General Superintendent
Max Edwards
March 5, 2024
Last week, I began to share seven specific thoughts that I have had, which I believe the church of today needs to hear. Last week, I shared the first of them … “In a time when nearly everything is changing, the true Gospel does not (and must not) change.”
The second is this:
Our culture seems to celebrate compromise , God’s people must not!
Boar’s Head meats trademarked the slogan: “Compromise Elsewhere.” In Christian living, we should follow that advice. That is, WE MUST NOT compromise on matters of sin and righteousness … ever!
I’m sure that I need not waste time convincing you that our society has a degraded moral standard. It’s obvious nearly everywhere, but the entertainment industry is so very bad. Years ago, Red Skelton was a popular TV comedian with clean content. Red finished his programs saying, “Goodnight, and may God bless.” Wow! That’s such a far cry from the graphic, sexualized, and frankly filthy humor of almost every so-called comedian of our day.
The Prophet Isaiah wrote: “What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20 niv)
On another front, It wasn’t all that long ago that committing adultery was a crime in court. But as you might know, that is a totally outdated thought in most circles today. A very few states still have adultery laws on the books, but they are seldom enforced. In fact, a 2003 court decision in “Lawrence v. State of Texas” asserted that these laws are, in fact, unconstitutional. Most states removed any such laws after that ruling, and the ones who didn’t will almost never enforce them.
We might not consider Rev. Billy Graham a holiness preacher, but the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has published Rev. Graham’s thoughts on the matter of compromise:
“… God hates all sin. God is absolutely pure and holy; even the smallest sin is evil in His sight. We have largely lost sight of the holiness and purity of God today. This is one reason why we tolerate sin so easily and casually dismiss so many sins as minor or insignificant. It is also the reason why we ignore sin in our own lives and neglect to repent of it. … The enemy attempts to blur the lines between right and wrong until we [convince] ourselves that our sin isn’t that bad or, perhaps, not even sin at all. Sin has progressed and gained momentum; people seem to have lost the ability to be shocked. Behavior that was once considered abominable is now acceptable. A life touched by the Holy Spirit of the living Christ will tolerate sin no longer and will rejoice that God helps us in weakness. “Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me” (Psalm 19:13, niv)
Corrie Ten Boom once wrote that Satan’s great ploy is “… to display such blatant evil [that we can] almost believe [that our] secret sin doesn’t matter.” Thanks, Corrie. It does matter. It must matter.