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What the Bible says about Compromising with Sin
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Notice how strongly God expresses the concept of separation from what is spiritually impure. The Canaanites, and all of the other nations that are mentioned, were to be completely wiped out on religious grounds. This is because religion has such a powerful influence on conduct.

Israel never did this, and the Canaanites were a constant thorn in their side through their false gods. Through Israel's social and business interactions with them, they were persuaded to follow the Canaanites' god's practices—even to the extent of sacrificing their children in the fire.

In order to properly understand this command to exterminate these peoples, it must be understood that, though God was their Ruler, Israel was a nation of this world. Israel was put into the place of God's avenging angels—His agents—to take vengeance on those nations. However, the key is that Israel was a nation of this world, which is something that the church is not. When Jesus was before Pilate, He said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here" (John 18:36).

The lesson for us is that we are to be, as it were, this harsh with ourselves in getting rid of the sin within us. As Jesus says, "Pluck out your eye. Cut off your hand."We know that He does not mean this literally! He wants us to understand the spiritual principle that is involved. We have to be willing to go to that extent—to fight "tooth and nail" the contamination of sin that so easily besets us, which can so easily be picked up from contact with this world.

So the spiritual lesson for us is that God is equally demanding toward us—that we do not allow this world to influence us in any way that will contaminate our holiness, imputed as a result of Christ's sacrifice. Israel did not follow through, and soon no difference could be seen between them and the Canaanites. God's commands to be different make the witness and provide the means, the environment, for sacrifice.

In order to keep from being uncontaminated by the world, there must reside in us a strong measure of religious intolerance, or we will find ourselves compromising. What we call "human nature," and what the Bible calls "carnality," produced this world. It loves this world and is easily attracted to its practices and its attitudes. To attain the Kingdom of God, we cannot tolerate those things in ourselves.



2 Kings 12:2-3

Jehoash did some good things, such as overcoming the bottlenecks that were keeping the Temple from being repaired (II Kings 12:4-16). Not swayed by the ways of his deplorable grandmother, Athaliah, or the family of Ahab, he was certainly a more moral king than his father or grandfather. Nevertheless, during their reigns, influenced as they were by the paganism of the kings of Israel, high places had been constructed—ones that Jehoash failed to destroy. He was apparently not serious enough about the spiritual state of his realm to remove these obvious stumblingblocks.

God's assessment in verse 2 contains a critical detail: Jehoash did the right thing "all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him." Jehoash's uncle was the real, uncrowned hero, the moral force that kept the king essentially on track during his reign. He re-instituted the covenant, and as a result, the people were reminded of their obligations and motivated to rid the land of Baal-worship (II Kings 11:17-19). Upon his death, Jehoiada, though not a king, received a royal burial "in the City of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and His house" (II Chronicles 24:15-16)—a noble interment that Jehoash himself did not receive.

When Jehoiada's counsel ceased, so did Jehoash's uprightness:

Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them. Therefore they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served wooden images and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass. (II Chronicles 24:17-18)

In response to this sin, God raised up Jehoiada's son, Zechariah—a cousin whom Jehoash probably grew up with—to reprove Jehoash: "Thus says God: 'Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He also has forsaken you'" (II Chronicles 24:20). The king commanded that Zechariah be stoned in the Temple courtyard for his testimony, forgetting not only God but also all the kindness that Zechariah's father had shown him (II Chronicles 24:15-22; see Luke 11:51). Fittingly, Jehoash's servants later conspired against him and killed him, and though he was buried in Jerusalem, he was not buried with the other kings (II Chronicles 24:25).

God had provided young Jehoash with a wise and moral guide, and as long as Jehoiada lived, Jehoash did well. But he never really made his uncle's ways—God's ways—his own; he was spiritually strong only while in the presence of a godly man. Upon Jehoiada's death, Jehoash began listening to foolish advice and even succumbed to reinstituting idolatry. He became similar to today's politicians, always testing to see which way the wind was blowing so he could align himself with other centers of power.

When Jehoiada lived, Jehoash aligned himself with the priest. When Jehoiada died, Jehoash aligned himself with the other leaders of Judah, although that meant leaving God. Thus, Jehoash did what was right in the sight of God while under the aegis of a moral father figure. Nevertheless, the high places built during his father's and grandfather's reigns were not destroyed because they were not personally abhorrent to him. He was content to have them, perhaps because he did not want to alienate the leaders in Judah—who were biding their time until the old priest died to fashion the kingdom according to their own tastes. Jehoash lacked the character to do what was right regardless of what the herd was doing.

David C. Grabbe
The High Places (Part Two)

Psalm 81:4-5

Asaph points out that God ordained the law of which he speaks. Law is inseparable from sovereignty. The god of any system can be identified by locating the source of its laws. From this principle, Herbert Armstrong concluded that the church is the only place on earth where the government of God operates.

In the beginning of the United States, our system of law and our standards of morality were lifted in principle—but sometimes almost verbatim—from the absolutes of the Bible. After the Civil War, the basis of our laws gradually switched from the absolutes of the Bible to human relativism, which claims there are no absolutes. It asserts that every system's values, indeed everyone's values, are as good as the next. This philosophy began as mere advice to be tolerant, but as it became more popular, its adherents urged people to be pragmatic, that is, to adapt, to make compromises in values, to do whatever needs to be done regardless of its conflict with others' values.

Concurrently, situation-ethics systems arose so that even churches eventually looked upon the Ten Commandments as mere suggestions. God was gradually erased from our public schools. Relativism has crept into every area of life so that it now dominates our moral and ethical thinking in education, religion, childrearing, marital relations, economics, agriculture, health care, social programs, etc.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The First Commandment

2 Corinthians 6:14-17

This series of verses is not an appeal for us to break all of our worldly associations. Recall that Paul urges the Christian partner in a divided marriage to strive to maintain the relationship as long as possible. This, instead, is an appeal to avoid too close associations. He says not to go into the world, but come out of it (see Revelation 18:4). We should not deliberately make close associations with the peoples of the world. It is all right to do business with them and to work with them, but avoid becoming harnessed together with them.

The statement, "I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters," seems to hinge on whether or not we are allowing ourselves to become yoked into these associations. God does not want us in these close associations with the world because it almost inevitably leads to compromise with His standards. It jeopardizes the consistency of the Christian's witness for God because there is a spiritual force in the world that undermines the Christian because the unbeliever does not share the Christian's standards, sympathies, or goals in life.

Is it unfair that God should ask this of us? Remember, He has bought us with a price (I Corinthians 6:20). The price was the life of His Son, which obligates us to a life of purity and holiness. Once we accept that sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin, we belong to Him. He is our Master, and He says, "Come out of the world and be separate." That is a demand that He puts on us.

Does God ever ask us for something that is not for our good? Of course not! And how is this for our good? Because He knows that it is likely that His people, though they have the Spirit of God, will have an extremely difficult time resisting the spiritual force that wants to lead them to compromise on the standards of His Kingdom. He thus obligates us to purity of life, to holiness, to separation from evil. We owe our allegiance to Him alone, and we cannot allow ourselves not to be a fit vessel for Him to live in.

There is no surer way to go backward in our spirituality, to blunt our feelings about sin, to dull our spiritual discernment until we can scarcely tell evil from good, and to dry up the source of our spiritual strength than by needless mingling with the world. We should stress the word "needless" because Paul writes in I Corinthians 5:9-10 that to avoid all contact with the immoral, one would have to go out of the world. There is nothing in the New Testament to indicate separating oneself by moving into a commune of believers or living alone like a hermit.

John W. Ritenbaugh
New Covenant Priesthood (Part Two)

Ephesians 4:14

We are frequently admonished to "search" the Scripture to seek out the truth that God reveals by His Spirit. We are urged to know what we believe and why. God wants us to have faith and conviction to the point of even giving up our lives in obedience to Him and His truth.

We must carefully examine God's Word and learn what is true. And having found it, we should adhere to it always, not yielding an inch of ground when supposedly new teaching comes around from the mouth of smooth talkers. Not all church members have stood firm, as we know from experience. Some, making poor choices about what "truth" they will adhere to, have been blown off course, sailing away from their original destination—the Kingdom of God. They will, of course, end up in a different port.

This may be what Paul is referring to in Ephesians 4:14—that some members of the church in Ephesus were not following Christ's path. They had become liberal and lax, no longer having the conviction to the truth fixed in their hearts and minds. The doctrines and truth they once held were no longer resolute in their minds. Their faith was weakening, and in consequence, they began to yield to every new opinion and submit to the guidance of every new teacher.

So, as it is brought out in Ecclesiastes 1:9, "There is nothing new under the sun." What has happened in the past happens in the present.

We must really know the truth of God, believe it, and be fully convinced of it in true faith. In addition, we have to have our glorious destination as our goal and steer a steady course toward it.

When faced with the prevailing wind, a sailor can "beat to windward," a technique that involves a maneuver called "tacking." Tacking, also called "coming about," is turning the boat at an angle to run against the wind so that one travels sideways in order to make forward progress. It takes some work and skill, but one can actually proceed on course to his destination.

It is a matter of control. Instead of being blown freely in the direction of the prevailing wind, one can gain control of his direction. Once again, it is the set of our sails, not the prevailing wind that determines our course. We have a Captain who knows the seas and the winds and how to get us to His port.

Gary Montgomery
Prevailing Winds


 




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