The Narrow Path 10/05/2026

Announcer: Good afternoon and welcome to the Narrow Path radio broadcast. My name is Steve Gregg and we're live for an hour each weekday afternoon taking your calls so that you can call in and we can dialogue if you have questions or problems with the Bible or the Christian faith. You'd like to talk about that, bring those things up. Perhaps you've heard something the host has said that you disagree with and you'd like to balance comment, that's always good too. Feel free to give me a call. Right now there are some lines open, which means it may be better now to call than later because sometimes later in the show they're all full. So the number to call is 844-484-5737. Once again, that's 844-484-5737. And many of you know I'm speaking in Michigan a number of places this week. I think I'm about halfway through my itinerary. I'm speaking in the Detroit area today tonight. In fact, in Detroit in Eastern Time Zone, this show plays live from 5:00 to 6:00. Of course, when I'm at home in California, it's 2:00 to 3:00 in the afternoon. On the Eastern seaboard and Michigan isn't on the seaboard, but it's in Eastern Time Zone. We're on from 5:00 to 6:00, which is of course the same time, different part of the world, different part of the country. But the announced time for our meeting tonight is 6:00. And I'm not at the location, I'm near, but when I finish the program, I've got to drive over to the location. And so I'll be a few minutes late, but they've got food, they've got pizza, they've got refreshments, and if you show up at 6:00, you'll be able to eat something and fellowship with some pretty cool people. I was at this location last year and I really enjoyed the people I met. There was a pretty good sized group. We're in Hamtramck and that's kind of a different kind of city because it's had a lot of Muslim immigrants and Muslim influence, a little like Dearborn. And so it's kind of interesting to have some ministry going on in that town. So that's tonight at 6:00, although in this time zone the program ends at 6:00 and it'll take me a few minutes at least to get over there. They want me to be talking about the Judgment Day, what the Bible talks about the final judgment. Then tomorrow I'm speaking twice in Port Huron. I'm speaking in the morning and I'm speaking in the evening. And then let's see, Wednesday I'm going to be in West Bloomfield and I'm going to be talking two sessions, two hours each with a break. I'll be talking about the Olivet Discourse, the Millennium, and Israel, and there will be Q&A. These subjects are assigned to me. I don't pick controversial subjects to talk about in order to be controversial. People ask me to speak on these subjects. So that's Wednesday in West Bloomfield, Michigan. And then my last day in Michigan is going to be Thursday. I'll be speaking in Temperance, Michigan, which is near Toledo, Ohio. And I'll be speaking that evening there. So all these appointments are at the narrowpath.com, our website, thenarrowpath.com under the tab that says announcements. If you're in Michigan or maybe Ohio and you want to come to one of these meetings, we welcome you to do so. Of course, there's no charge. We welcome anybody who wishes to come and learn. All right, so that's enough of that and we're going to go to the phone lines now, which happen to be full at the moment. Eddie in Paradise Hills, California is first. Hello, Eddie. Welcome.
Eddie: Hello, Gregg. I have two questions. I believe they're simple, but I just want to make sure what it is I need to do or can't do, so to speak. The first one is when I'm someplace and people ask me or us to pray and they say bow your heads and I sometimes feel as though, okay, I can do that, but I want to raise my head and look up to heaven and pray. And then the second question would be, are all sins evil?
Steve Gregg: You mean are all sins equally evil? Certainly all sins are evil because they're disobedience and they're rebellion against God. But do you mean are they all equally evil or just is every sin a bad thing?
Eddie: Well, that's kind of what I'm wondering. If I do a simple sin as opposed to a real bad sin like murder or something like that, which I would believe is evil as opposed to maybe just telling a lie, which is probably a sin also, would be a sin also, but is that also evil?
Steve Gregg: All right, I'll be glad to talk about that. First of all, about bowing your head, the Bible doesn't anywhere instruct that we have to have our heads bowed when we pray or our eyes closed. I think the custom of bowing the head arose because it's a sign of reverence and submission, like a servant bowing before his king or his master. And the posture of our body, I mean, I can pray while I'm walking around the neighborhood, I can pray while I'm driving, I can pray in any posture. But it's not that it doesn't make a difference. It's amazing how our attitudes are connected to our posture. If you stand up straight, throw your shoulders back and your head up and so forth, it's going to make you feel somewhat confident just because you're adopting a posture of confidence. If you get on your knees or on your face before God or bow, it's a posture of humility. And you don't have to be in that posture, but it's conducive. It's conducive to humility. I'm not saying you have to be in that position to be humble, but it doesn't hurt. Now to lift your eyes to God when you pray, there's nothing wrong with that. I think people in the Bible did that. They certainly lifted their hands to God and their heads to God and their face sometimes, and sometimes they bowed, but there's no instruction about that. So if you feel that lifting your eyes to heaven actually focuses your thoughts on God more clearly than closing your eyes and bowing, that's fine. I think one reason people close their eyes, and it's interesting because in the Bible we don't read of anyone closing their eyes when they prayed, and so it's neither right nor wrong to do it, but closing the eyes allows you to frankly not notice things going on around you, distractions. It's so easy when we're speaking to the invisible God for the things in the visible room around us or world around us to catch our attention and for us to notice them and maybe start thinking about them. Now you can be distracted with your eyes closed too, everybody knows that who's ever prayed with their eyes closed, your thoughts can wander. But I think the habit of closing the eyes was adopted because it's so easy if your eyes are looking around the room when you're talking to God, you might be distracted by things. But again, if you're driving, keep your eyes open. If you're walking down the street and praying, probably should have your eyes open. And God can hear you and he doesn't command us to close our eyes. So that's that. Now are all sins evil? I think maybe you're thinking of evil as a more extreme form of the word bad. And I suppose evil and wicked are referring to pretty high degrees of bad. But I don't really think of degrees that much because there's no little bad. The Bible says sin is the transgression of God's law. And so if God tells you not to do something and you do it, that's a rebellious act. If you knowingly do it, the Bible says in James, "He that knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin." So if you know that God has something he wants you to do and something he does not want you to do and you violate that on purpose, that's a sin. Now there's even such thing as sinning in ignorance, which means you don't know that you're doing something wrong. And the reason it's still a sin is not the guilt of it is equal if it's an ignorant sin. But on the other hand, it's still a wrong thing to do. It's not what God wants people to do. The fact that you're ignorant of it might appeal for some lenience or mercy because you didn't know you were doing the wrong thing. And God is wise and just and merciful and takes those things into consideration. But it doesn't mean you didn't do the wrong thing. It's like if I broke something of yours because I didn't know it was yours and I didn't think it had any value, I thought it was trash and I just threw it in the trash can and it broke, and then I found out later it was a very expensive item that was very sentimental to you. I would say, "Well, I didn't know that, and therefore when I did it, I wasn't being malicious, but the damage is still done. It was still something bad. It still hurt you." And so even though God may be more merciful towards sins of ignorance because he knew that we didn't mean it, we still, when we realize we've done it, should be sad about it, should be repentant of it. And so everything we do that's against what God said is some kind of an injury to the dignity of God. Not that he's thin-skinned about it, but once we know we've done something that's displeasing to God, we in our own conscience, we should think of it as very evil, evil enough to repent of it. And some people are raised in very legalistic churches and they think that to see yourself as a sinner is to live in a state of gloom and they think that religion is oppressive because so many of the things that we do out of weakness are forbidden and therefore we later realize, "Oh, that was a sin and I'm guilty of something." But that's not a life of gloom. It's just a life of reality. I mean, you could be every bit as guilty without a thought of it. It's that Christ and the Bible define for us what falls short of what God wants. And when we realize that we've fallen short, there's mercy. We can repent and we don't have to live in guilt at all. But to pretend like we're not guilty or to not know that we're guilty is not an advantage over knowing. Some people say, "Oh, religion just makes people feel bad." Well, I guess it does if there's no grace in it. Shame on whoever's preaching religion that way. But the truth is the knowledge that we're sinners is simply the knowledge of reality. Now, when you tell a lie, it's not exactly as damaging perhaps, depending on what the lie is. Some lies might lead to the death of millions. But there are lies that one might tell that doesn't do as much harm as say, murdering somebody, obviously. And one reason that God forbids sin is because it damages people, it hurts people. God loves people. He doesn't want them to be damaged. And if we're damaging each other by our sinful behavior, that's not okay. And if we do more damage rather than less, there are consequences, no doubt, because in the Old Testament, there were sins that were all sins, even small sins, even sins of ignorance, they had to offer animal sacrifices to cover them. And by the way, the same sacrifice would cover big sins and little sins just like the sacrifice of Christ does. But it's still the case that there were some sins that weren't such that you'd have a death penalty for because they weren't quite as heinous, didn't do as much harm, did not reflect as much malice and wickedness of heart as others. I mean, there's like 30 capital crimes in the law. But there's also things like stealing, which is not okay. It's a sin. And if you've done it, you have to repent of it and you have to make restitution. You don't have to die for it. Some sins required the death penalty because that's how bad they were. And then others did not require the death penalty. They were still sins, you still had to offer sacrifice, but in the case of theft, it wasn't a death penalty. It was actually just repayment of the debt with a penalty, that is you might have to pay back four lambs for one lamb that you stole or five oxen for one oxen, but still that's better than being put to death. So not all sins are of equal weight, not all sins do equal damage, but all sins are a violation of God's standards and therefore all need to be atoned for. So it's not as if you only need Jesus to forgive you if you're a murderer or if you've robbed banks or something like that. You need Jesus just because even every time you've been envious, every time you've lusted wrongfully, every time you've stolen some little thing or simply treated somebody unkindly, that's a sin. And we all sin, we all have sin, the Bible says. And there's no reason to try to minimize them. Minimizing them doesn't get rid of them. Repenting does. So whether our sins are big or small, repenting is the sensible thing to do and the thing that's required. So I'd say all sins are evil if by evil we just mean bad. Obviously, if we're using the word evil to mean heinous or wicked, I mean there are certainly degrees of perversion and nastiness that some people have as opposed to others. But even the best of sinners needs Jesus because the best of sinners is still a sinner. So I hope that answers your question for you. I need to take another call, but thank you for your call. Ryan in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Welcome to the Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.
Ryan: Hey, Steve. Thanks for taking my call. I just have a quick question. I'm going to be getting divorced soon from my wife. She committed adultery and we've been kind of separated for about eight years. Would it be wrong for me to get married again?
Steve Gregg: Well, remarriage after divorce is something the Bible does mention, but it doesn't have a long and detailed teaching on the subject. The statements Jesus made are essentially against divorce and also against remarriage. However, depending on different people's interpretations, including mine, I believe there are grounds for divorce. And there's not a lot of grounds for divorce. There's some very serious sins, including adultery, that give grounds for divorce. And if you have gotten a divorce properly with grounds, I believe you're free to remarry. Now, there are people who say you're not. There are people who say you can get divorced but you can't remarry. And there's people who say you can't get divorced for any reason. These are all different degrees of I'd say legalism that exist in different Christian groups. And if you do divorce, while it sounds like you have grounds for divorce and could remarry, I mean from the way I read the scriptures, you'll encounter Christians for the rest of your life here and there who think you're living in adultery in a second marriage. So that's just a part of counting the cost of making that decision. Now, I'm not going to ask for details, but I mean I will say this. If your wife committed adultery once or twice and she gave it up and repented, even though you might have grounds for divorce, it might be more pleasing to God to try to reconcile and restore the marriage. Whereas of course if a wife is just given over to adultery, she's sleeping with various men or she's got a long-term thing going with another guy, I could see that as being something more worthy of divorce. I've mentioned before years ago I was married to a woman when I was very young and we had a child and so forth. And she committed adultery while we were married with a couple different men, maybe more. She told me about two of them. I don't know if there were others as well, but I'm going to just assume there were the two. And it's very heartbreaking to have your wife, when you're faithful, you plan to be married for life and to form a family and be one with your wife and grow together and so forth, and then you find out she's just shattered that. It's hard to stay together. It's hard to forgive and so forth, but I still wanted to. We had a child, I didn't want my child to be in a broken home. I decided would not divorce her even though she did those things. And she didn't repent. I mean, she told me about them, but she didn't repent of them. And so she eventually ran off and divorced me and left me with the child, so the outcome was kind of, I guess, kind of predictable, but I wasn't going to do it. I would think that if the marriage in any sense can be salvaged, even though you may have grounds for divorce, I think more than asking what am I allowed to do, we should ask what would please God for me to do? Because God may grant mercy or might allow you to do certain things that aren't the thing he wants most for you to do. There's times when Paul talks about, "It's okay if you do such and such, but it'd be better if you do this other thing." And so as a Christian, I wanted to know not do I have the right to divorce my wife who's committed adultery and go looking for someone better, but what would please God most? What would glorify God most? I felt it would glorify God more if I forgave her, tried to keep the marriage intact, tried to restore it, maybe we could get it back on track. But since she ran off and divorced me, obviously it was out of my hand. Anyway, so I don't know what your situation is. I just think that when your spouse commits adultery, it is such a betrayal and it's so heartbreaking and it's so anger-engendering that to divorce them in many cases may seem like that'll get them, I'll get back at them and go find someone better and then they'll be sorry. And that's obviously not an attitude we should have. I think once you decide that it seems that this is helpless, she's joined to someone else. I mean, God said that about Israel. God was married to Israel and Ephraim, the northern kingdom went after idols and God said, "Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone." Hosea said, "You're not my people anymore." So there is such a thing as a divorce that's grounded and legitimate. So I think you have grounds. I mean, that's just that. And if you have grounds, I believe you have right to remarry. Now, some people say you have grounds for divorce but you can't remarry. But I think that they're not reading Jesus correctly. Obviously, they're basing it on something Jesus said, but his words are a little ambiguous on some points. They're talking mainly about Matthew 5:32 and Matthew 19:9. Paul has some things to say about it in 1 Corinthians 7. So there's some difficulties there. All right?