There will always be persons who try to extend the limits of Christian freedom far beyond what is reasonable so that they can satisfy their desires for sensual pleasure. They do not want to follow the Biblical injunction: “Deaden, therefore, your body members that are upon the earth as respects fornication, uncleanness, sexual appetite, hurtful desire, and covetousness.” (Colossians 3:5) Instead, they choose the very entertainment that incites these wrong desires. When involving others, they may argue: ‘If our conscience allows it, there is nothing wrong with it.’ But they fail to recognize that a defiled conscience is not a safe guide. These persons are yielding to their wrong desires and are, therefore, in slavery to these.

However, on again becoming entangled in God-dishonoring practices, he deliberately throws aside what he knows to be right. His knowledge of Jesus Christ and his Bible-trained conscience initially served as a restraint against wrong conduct. When breaking free from that wholesome restraint, he may well become even worse than before he took up the way of Christian discipleship. He may go beyond what men do who have no knowledge of the path of righteousness. This is because his conscience has become contaminated, or even seared​—like dead tissue. (Compare 1 Timothy 4:2.)