“Surely just a little bit won’t hurt…” is how our thinking often goes in all sorts of areas. Sometimes that’s true… Yet when it comes to decisions over right and wrong, the Bible makes clear that ‘compromise’ isn’t acceptable to the LORD.
Last Sunday morning we saw Moses starting to apply the implications of the 10 commandments to the day-to-day lives of God’s people as they went to live in the promised land. The implications of loving God and not making idols were explained in graphic detail as God’s people were told to ruthlessly get rid of any evidence of pagan shrines or ‘sacred’ spaces. Moses knew that doing anything else would result in tiny compromises that would, perhaps even with later generations, lead to disaster.
Later in the Old Testament we can see that’s exactly what happened – indeed, the book of Judges describes in only the second chapter how…
“…another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. (They) did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.” (Judges 2:10,11)
In the New Testament the Lord Jesus makes a similar point:
“If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” (Matt 5:29)
It’s not that we can’t be forgiven for sin or error, but rather that it’s better for everyone’s sake if we take the Lord seriously, apply His Word, and do all that we can to avoid damaging compromise in the first place.
Without becoming Pharisees, each of us should consider how we can apply that principle in our own lives day-to-day.
Spencer Shaw