If people call you extreme because you take obedience to God seriously, it is not because you have gone too far, but because they have not gone far enough. They do not know God as He is. If they did, obedience would not appear radical to them at all—it would appear normal, even inevitable.
To walk carefully before the Holy One will always look excessive to those who have reduced God to an idea, a symbol, or a cultural accessory. But to those who know Him—who have encountered His weight, His authority, and His nearness—obedience is not extremism; it is sanity.
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“Reason dictates that persons who are truly noble and who love wisdom will honor and love only what is true. They will refuse to follow traditional viewpoints if those viewpoints are worthless...Instead, a person who genuinely loves truth must choose to do and speak what is true, even if he is threatened with death...I have not come to flatter you by this written petition, nor to impress you by my words. I have come to simply beg that you do not pass judgment until you have made an accurate and thorough investigation. Your investigation must be free of prejudice, hearsay, and any desire to please the superstitious crowds. As for us, we are convinced that you can inflict no lasting evil on us. We can only do it to ourselves by proving to be wicked people. You can kill us—but you cannot harm us.” From Justin Martyr's first apology 150 A.D. Martyred A.D. 160