8:08] Speaker 4: the way in which we act out that faith. One
[8:12] Speaker 4: of the things that we forget as Christians is that
[8:14] Speaker 4: one of the early heresies in the Church was gnosticism,
[8:17] Speaker 4: and it just wasn't a kind of philosophical mistake, although
[8:21] Speaker 4: it was, it was also a denigration and a diminishing
[8:27] Speaker 4: of this life as almost irrelevant. That is to say,
[8:32] Speaker 4: the physical world, the world of ordinary life, is of
[8:35] Speaker 4: no relevance. And that's something that we read not only Jesus,
[8:39] Speaker 4: obviously it's before gnosticism is a heresy, but we find
[8:43] Speaker 4: him talking about the importance of this life and what
[8:46] Speaker 4: we do in it, how we treat our neighbor, how
[8:49] Speaker 4: we engage with others, and the love that we showed
[8:51] Speaker 4: to not only our family members, but everybody. We also
[8:53] Speaker 4: find in John and in Paul the same sort of thing.
[8:57] Speaker 4: That's sort of bringing it back that I'd rather be
[9:00] Speaker 4: with Christ. But there is a life here and what
[9:03] Speaker 4: we do here does make a difference.
[9:06] Speaker 3: We're talking about an article in the Christian Research Journal.
[9:09] Speaker 3: It's titled The Christian Citizen. The very title suggests that
[9:15] Speaker 3: we are both Christian and citizen, and therefore we have
[9:20] Speaker 3: a responsibility to demonstrate that we are marked with the
[9:27] Speaker 3: image of God, to treat others, even though they may
[9:30] Speaker 3: not be Christian in such a way as well, because
[9:34] Speaker 3: they too are stamped with the image of God. And
[9:37] Speaker 3: we are called to use the prerogatives and privileges that
[9:42] Speaker 3: we have to make a difference.
[9:44] Speaker 4: That's right. I mean, a couple of passages in the
[9:47] Speaker 4: Book of Acts really stood out for me, and I
[9:49] Speaker 4: talk about them in the article. One is when Paul
[9:53] Speaker 4: and Silas are let go after they're put in jail unjustly,
[9:57] Speaker 4: and Paul doesn't just say, well, thank you very much,
[9:59] Speaker 4: we're going to move on. He actually then demands to
[10:02] Speaker 4: see those that are in charge, and he says, you know,
[10:05] Speaker 4: I'm a Roman citizen, and he exercises his rights, and
[10:08] Speaker 4: I suspect what's going on there is that Paul isn't
[10:12] Speaker 4: just thinking about himself. He's thinking about the other people
[10:15] Speaker 4: in the Christian community who he needs to protect by
[10:19] Speaker 4: exercising his rights and saying to the state, Look, you
[10:23] Speaker 4: can't treat us this way, this is wrong. In fact,
[10:27] Speaker 4: at one point he appeals to his lack of due process.
[10:30] Speaker 4: Why weren't we given a trial? I mean, these are
[10:32] Speaker 4: the sorts of things that, in this particular instance, that
[10:37] Speaker 4: I think we can extrapolate from and say, yes, it's
[10:40] Speaker 4: perfectly appropriate for the Christian, when confronted with an injustice
[10:44] Speaker 4: in fact, to exercise whatever rights or powers that he
[10:47] Speaker 4: can legitimately exercise in that circumstance.
[10:51] Speaker 3: Francis, I want to thank you for your contribution to
[10:54] Speaker 3: the Christian Research Journal, the Christian Community.
[10:57] Speaker 2: God bless you, my friend.
[10:59] Speaker 4: Well, thank you, I appreciate it.
[11:01] Speaker 2: Be right back with your questions.
[11:03] Speaker 1: The famous British apologist GK. Chesterton once noted the true
[11:08] Speaker 1: soldier fights not because he hates what is in front
[11:11] Speaker 1: of him, but because he loves what is behind him.
[11:13] Speaker 1: Because at CRII we love what is behind us, our faith,
[11:17] Speaker 1: our families, and our freedoms. We will never retreat quietly
[11:21] Speaker 1: from the growing assaults on life and truth, even when
[11:24] Speaker 1: the costs are great. We will stand to join like
[11:28] Speaker 1: minded friends in making a difference at home and around
[11:31] Speaker 1: the globe, and to equip fellow believers to stand their
[11:34] Speaker 1: ground courageously. Become a member of CRI's support team. Simply
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[11:48] Speaker 1: dot org.
[11:50] Speaker 2: Stay with us.
[11:51] Speaker 1: Hank Canigraph will return in a few moments. The Complete
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[13:01] Speaker 5: For decades, Hank Hanagraph has shared the truth of the
[13:04] Speaker 5: historic Christian faith by answering questions over the radio, defending
[13:09] Speaker 5: the faith through the written word, and preaching from pulpits
[13:12] Speaker 5: around the globe. Today, he is.
[13:14] Speaker 6: Ready to share his life in Christ, as detailed in
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[13:22] Speaker 6: Life Matters More. Hank feels closer to Christ than ever
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[13:29] Speaker 6: recounted in Truth Matters, Life Matters More, so that you
[13:33] Speaker 6: can join him on life's greatest journey, the journey toward
[13:36] Speaker 6: Union with God in Christ. To receive your copy of
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[13:43] Speaker 6: authentic Christian life, call eight eight eight seven thousand CRI
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[14:00] Speaker 1: Anyone who's been paying attention knows there's a war going on,
[14:04] Speaker 1: not just on traditional morality, civility, and decency, but even
[14:08] Speaker 1: more fundamentally on historic notions of truth. And the enemy
[14:12] Speaker 1: isn't just the onslaught of fake news, facilitated by a
[14:16] Speaker 1: post truth culture and turbocharged by growing legions of ideological spinductors.
[14:21] Speaker 1: Note the real enemies of truth range from postmodernist convictions
[14:25] Speaker 1: that there is no objective truth to militant scientism that
[14:29] Speaker 1: claims that only science can determine truth and religion is
[14:33] Speaker 1: little more than primitive superstitions. But CRI Support Team members
[14:37] Speaker 1: are not waving a white flag of surrender. They're holding
[14:40] Speaker 1: the fort by undergirding everyone of Christian Research Institute's mind
[14:45] Speaker 1: shaping and life changing outreaches twenty four to seven. To
[14:48] Speaker 1: learn how you can make a difference and enjoy all
[14:51] Speaker 1: the benefits of Support Team membership, simply visit equip dot org.
[15:07] Speaker 1: Now back to the Bible answer Man broadcast and your
[15:10] Speaker 1: host and canagraph.
[15:12] Speaker 3: Thank you much for Randy, and let's go to the
[15:14] Speaker 3: phone lines. Doctor Richard listening in Lexington Kentucky.
[15:17] Speaker 7: Hi Richard, Hey Hank, thank you for taking my call,
[15:21] Speaker 7: my pleasure. I wanted some guidance from you. We've been
[15:24] Speaker 7: journeying through Philippians in my Sunday school class and preparing
[15:29] Speaker 7: for Sunday's lesson Where We Find Ourselves Chapter two Versus
[15:33] Speaker 7: five through eight, which really key in on the deity
[15:37] Speaker 7: and the incarnation of Christ. And I guess two questions
[15:40] Speaker 7: for you, how to best present that material in a
[15:45] Speaker 7: way that is taking very complex issues and making them understandable.
[15:50] Speaker 7: And I guess number two to that how to keep
[15:53] Speaker 7: people engaged and keep it interesting that it's not just
[15:58] Speaker 7: doctrine and you know, lose to the interest of the
[16:01] Speaker 7: class of a Keep it relevant, keep it and exciting,
[16:04] Speaker 7: and keep it interesting.
[16:05] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[16:06] Speaker 3: Well, good questions. And as to the last question, I
[16:09] Speaker 3: think it's crucial, particularly when we recognize that doctrine should
[16:16] Speaker 3: never be considered a boring, much less a dirty word.
[16:20] Speaker 3: And unfortunately that's the case in our culture. We don't
[16:23] Speaker 3: recognize that a cential Christian doctrine is what the martyrs
[16:29] Speaker 3: shed their blood to protect because they recognized essential Christian
[16:34] Speaker 3: doctrine is the line of demarcation between the Kingdom of
[16:38] Speaker 3: Christ and the kingdom of the cults.
[16:42] Speaker 2: So this is.
[16:42] Speaker 3: The north star by which we set our course, and
[16:47] Speaker 3: particularly today, teaching a class in that area is significant
[16:53] Speaker 3: beyond imagination, because we have lost our way. Most Christians
[16:59] Speaker 3: simply don't know essential Christian doctrine. So I think it's
[17:04] Speaker 3: important to communicate this in a memorable fashion, and then
[17:08] Speaker 3: to underscore in red the essential nature of the doctrines
[17:14] Speaker 3: for which the martyrs spilled their blood in terms of
[17:18] Speaker 3: the first part of your question presenting this material in
[17:22] Speaker 3: irrelevant fashion. Look, here is a passage in which we
[17:27] Speaker 3: are called to imitate the humility of Jesus Christ, who,
[17:32] Speaker 3: being in very nature God, did not consider equality with
[17:37] Speaker 3: God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking
[17:41] Speaker 3: the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness.
[17:45] Speaker 3: Think about this for a moment. Here's the one who
[17:47] Speaker 3: spoke and the universe left into existence.
[17:51] Speaker 2: Here's the one who knit you.
[17:53] Speaker 3: Together in your mother's womb, such that you can know
[17:57] Speaker 3: your fearfully and wonderfully made all the days ordained for
[18:02] Speaker 3: you written in his book before even one of them
[18:06] Speaker 3: came to be. And this one did not consider equality
[18:13] Speaker 3: something to be grasped something to cling to, something to
[18:18] Speaker 3: hold tightly to, but rather, for our sakes, voluntarily took
[18:24] Speaker 3: on the limitations of humanity so that we could ultimately
[18:31] Speaker 3: be reconciled to God. Now, obviously, something that has to
[18:34] Speaker 3: be underscore to the lesson is that while Jesus Christ
[18:38] Speaker 3: took on the limitations of humanity, he didn't divest himself
[18:42] Speaker 3: from a single attribute of deity. Therefore, Jesus Christ, in
[18:47] Speaker 3: the incarnation not only could, but did, upon occasion, exercise
[18:53] Speaker 3: the prerogatives of divinity. And we can see that most
[18:57] Speaker 3: eloquently in his resurrection, because we are told by Paul
[19:01] Speaker 3: that Jesus Christ not only had the power to lay
[19:04] Speaker 3: down his life, but he had the power to take
[19:08] Speaker 3: up his life again, thus demonstrating that he is God.
[19:13] Speaker 3: And I think implicit in this is an application for
[19:16] Speaker 3: us as believers, the application to your class. We should
[19:20] Speaker 3: not cling too tightly to our prerogatives. We have our health,
[19:27] Speaker 3: we have our wealth, we have all kinds of privileges.
[19:31] Speaker 3: As believers, all of us are enormously privileged in one
[19:35] Speaker 3: way or another, and we should not grasp that too tightly,
[19:39] Speaker 3: because we ourselves have an opportunity to live not just
[19:43] Speaker 3: for temporary verities, but for eternal verities, because there will
[19:48] Speaker 3: be a time where we're translated into eternity, and that's
[19:51] Speaker 3: not far off reach. One of us is just a
[19:54] Speaker 3: heartbeat away. So I think there's a wonderful truth about
[19:57] Speaker 3: the incarnation that could be taught to your clas as
[20:00] Speaker 3: well as a wonderful application.
[20:02] Speaker 2: Right.
[20:03] Speaker 7: And and this idea of the prerogatives that you mentioned,
[20:07] Speaker 7: that is what is being referred to when is said
[20:10] Speaker 7: that he empied himself. The prerogatives are what he emptied
[20:14] Speaker 7: himself of.
[20:15] Speaker 3: Yeah, he set aside the prerogative for independently using his
[20:21] Speaker 3: divine attributes.
[20:22] Speaker 7: Okay, that helps out quite a bit.
[20:25] Speaker 3: Well, God bless you with your class.
[20:27] Speaker 7: Thank you, Hank. I appreciate the insight and the guidance.
[20:30] Speaker 7: Thank you for your ministry, and thank you as well
[20:32] Speaker 7: for your publication. It's a wonderful, wonderful publication. I've been
[20:35] Speaker 7: blessed many times from it.
[20:38] Speaker 2: Well, thank you for that commendation. God bless you, Richard.
[20:41] Speaker 3: I want to go back to the phone lines, Tuck
[20:42] Speaker 3: to Al. He's listening in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
[20:45] Speaker 8: Hi, Al, Hey, how are you today?
[20:47] Speaker 2: Good?
[20:48] Speaker 3: How are you very well?
[20:50] Speaker 8: Thank you for asking. I'm kind of new at being
[20:53] Speaker 8: a Christian, been a Christian for like three years or so.
[20:57] Speaker 8: And when I became a Christian, I believe I was
[20:59] Speaker 8: saved by that. I mean, I believe Jesus is my
[21:06] Speaker 8: savior and I put my faith in him. Now my
[21:11] Speaker 8: question has to do with sin. We all sin, but
[21:16] Speaker 8: sin is fun in many, many instances. So if we
[21:20] Speaker 8: can get to heaven, like even though we're sinning, why
[21:25] Speaker 8: should we stop?
[21:27] Speaker 3: Yeah, well, a couple of things. One is, sin is
[21:32] Speaker 3: what shimmers and glimmers, like an empty bobble. It looks
[21:37] Speaker 3: so good, but when you puncture it, it just poof,
[21:40] Speaker 3: It disappears and vaporizes, and all of a sudden you
[21:44] Speaker 3: recognize that what you thought was so much fun has
[21:49] Speaker 3: a consequence. And that means in two different ways. Number One,
[21:53] Speaker 3: it has a immediate consequence. So for example, it might
[21:59] Speaker 3: be fun to get drunk or to get high, but
[22:03] Speaker 3: there's always a consequence to that activity. The consequence of
[22:09] Speaker 3: getting drunk might be that you wake up with a
[22:11] Speaker 3: headache the next morning, but the consequence could also be that,
[22:14] Speaker 3: because you're in an altered state of consciousness, you did
[22:16] Speaker 3: something you wouldn't ordinarily do because you lost your inhibitions,
[22:21] Speaker 3: and as a result, perhaps you got someone pregnant, and
[22:24] Speaker 3: you live with that consequence for the rest of your life,
[22:27] Speaker 3: that responsibility. And so there are consequences that follow inexorably,
[22:32] Speaker 3: like night follows day. But those consequences are not just
[22:36] Speaker 3: temporary consequences. There are also eternal consequences. The Bible is
[22:41] Speaker 3: emphatic on this point. What we do now counts for
[22:46] Speaker 3: all eternity. Therefore Jesus has behold, I come quickly. My
[22:50] Speaker 3: reward is with me, and I'll give to everyone according
[22:55] Speaker 3: to what he has done. So we certainly work from
[22:58] Speaker 3: our salvation, and therefore the consequence of what we do
[23:03] Speaker 3: follows us even to eternity.
[23:06] Speaker 8: So I'd have like a lesser station in heaven if
[23:09] Speaker 8: I sinned and enjoyed it now.
[23:12] Speaker 3: Yeah, and again the stopper here in terms of logic,
[23:16] Speaker 3: is you enjoy it now? We think we enjoy it,
[23:20] Speaker 3: But let.
[23:21] Speaker 2: Me tell you this.
[23:22] Speaker 3: God places parameters around our lives not because he is
[23:28] Speaker 3: a cosmic killed joy. It's because he wants our joy
[23:32] Speaker 3: to be genuine and complete. So we think, wow, we're
[23:38] Speaker 3: gonna have a lot more fun if we do it
[23:41] Speaker 3: our way, and if we do it God's way, well,
[23:43] Speaker 3: you know what, it'll be tough. No, it's exactly the
[23:47] Speaker 3: opposite of that.
[23:48] Speaker 8: But I'm just saying, like some sins like, oh, I
[23:53] Speaker 8: could have an extra slice of cake. Now, I know
[23:55] Speaker 8: that's probably wrong, it's probably a sin, but I'm gonna
[23:58] Speaker 8: do it anyways. I know it might lead to obesity
[24:02] Speaker 8: or some such thing like that, but it's one of
[24:04] Speaker 8: those little ones.
[24:05] Speaker 3: Yeah, but there's a consequence of that, And that's the
[24:07] Speaker 3: whole point again, and that's in a very good illustration.
[24:11] Speaker 3: I mean, if you have an extra slice of cake
[24:14] Speaker 3: for too many weeks in a row, you're gonna either
[24:17] Speaker 3: be fat or you're gonna have to work your tail
[24:20] Speaker 3: off to get rid of the stomach. You know it's
[24:24] Speaker 3: I'm going through that right now, trust me. So this is,
[24:27] Speaker 3: you know, scratching where I itch because I am you know,
[24:30] Speaker 3: I'm probably ten fifteen pounds overweight, and I've tried to
[24:34] Speaker 3: kid myself into thinking I carry my weight really well.
[24:37] Speaker 3: But you know, there's a consequence to being overweight. And
[24:40] Speaker 3: so now I am all of a sudden having to
[24:43] Speaker 3: exercise seven days a week to try to get my
[24:46] Speaker 3: body back into stay. Why Because I'm called to be
[24:49] Speaker 3: a steward not only of my mind, but the temple
[24:52] Speaker 3: that God has given me. And if I'm not a
[24:54] Speaker 3: good steward of the temple God has given me, it
[24:57] Speaker 3: has an effect on my mind as well. And I
[24:59] Speaker 3: have to give an account for the responsibilities and privileges
[25:04] Speaker 3: God has given me a ministry, and I want to
[25:05] Speaker 3: take that seriously. So again, I mean, it all fits together.
[25:09] Speaker 3: We want to live within the parameters God sets for
[25:11] Speaker 3: us to live within. We don't want to be gluttons.
[25:14] Speaker 3: We don't want to be drunkards. Enjoying good food is fine.
[25:18] Speaker 3: We're called to be stewards of what God has given us.
[25:21] Speaker 3: That's the bottom line, and we will give an account
[25:24] Speaker 3: for what we did in the flesh.
[25:26] Speaker 2: We should do.
[25:27] Speaker 3: Good and avoid evil, not just because of the consequence,
[25:31] Speaker 3: but because it is the right thing to do.
[25:34] Speaker 2: So if we truly love God, we want to do good.
[25:38] Speaker 3: We want to avoid evil because that is what He
[25:43] Speaker 3: wants us to do. And ultimately, we're living for an audience,
[25:47] Speaker 3: so we are out of time for this edition of
[25:50] Speaker 3: the Bible. Answer Man broadcast, as always, thank you for
[25:54] Speaker 3: tuning into this edition of the Bible Instrument Broadcast. We
[25:57] Speaker 3: look forward to seeing you next time with more of
[25:59] Speaker 3: the show, and meantime, make God continue to richly bless you.
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