| From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase |
Part two of a series. Read part one.
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Compromise in other areas most often comes into people's lives, homes, and churches because they first become ensnared in ungodly relationships.
As we continue this series let me call your attention once again to God's great "master commandments" to the nation of Israel and its future kings, given to them while they were still in the wilderness:
When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, "I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me," you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, "You shall not return that way again." Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this Law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this Law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:14-20)
All Relationships Have Spiritual Consequences
First of all, God said to Israel and its future kings, and He says to every believer in Christ, "Do not compromise in the area of relationships." Do not have someone who is an unbeliever leading you or ruling over you spiritually.
...you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. (verse 15)
All relationships have spiritual consequences. We see relationships that God prohibits among many professing Christians today. Many of them are looking to unbelieving political leaders and talk-show pundits to tell them how to think and how to live, instead of looking to the Word of God. Within the visible church today, many professing Christians are following spiritual leaders who are in fact unbelievers.
They are not men of God's choosing, they are men of the world's choosing. They are charlatans. They are ministers of Satan. The words that they speak are not the words of God.
Many churches today have compromised in their relationship with the world by adopting the attitude that the church must redefine itself in order to be acceptable and attractive in the eyes of the unbelieving world. Many churches today are entering into a relationship with the unbelieving world in which they ask the unbelieving world what the church should look like, how the church should worship, what the church should teach, how the church should be organized, and what programs the church should have. This is an ungodly relationship.
Furthermore, many individual professing Christians are entering into personal relationships with unbelievers that are spiritually destructive. Many professing Christians today see nothing wrong with marrying an unbeliever. But God tells us in First Corinthians chapter 6 and elsewhere that we are not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. In fact, when Paul writes those words to the Corinthian church, he is alluding to God's commands in Deuteronomy. Never think that Biblical separation is only Old Testament truth. It is very much a part of the New Covenant as well.
In the same way, the kings of ancient Israel were commanded not to take unbelieving wives. Solomon was the greatest recorded violator of this command of God. We are told in Second Kings that he had a thousand pagan wives and concubines who turned his heart away from the one true and living God and turned his heart to their false gods, their demonic gods. They drew Solomon into the worst kinds of sin.
But this principle applies not only to marriage with unbelievers, it applies to any other kind of spiritual relationship or partnership with an unbeliever. The area of relationships is usually the area of Christians' lives, and the life of the church, in which spiritual compromise begins.
You don't want to risk breaking a friendship. You don't want to risk appearing to be disagreeable. You don't want to have to say, "No," to someone when that person wants you to enter into his sinful ways. And it may not begin with a sinful activity, but with a sinful way of thinking. But because you want to appear to be an agreeable person, you compromise. And you rationalize that compromise by saying to yourself, "What harm can this one little compromise possibly have?"
"What Harm Can This Do?"
No doubt Solomon may have thought that when he entered into a treaty with Pharaoh and married his pagan daughter. What harm can this possibly do? In fact, he apparently was thinking, "Look at the great good that it can do for my kingdom." But it wasn't long before Solomon had not one foreign wife, not one pagan wife, but literally a thousand pagan wives. And those relationships led him, and his kingdom, into depth of compromise that devastated not only his own household but also the entire nation.
Even small compromise with the world in one area of living or thinking can and will affect many other areas of our living and our thinking. Perhaps that effect won't be apparent immediately. Perhaps you will think that you are getting away with compromise. Perhaps you will think that compromise is actually accomplishing something good.
God Sets Boundaries Because He Knows Us
But we must look at these things from God's point of view. All spiritual compromise is sin, because all spiritual compromise violates God's clear commands. God has established these clear commands because He is the one who knows the end from the beginning.
The all-wise God has set spiritual boundaries because He knows us. He knows our sin natures. He knows the constant warfare between the flesh and the Spirit within the individual Christian and within His church. He knows that compromise in one area of our thinking and living will eventually affect all other areas of our thinking and living. And God knows that compromise in other areas most often comes into individual lives, homes, and churches because we first become ensnared in ungodly relationships. His boundaries are not arbitrary. They are holy and glorious. He has set them for our good.
Next: Compromise Regarding Resources
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