compromise – The Lowedown

John 15

¹⁸“When the world hates you, remember it hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don’t. I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you. ²⁰Do you remember what I told you? ‘A servant is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you! ²¹The people of the world will hate you because you belong to me, for they don’t know God who sent me. ²²They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³Anyone who hates me hates my Father, too. ²⁴If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be counted guilty. But as it is, they saw all that I did and yet hated both of us—me and my Father. ²⁵This has fulfilled what the Scriptures said: ‘They hated me without cause.’ ²⁶“But I will send you the Counselor—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will tell you all about me. ²⁷And you must also tell others about me because you have been with me from the beginning.

(John 15:18-27, NLT)

The Daily DAVEotional

Have you noticed that there is a lot of hate in our culture today. A LOT.

What I find interesting is that our culture seems to have redefined what the word hate even means. If you disagree with someone, you are quickly labeled a “hater.”

This is very problematic for Christians because we believe that Jesus has given us moral guidelines to live by and to promote as good for our society at large.

But many of the moral guidelines Christians hold to are not accepted by our culture. So what is the response? Christians are labeled as haters.

There are lots of names that can be found in the hate bucket. Racist, Sexist, Misogynist. Homophobic. Transphobic. Judgmental. Hypocritical.

There is no doubt that there are those who identify as Christians who are racist, or sexist or judgmental, or any number of other labels. ALL have sinned. ALL do sin. We should be honest about that and appeal to Jesus to not only forgive but transform.

Still, no matter what you say or do, some are going to hate you. This should not surprise us as Jesus Himself warned that this would be the case.

And yet, I find that many Christians cannot stomach the fact that the world hates them. So what is the response? For many, the response is accommodation. I see quite a number of Christians, churches and denominations who are changing their theology, their moral stances and in some cases, their entire worldview – all so that they won’t be hated by others.

And while the culture has redefined what hate is, I think many believers have redefined what love is. In a desperate attempt to not be seen as any of the “hate” words listed above, I see long-standing, biblical beliefs and moral principles being accommodated and compromised, in the name of “love”. The thinking for many is that if others hate you, then you must not be “loving.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. Loving people has nothing to do with getting them to like you. This passage is a proof text for that. Jesus was and is the most loving person who ever lived and yet He was hated so much that He was crucified by His haters. His love for them was not enough to get them to “like” Him.

In this passage, Jesus implores His followers to recognize this same principle. Some people are so hard-hearted toward God that anyone who represents Him or reflects His moral guidance is a target for personal wrath and ire. We cannot avoid this. We simply must endure it.

Fortunately, Jesus sends us the Counselor, the Spirit of TRUTH, who gives us the courage to tell others about Jesus and empowers us with the strength to endure the hatred that may be directed toward us.

Reflection

As Christians, we are commanded to love others. What do you think that looks like? How do you love people who hate you and what you stand for?

When Jesus says that the world will hate His followers, what do you think that means?

How do you think Christians should respond to hate they experience from the world?

Do you think it’s possible for Christians to be liked by the world? Why or why not?

Jesus says that we are to tell others about Him. What exactly about Jesus do you think we are to communicate? What do you think are the best ways to communicate about Jesus to others?

Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash

Revelation 2

¹²“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Pergamum. This is the message from the one who has a sharp two-edged sword:

¹³“I know that you live in the city where that great throne of Satan is located, and yet you have remained loyal to me. And you refused to deny me even when Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among you by Satan’s followers. ¹⁴And yet I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you who are like Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to worship idols by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. ¹⁵In the same way, you have some Nicolaitans among you—people who follow the same teaching and commit the same sins. ¹⁶Repent, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

¹⁷“Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Everyone who is victorious will eat of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it. (Revelation 2:12-17, NLT)

The Daily DAVEotional

Though the book of Revelation is filled with figurative language describing apocalyptic events that will occur in the future, the first couple of chapters describe real events that were happening at the time the author penned his words.

In chapters 2 and 3, John is instructed to write down messages that were to be delivered to 7 different churches. These were real churches and the messages were a combination of praise for the things they were doing well and rebuke for those things they were failing to do as true followers of Jesus.

In this passage of Revelation, John is writing to the church at Pergamum. The people in that church had done some things that were worthy of praise, most notably, they had remained loyal to Jesus despite cultural pressures that existed in their city.

But there were some things that were not pleasing to the Lord. The text calls them complaints. The biggest issue in this church was that they were compromising on their moral values, particularly in the area of sexual purity.

The Lord references two obscure biblical characters to lodge His complaint. He mentions Balaam as well as a group referred to as the “Nicolaitans”.

Balaam was a prophet whose story is found in Numbers 22-25. Balak, the king of Aram had seen the vast people of Israel encamped near him and he sought the help of Balaam in bringing a curse upon the Israelites. The short story is that even though the king of Aram offered up an incredible amount of riches in exchange for Balaam’s curse, Balaam only blesses the Israelites instead.

A quick reading of the story might lead one to conclude that Balaam was a good guy who followed the Lord’s leading. However, we find out in subsequent chapters that even though Balaam did obey the Lord by not cursing the Israelites but blessing them instead, he also conspired against the Israelites by suggesting to Balak a way to do an end around God’s blessing of his people.

It was Balaam who suggested to king Balak that Israel would easily defile themselves if their men were encouraged to pursue foreign women as wives. Balaam knew that these men, in their physical lust, would forsake the Lord and worship the gods of these foreigners. Though Israelite men were forbidden to sleep with foreign women or take them as wives. Balaam urged Balak to take this course anyway, knowing that it would be the first step to leading the whole nation away from the Lord.

The other group also referenced in this passage is the Nicolaitans. This group was not praised and there are at least two passages that reference this group and warns about them.

So who are the Nicolaitans and what was wrong with their doctrine?

Most of what we know about the Nicolaitans is from early church fathers who wrote that the Nicolaitans were followers of Nicolas, who taught a doctrine of compromise.

One view is that because it was mentioned in Acts 6:5 that Nicolas was a proselyte from Antioch then he must’ve had a background in the occult and pagan religions. It’s speculated that he taught that one did not need to relinquish all ties to former religions when coming to Christ. He, and his followers, had one foot in Christianity and another foot in the world.

In other words, pagan practices were not discouraged or spoken against and therefore, there was a compromise of character and conduct that didn’t match Jesus’ teachings and the expectations of the early church.

One thing we know for sure, the church at Pergamum was rebuked because of their compromise in the sexual area. The Lord cites the example of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the Israelites by enticing them to fall into sexual sin, as well as the example of the Nicolaitans, who according to this passage, committed the same sexual sins.

Many commentators believe that the 7 churches in these chapters, though real churches, are also representative of all churches throughout the ages. In other words, every church will generally resemble one of these churches in terms of the issues it struggles with.

We live in a culture that is very progressive in its views of sexuality and sex. Just about nothing is off limits any more. And some of these sexual views have crept into the church so that many Christians are no longer holding fast to traditional biblical views on sex and sexual immorality. In short, we are seeing quite a bit of compromise.

I recently wrote about “The Recipe for Salad Bar Religion”, in which I looked at a passage from 2 Kings 17 that showed that the people who had been transplanted in Jerusalem were taught how to worship the Lord but they never forsook their old worship practices. Hence, their understanding of God was simply added to the pantheon of religious views and practices they already held.

In a way, this is the problem for the church at Pergamum and for us today. We have some doctrinal views about God and Jesus and particularly salvation that we hold to but when it comes to our daily practices, we often adopt the practices of the world. We therefore end up with a faith in which we appear loyal to God intellectually and doctrinally but in our daily practices our lives often are more reflective of the culture around us.

The message Jesus has for us today is the same message He had 2000 years ago to the church at Pergamum. The Lord may well tell us the same thing He vocalized to His people then – that He is glad we are remaining loyal in the midst of a wicked culture but He is upset with how easily we compromise our moral standards, particularly when it comes to the area of sexual fidelity.

Reflection

What are some moral areas in which you see Christians compromising today?

What are some of the ways you see the culture influencing Christians to compromise regarding their views and understanding of sexual immorality?

How would you summarize the biblical view of sex and sexual immorality to a new believer? What scriptural references would you use to support your views?

What steps can you take to ensure that you are not rebuked by Jesus for compromising your moral values?

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