Compromise

I don't understand why we are expected to compromise our beliefs; what I really don't understand though is why we allow the expectation to actually cause us to compromise. As Christians we are often expected to compromise who we are and what we believe in because it is offensive and intolerant of sin; sin that many people cling to and do not want to give up. As humans we do our very best to be as selfish as possible, we want what we want when we want it and we want the best of everything; we want to be able to call ourselves Christians and still hold onto as much sinful behavior as possible. We are fallen and sinful and imperfect and we are not capable of being more than that without Christ living within us. God calls us to give up our sinful ways, repent, and follow Him; He doesn't tell us that it's ok to hold on to one or two things that we really can't seem to let go of, in fact those one or two things are where the enemy has the best stronghold and those are the areas we need to give up most.


There is a difference between love and tolerance, we as Christians are called to love all people as Christ loves us we are not called to tolerate sin just as Christ did not tolerate sin. I think we get confused here, many people who are not Christians think that love and tolerance are the same thing, I can completely love someone without encouraging and tolerating sinful behavior. Likewise, it is possible to be tolerant and not love someone at all; in fact I would argue that if you are tolerant then you aren't being loving at all you are being complacent and silent. If we really love people as Christ did we would not want to see them walking on a path that leads straight to hell we would not tolerate that behavior, we would want to save them. We would never be able to see someone we love on this path and just sit back and tolerate it just because they might be offended by us. In the end does it really matter if someone was offended by Christ in you if they were saved because of Christ in you.


Christians are expected to tolerate sin in the world but sin is not tolerant of Christians, no one is condemned for not believing and being a Christian; in fact the culture encourages us to not be Christians. The world loves the humanitarian aspect of Christianity, they love the good parts that are self-serving, they want the smiles and rainbows but when you talk about why we do the things we do when you actually want to share the love that is in your heart that causes you to appear good at all that is discouraged above all. The world wants us to just serve them as much as possible as long as we don't talk about the love of the Lord that is within us. The world wants us to all just "get along" they want us to all become tolerant and complacent.


We are called to offend people, we are called to offend them because of the cross through Him because He says that it is offensive. We have to offend for the right reasons in the right ways though, if people are offended because of Him in us, if they are offended by the cross, if they are offended by Jesus then so be it. We have to be cautious not to offend our of our own fallen nature and sinful ways. We cannot compromise who Jesus is we are either sharing who He is and allowing Him to live within us or we are living in ourselves and representing the enemy, you cannot serve two masters. I just want Him to live within me, I want people to see the love of Christ through me, I want to allow Him to work through me for the good of His Kingdom. I don't want to compromise on the basis of possible offense ever again, if we take away the parts of Jesus that we think might offend someone and water Him down we are only robbing ourselves and those we are trying to reach. You can't water Jesus down, you are either sharing His love and character or you are creating something false completely. You can't have one part of Him and not the rest, it's all or nothing. He desires all of us, He wants us to live for Him completely. He loves us more than we can even comprehend, love people more than they can comprehend, don't compromise just love.


In Christ's Love,
Reed Eden