A difficult environment never justifies compromise.
14 "But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. 15 In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching.
Everyone worships someone or something, Satan knows about this God given desire and he has limitless options to help you direct your worship where it doesn't belong, religious beliefs is a wide open category where you can pick and choose.
The church has always been in a battle to keep everything that isn't truth away from their beliefs. It is so important that most churches have a page on their website to tell you what their essential core beliefs are.
Compromised beliefs have been around from the beginning of time when mankind decided to turn away from God's rule. From that day on world history has been filled with substitutes for the truth that we find in God's Word.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject the truth and chase after myths.Jesus was pleased with the church in Pergamos for their stand for the truth in spite of severe persecution but they were not faultless. False teaching from the pagan culture that they lived in was being tolerated.
They didn't get any extra credit because they lived where Satan had so much influence. Judgment will come upon every church that accommodates the culture and seeks acceptance from man.
The world doesn't need a compromised church, they need to know that we have something that is worth living and dying for, the message of the gospel is too important. Jesus doesn't tolerate compromise, Jesus didn't look at their good side and ignore the bad and he didn't make excuses for them because of their difficult environment. The church must be a pure bride without blemish if it is going to attend the marriage supper of the Lamb.
The world doesn't need a judgmental and unloving church either, they need to hear the truth that will save them from eternal punishment but they also need to know that the church people are sinners that haven't forgotten their condition before the Gospel.
Let’s not compromise by seeing how close we can get to right; let’s stand on God’s promise to walk so close to Him that almost right becomes evil in our sight.God doesn't want any compromise at all but most of us look for the minimum amount of good that we need to do to please him. We go so far as to judge others that look less good to us but we don't know their circumstances. It is easier to look Christ like in some situations more than it is in others, we don't know what they have been called to stand against, they may have resisted far more than I have ever encountered.
-Franklin Graham
Instead of just good enough we need to be seeking to become more like Jesus and stand for truth when it destroys our popularity. There isn't any room for this faulty logic when you realize our mandate is to be holy just as our God is holy. If we are new creations then we shouldn't look so much like our old self. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
