“Spiritual Compromise”
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Categories: Moment With The Master
'And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.' But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this? "Therefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.'" (Judges 2:2-3)
The text above reveals the failures of Israel to dispossess the inhabitants of Canaan. There are other passages that reveal the same. (Judges 1:21-34) It was God’s will to completely destroy the Canaanites because of their false religions and gross immorality. (Dt. 7:1-5) However, Israel failed and was soon found compromising with the inhabitants of the land. Judges 2:13,14 says, “They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.” (Judges 2:13-14) These immoral nations truly became a snare to Israel!
Just as Israel was to be a holy people (Dt.7:6), so are God’s people today to be sanctified. Like Israel we live in a land in which our neighbors bow before false Gods. Thus, it is tempting for us to compromise and make a covenant with the ungodly.
Such areas of compromise can have an ill affect upon our spiritual lives – “I’ve quit drinking, but I still go to the bar.” or “I don’t dance, but I still go to the dance hall”. “I don’t smoke, but I still visit the tobacco shop every day.” I don’t sleep with my girlfriend, but I spend the night in her apartment.” “You, see I’ve change my life and I’m living clean morally, but I still hang around the crowd who is worldly”. Such compromises will surely lead me back into the sins I’ve supposedly renounced! See Judges 2:17 - Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do so.”
It is time for some of us to clean out the closet and crush those images of pleasure we have hidden away and come clean of the crowd that tempts us to compromise our faith! God wants all of our heart!
By George Slover
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