³⁴ If gambling, for example, is the major business in a certain city or state, perhaps people there would be little concerned over a person’s being employed in a gambling establishment, even though the person claimed to be a sincere follower of Jesus Christ. But does that make it right in the sight of God? Furthermore, what of the effect on the individual’s own conscience and heart? Would his conscience let him approach his Father with “freeness of speech” as being clean of anything meriting God’s disapproval? 1 John 3:19-22 says:

Beloved ones, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have freeness of speech toward God;