1 Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord. 2 Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts.
3 They do not compromise with evil, and they walk only in his paths.
Psalms 119:1-3, New Living Translation
In the world that Christians live in today, we are constantly confronted with challenges of which we have to make a decision to compromise or stay faithfulto our relationship with Christ. When a Christian does compromise, concessions or accommodations are made that subtly tarnish our effective witness of being “salt” and “light” to a world who needs to know of, and experience God’s love through Christ in us.
What is meant by Christians compromising is, to compromise Biblical based principles (values or morals) and their relationship with Christ. To forsake, ignore, or otherwise go against fundamental Biblical beliefs or virtues of which Christian’s should live by daily .
As stated in last week’s article concerning the book of Daniel, “…it is more than a book of Sunday School stories, there are many relevant spiritual principles that are exemplified in the lives of the persons that Christians can glean and apply to our lives today.” From the decisions, actions and words exemplified in the lives of four young Jewish captives, we can learn many valuable spiritual principles that we can apply to our lives today.
Please read Daniel Chapter 3 before you continue reading this article.
Daniel Chapter three gives us a very good example of three Jewish young men who were faced with the difficulty to compromise their relationship with God and live, or to remain faithful, to their relationship with God and die.
In this chapter, we see Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah referred to by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, confronting a life or death decision. I can almost say with certainty that no one reading this article has been faced with a life or death decision to compromise or not their relationship and commitment with Christ. However, how many Christians today daily compromise their relationship and commitment with Christ by decisions made, words spoken and actions taken in situations that are not life threating?
Verses one to seven gives us the important context of the challenging incident that these three young Jewish men faced.
Verses eight to twelve is the accusation of the three men being defiant to the king’s decree.
Verse twelve tells us that they held important administrative positions in the Babylonian government, “…there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon-Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego”.
The first point we give our attention to is that in verse twelve the three are not referred to as men or one of the following, “satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials” (ver.3), but they are referred to as “Jews” by their accusers. Why identify them by their religious faith? The reason was to put an emphasis on and point out their differences, “they are not like us”.
Being a committed Christian in our society today means that we will be and should be singled out as being different in many ways. Why? Because of who Christ is in us, and our Biblically based choices and life styles that will conflict with many values and morals that the world lives by today. This does not mean Christians should become violently defiant “Countering culture” or passively silent to avoid conflict. Ed Stetzer stated something very important that relates to our topic of Confronting Compromise. In his article in Christianity Today, 4 Responses to Cultural Change – Christians must know how to engage culture, he said,“Countering culture means engaging culture with conviction and compassion. We stand firmly on the truth of God, empowered by the Spirit, to extend the love of Christ to the world. Our desire isn’t to conquer but to redeem. It matters what we do, how we do it, and why we do it.”
With one decree, King Nebuchadnezzar changed his nation’s culture. From the politically important (“satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials”, ver.3), of Babylon, to all persons, no matter what their race or language was “all the peoples, nations and men of every language” (ver. 7) were to fall down and worship “the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up”, no exceptions!
King Nebuchadnezzar’s motives for the decree was to possibly “unify his kingdom by means of religion and fear”, of which today or in the upcoming future, we hope Christians will never have to experience. However, what about when the topic comes up in conversation of Christians being considered,homophobic, or intolerant to other religions beliefs that are contrary to what the Bible teaches or the Bible being obsolete for today’s modern and progressive society such as…, (you fill in the blank) ______________________________. The question is, will we compromise?
The three Jewish men by not obeying the king’s decree made the decision not to compromise their convictions based on what they knew the Old Testament Law said. However, with their decision they also chose not to do what the rest of society thought was correct to do. “Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations and men of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Daniel 3:7”. They did not compromise their relationship with God because of popular opinion or by the decision of thousands of other Jews who were living in Babylon to bow down and worship the king’s image of gold. The three Jewish men chose to obey God in spite of the circumstances around them, or the consequences before them.
Warren Wiersbe in his commentary makes this important point concerning Shadrach’s, Meshach’s and Abednego’s decision not to compromise which, also applies to every Christian today.
“True faith (the decision not to compromise) is not frightened by threats, impressed by crowds, or swayed by superstitious ceremonies. True faith (the decision not to compromise) obeys the Lord and trusts Him to work out the consequence. These three Jewish men knew the law of God — “You shall have no other gods before Me… You shall not bow down to them nor serve them” (Exodus 20:3,5, NKJV). Once the Lord has spoken on a matter, the matter is settled and there’s no room for discussion or need for compromise.”
Pastor John
“O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves
before you in this matter.” Daniel 3:16
