The Danger of Compromise
God hates compromise.
Why? Because compromise is a killer. If you compromise on one thing, it’s not that much further until you compromise on two things, then three things, then four things, then...well, you get the idea.
Consider this. Way back in 1981, Charles Rocket said a particular curse on Saturday Night Live and was fired the next day. Last year, the Parents Television Council tells us, that very same word was heard on over 180 programs without any issues.
The same is true in our lives. You give the devil an inch, he will take a mile.
Perhaps you have heard the saying, "What parents allow in moderation, their children take to excess."
How does this happen? Well, Satan gets into us and suggests a little compromise, so we move the bar just a bit…not that much. We’re still pretty close to God's standard and feel good about ourselves.
However, this new bar we have set for our family is what our children grow up with. Then Satan plants another seed of temptation, "Your parents are old and traditional. You are young and contemporary. There needs to be new standards for a new day." So the bar gets moved yet again.
In just a few generations, we are far from God’s standard, and it is viewed as normal because each successive generation really hasn’t moved all that far from what their parents were before them.
The cumulative result, however, is devastating.
In the eye-opening book UnChristian, the Barna Research Group “found that [in 28] lifestyle activities, born-again Christians were STATISTICALLY EQUIVELANT to those of non-born agains. When asked to identify their activities over the last 30 days, born again believers were JUST AS LIKELY to gamble, visit a pornographic website, take something that didn’t belong to them, consult a psychic, fight or abuse someone, consume enough alcohol to be legally drunk, to use illegal, nonprescription drugs, to lie, to get back at someone, and to have said mean things behind someone else’s back."
NO DIFFERENCE.
This is exactly what Satan hoped would happen. Slowly water down Christians until we are no longer a threat to him. When the culture looks at us they don't see Christ, they simply see themselves.
Statistically, we Christians are NO DIFFERENT from the culture. And this all starts in the home…with the little choices we make…what to watch, what to listen to, what to read, how to spend our free time.
What do movies our children and grandchildren see in our DVD collection? What songs are on our mp3 players? What TV shows do they see us watching? What books do they see us reading? How do we handle problems that arise in the house?
Does it all conform to Scripture or to the culture? Have we compromised or held strong?
Good questions to ask ourselves, don't you think?
