Tag Archives: compromise

Compromise

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Genesis 6:1-8

Wiersbe uses the word “compromise” in his commentary on these verses in his Be Basic study series. Before the flood, godly people began marrying ungodly people. The godly people knew better.

Maybe they told themselves, “you can’t help who you love.” Maybe they thought, “my body, my choice,” or “God wants me to be happy.” Oh, they knew that joining together with God’s enemies was wrong according to the Law given them by God. But they did it anyway.

They might have convinced themselves that through their bond with them, the ungodly people would recognize their wickedness and cross over to the godly side. But a good apple never makes a barrel of rotten apples good. In fact, a good apple tied to a rotten apple doesn’t even make that one rotten apple good.

You and I, as children of God through the blood of His Son Jesus, are called to be a holy people, separate from the world, standing firm in our faith and on the Word of God. One compromise isn’t insignificant.

Compromise is just a dressed up word for sin.

Don’t Bow

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Daniel 3

So, King Nebuchadnezzar had a huge statue built, as high as the lighthouse on Saint Simons Island. You couldn’t miss it! Then, the decree went out – you WILL bow down to this idol, or die.

You probably know the story. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow. When everyone else hit the ground when the music played, those three young men stood tall. They must have stood out like those brave athletes who refuse to bend a knee during the National Anthem. Kind of hard to miss.

Got me to thinking about other formidable idols being erected today: transgenderism, homosexual marriage, pronouns, abortion, climate change, COVID, socialism, progressive Christianity, wokeness…

Lots of idols there!

In fact, there are so many it seems people are walking on their knees, bowing here, bowing there. They exist in a constant state of surrender to this idol, and to that. Less and less people are standing tall.

The threat of punishment is real. And getting more real every day. So what’s a person to do?

Look at this portion of Scripture. You’ll find the answer. Those brave young men were able to stand strong because they truly trusted God. They trusted God whether they lived or died. They trusted God whether they were heading for hardship, or whether God would deliver them. They trusted God.

The result was, they were thrown into the fire with the intent it would kill them. But the fire didn’t kill them, did it? In fact, the fire didn’t even touch them even though they were walking right in it. And… the most amazing part of it… Jesus was right there walking in the fire with them. The king and his men actually saw Jesus in the fire with them. They saw Jesus.

So many of us don’t let Jesus do that for us. And sadly, we don’t allow Jesus to be seen by those who want us to surrender to their idols.

We surrender to the idol of transgenderism when we call a woman “him” because she mutilates her body and pretends to be male. We bow to the idol of progressive Christianity when we sing the songs that glorify our own feelings, when we accept the downplaying of sin in favor of “love.” We bow at the feet of government when we allow ourselves to be manipulated into closing the doors of our churches, keeping ourselves quarantined and isolated, wearing masks that do nothing but make us fall into line, and putting untested chemicals in our bodies because someone erects the idol of “science.”

We’ve all done it. We bow, and keep bowing to idols unseen, yet as real as Nebuchadnezzar’s giant idol in ancient Babylon where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow. Can we join together, support one another, and change that?

Let’s stand on the Truth God has revealed in His Word, exactly as He has revealed it in His Word. Let’s not fear those who would have us bow to the prince of this world, because…

greater is He who is in you than the one who is in the world! (1 John 4:4)

How Far Does It Go?

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Jeremiah 33-35

Are you as convicted as I when you read the testimony of the Rechabites in chapter 35? They had been invited to an exclusive party held in an inner chamber of the house of the Lord. I’m thinking that would be like a black-tie dinner with Billy Graham, John MacArthur, and Matthew Henry. A bit intimidating.

But when offered some wine, the Rechabite men respectfully declined.

Ok. So I picture myself sitting at a table with these three giants of the Church. Matthew Henry picks up a bottle of wine and fills four glasses. He, Rev. Graham, and Rev. MacArthur pick up their glasses, ready to offer a toast. (Now I have no idea whether or not any of these men drank wine. This is purely my imagination. I digress.)

They pause and wait for me to pick up my glass. I know there is nothing wrong with a little wine now and then. Paul recommended it to Timothy, if I recall. But I’ve promised God I will refrain from drinking wine as a visible sign of my submission to Him. What do I do?

The Rechabites’ decision to refuse the wine had nothing to do with the wine. This passage in Scripture is not about declaring that good Christians shouldn’t drink alcohol. What those men did had everything to do with obedience, submission, and commitment.

And that’s what convicts me. If you read further in chapter 35 you will see that these men were obeying their dad who probably wasn’t even there at the time. Yet God’s own children couldn’t obey Him even when His presence was so obvious among them. The Recabites honored their father in a way the Jews did not honer their Heavenly Father. They obeyed a human. The Jews wouldn’t obey their Creator.

God is asking me today how committed I am. How determined am I to obey His Word, even when it would be easier to compromise, to taste just a bit of sin so I don’t offend someone, or so that I fit in, or so I won’t be labeled a buzz kill.

I have committed my life to the Lord. I want to represent Him well. I tell Him I’m willing to suffer for the Name. But I sit here this morning and wonder how far I’m willing to take that commitment.

Pray for me. I’m praying for you.

(Proverbs 14-17) Do You Compromise?

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If you don’t have a copy of Warren Wiersbe’s “With the Word, Chapter-by-Chapter Bible Handbook,” I highly recommend you get one. Not to be used in place of reading Scripture for yourself, of course. I often will read a chapter (or several) in my Bible during my morning devotional time, then look to see how Wiersbe summarized them. Many times reading what Wiersbe said prompts me to go back to my Bible and re-read all or parts of those passages again, and let God be the final authority.

This handbook has been especially useful for me as I’ve been reading Solomon’s proverbs. Today, Wiersbe pointed out Proverbs 14 challenges the words I say, Chapter 15 challenges me about my heart’s condition.

It’s a question Wiersbe asked in his comments on page 423 concerning Chapter 17 that has me thinking. Actually, a series of questions:

What do you listen to?
What do you rejoice in?
What do you talk about?
What do you get angry at?
What do you give in to?

He points us to the verses in Chapter 17 that speak to each of those questions. It’s been a good study for me this morning.

But it’s his last question I find myself considering as I examine my heart today. It has me asking myself if I compromise on what I know to be true according to God’s Word. Wiersbe asks:

“Is your conscience for sale?”

Is yours?

(Word by Word; Warren Wiersbe; Thomas Nelson Press; Nashville; 1991; pages 421-423)

Holding On To Dross (Jeremiah 4-6)

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Dross: foreign matter, dregs, or mineral waste, in particular scum formed on the surface of molten metal. Also used in regard to something worthless; rubbish, i.e: “there are bargains if you have the patience to sift through the dross.”

My concern for the Church in America grows every day. Jeremiah, while talking about the Jews of his day, said that God was pruning them to get rid of sin, performing surgery to cut out sin, and putting them in the refiners fire in order for them to eliminate sin and become pure, all with the intention of making it possible for the Jews to return to God.

Jeremiah says to God: You struck them but they felt no pain; you crushed them but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent. (5:3)

The prophet found that to be true not only in lay people, in the regular folk who might not have had the opportunity for higher education concerning God’s Law, but he found the same to be true in church leaders. They all knew better, but they chose to ignore God’s correction and His plea for their return.

Jeremiah used the example of refining fire burning away dross from metal to purify the metal, leaving something precious and valuable. Jeremiah said if the people are the ore, they are clinging to the dross while rejecting the silver. They are holding on to the worthless and ignoring the prize.

Are we Christians doing the same thing here in 2020? Are we rejecting the precious and valuable Gospel for a worthless theology so compromised it has no value? Have we clung to tolerance, and acceptance, and eliminated anything that could offend, instead of holding to the Truth of God?

It happened in Jeremiah’s day. What makes us think it can’t happen here and now? If we think we are immune, I’m afraid we’ve already grabbed hold of the dross.