Compromising The Gospel

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.

II. Corinthians 6:16-17

The dictionary defines the word “compromise” as, “a mutual agreement between parties in a controversy, to settle their differences by mutual concession.” Paul asked the Corinthians, what kind of “agreement” can you, the temple of God, find with idols? How can righteousness and unrighteousness find common ground? What has light to do with darkness? Nothing. These two forces have a controversy with one another. They are totally opposite and opposed. The only way to find common ground between them is if one of them compromises its fundamental character or position.

God’s people are never to compromise with sin. They are never to come to an agreement with or make concessions to unrighteousness and idolatry, either in their own lives or the lives of others. When it comes to unrighteousness, the word compromise is an evil term for the Christian. Yet more believers are compromising the standard of holiness today than ever before - and they are doing it in the name of “love.”

Is this what Jesus did? No. He brought conviction to the hearts of sinners and caused them to compromise their positions of wickedness. They repented and came His way, He did not go their way. God’s real purpose for His people is being thwarted and circumvented by compromise. The Gospel has been watered down to get people into the churches so the annual budget can be met. The churches have compromised the Gospel in many areas but I only want to examine two of them in this tract.

Firstly, Christians have compromised Paul’s command to remain “separate” from spiritual uncleanness in themselves by saying that nobody will ever be perfect this side of heaven. You can try to be perfect, but you will never do it. So don’t worry it will all be taken care of in heaven. In so doing they have also compromised Jesus’ command to “be ye perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect.” [Matt. 5:48]

In order for what Jesus said to fit our modern doctrine He should have said, “try to be perfect.” But as you can see, He did not say this. He said “be ye perfect,” here and now. He didn’t tell us to wait till we get to heaven to be perfect. Besides, who committed the very first sin? It wasn’t Eve, it was Lucifer. And where was he when he did it? In heaven, at the throne of God.

Satan was created a sinless “covering cherub.”He lived in heaven and covered the very throne of God. He was the most beautiful of all God’s spiritual creations and held the highest rank among the heavenly host. [Ezek. 28:17] Yet he rebelled. God also created Adam and Eve sinless, yet they rebelled. So you see, even being created sinless and living in heaven is no guarantee that we will never sin. Heaven is not our deliverer from sin, Jesus is our deliverer!

God is a holy God and He cannot dwell with sin. He will never be able to dwell with man in our fallen condition. So he sent His Only Begotten Son to pay the wages of sin - so we could be delivered from sin. Jesus’ sacrifice did not change God’s character. He still refuses to dwell with sin. The purpose of Jesus’ sacrifice is to change us, so we can be made compatible with the character of a Holy God. The Cross was never intended to compromise God’s position of utter holiness, it was intended to compromise our position of utter wickedness. It was intended to make us holy.

This is why the writer of Hebrews admonished us to leave “the principles of the doctrine of Christ” and “go on unto perfection.” [Heb. 6:1] What is “perfection?” Perfection is a continual, everyday obedience to all that God has shown you, up till this time. As long as we are currently obeying everything God has told us personally, as long as we have conquered all the things He has put His finger on up till this time, we are perfect in His eyes. We can be perfect today!

Tomorrow the Spirit might point something out that we have never seen or recognized before. Then we must conquer it through His strength not our own self will. Perfection is attainable as long as we are obeying all that God has spoken to us. By saying that perfection is not attainable, you basically give people a license to sin. If it is impossible to be perfect, who is even going to try?

Secondly, Christians have compromised Paul’s command to remain “separate” from spiritual uncleanness in others by distorting the Biblical teachings of judgment and love.

I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

I. Coronthians 5:9-11

Paul said if any man that is called a “brother” is doing these things we are not to “eat” with him. Eating was the most common form of fellowship among the Early Church. Paul is telling believers not to have fellowship with brethren who are involved in these things. We cannot have spiritual communion with those who work iniquity without compromising our standard of holiness.

Now fellowship and love are not the same thing at all. We can love a worker of iniquity without compromising our standard of holiness. We can help such a person without compromising our standards. However, we will never be able to have spiritual fellowship with that person unless we compromise our standard of holiness. Love has to do with our attitude towards someone, not our acceptance or participation in their behavior. I can totally reject and denounce a fellow Christian’s behavior, yet still love him and be willing to help him get delivered from that behavior. Indeed, if I do not confront that behavior, if I do not denounce it and remain separated from it, I am condoning it, I am a partaker of it.

If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

II. John 1:10-11

The Church has said “love” means that we wish everyone “God speed” no matter what kind of doctrine they promote or behavior they manifest. They are saying that love equals “tolerance” of wickedness in our midst. This is a lie. It is religious delusion and theological trash. Paul told the Corinthians to stop tolerating the sin of one of its members and cast him out of the church. [I. Cor. 5:3-5]

Of course, in order to hold the standard of righteousness in your life you have to “judge” the behavior and the doctrine of your fellow Christians. You have to be able to look at a fellow Christian and say, that brother is doing evil, that brother is promoting error. Unless you “judge” his behavior you will never know whether or not you should have genuine spiritual fellowship with him.

Here again, the churches are promoting error, for they say “you should not set yourself up as a judge of others.” They quote Matthew 7:1 to everyone and say, “see, Jesus said, judge not, that ye be not judged.” And so, they say, “we should never sit in judgment of another believer.” Is this really what Jesus was saying? Or is this simply their interpretation of what He was saying?

Jesus also said “judge righteous judgment.” [John 7:24] Was Jesus contradicting Himself? No He was not. In Matthew He was talking about judging “after the flesh” and here He is talking about judging “in the spirit.” Here He is talking about exercising discernment. How can we ever learn to know the difference between right and wrong if we cannot “judge” anything? How can we ever hope to “touch not the unclean thing” unless we are permitted to judge between what is clean and what is unclean?

It is not wrong to judge the behavior or the doctrine of fellow Christians! It is only wrong to judge these things “according to the flesh.” Those who refuse to judge anything or anyone do not have a prayer of staying “spiritually clean.” They will be defiled by all kinds of unclean desires, doctrines and people. They will go to the Throne of God thinking they have pleased Him by accepting everyone but will discover that they have in fact, become filthy spiritually and have displeased the Lord very greatly.

If you have been told to never judge other Christians you have been lied to. If you have been told to never confront their sinful behavior, to love them and have fellowship with them regardless of how they behave or what they believe, you have been lied to. Get back to God’s Word and raise the standard of holiness again. Separate yourself from all iniquity in yourself and in others so you can walk in spiritual cleanness.

Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.

Ezekiel 3:20-21

Not only does the refusal to “judge” and “confront” the sin of our brethren hurt us, it hurts them as well. If we ignore their sin, if we accept them and have spiritual union with them regardless of their behavior or doctrinal error, God will require their blood at our hands - for we were not faithful to them by warning them of the consequences of their behavior. If we realized how many Christians - and particularly pastors and teachers - are going to stand before God with the blood of hundreds, maybe thousands of our brethren on our hands, we would be acting very differently than we do!

Look closely at what holds your priorities. If your friendships are more important than remaining clean, you have compromised. If family togetherness is held more important than remaining clean, you have compromised. If you are refusing to “judge” and “confront” and “separate” from fellow believers over the issue of sinful behavior, you have compromised. If God is not absolutely first in your life, if everything and everyone else is not second, you have compromised the Gospel at some point. Let us make sure we are not compromising with the enemy of our souls. Let us hold the standard of righteousness and keep ourselves “clean” so we can please the One who died to make us clean.