Saturday, October 24, 2015
Deuteronomy 4:1-2 Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.
IS COMPROMISE GOOD?
"Let's go out for burgers and fries."
"Well, I was thinking we'd stay home and finish up leftovers."
We encounter differences of opinion every day, and we know that the best way to resolve them is often by compromise. Maybe it's eating leftovers tonight and enjoying burgers tomorrow. Marriages, families, work place relationships, congregations, and friendships all do better when we are willing to give in and make allowances for what others want. What's more, it's an expression of Christian love. Paul encouraged the Philippian believers: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:3-5).
However, there is a time when compromise is not good, but dangerous to our faith and the spiritual wellbeing of others. When it comes to the Bible, there should never be any compromising. How can there be when it is God's holy Word, the only source of eternal, absolute truth? He does not speak to us with the intention that what He says is up for negotiation or alteration. He is God! Who are we to pretend that we know better or that our world which can't begin to solve its current crises has the ultimate answers to life's meaning and purpose? "Let God be true, and every man a liar" (Romans 3:4).
God does not look for our or anyone else's approval. The truth of His Word does not depend on approval ratings. Rather, in love He tells us what we need to know. We need to hear what by nature we don't want to hear, that we are completely corrupt and dead in sin. The psalmist is right: "My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear" (Psalm 38:4). But the Lord doesn't stop there. He goes on to explain in wonderful detail how He took action to rescue the world from sin and hell by sending His Son to bear the burden for us on the cross. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
We are under increasing pressure to compromise our faith, to be more "tolerant" of other spiritual paths. "After all," we're told, "aren't we to love others?" But when it is the truth of salvation, the greatest love we can show is to stand on the Spirit-breathed Scriptures without compromising one word.
