Compromise
Compromise is the acceptance of standards that are lower than is desirable.
It could just as easily be defined as settling for less than what has been set as the standard.
When the word compromise is often used among believers, someone might think of a person giving in to sin. It is usually the kind of sin defined in Scripture by the law or described by Paul in his letters to the Corinthians or Ephesians.
Yielding to sin is indeed a form of compromise. My question is, is it the only form of compromise in Scripture?
Suppose a young person felt called to a specific sport, and that was all they talked about and began the difficult journey of training for. However, they later began pursuing other things, which cut into their time to train for what they said was most important to them. Would you consider that to be a compromise?
In the Scriptures, the apostle Paul identified a compromise and wrote a letter to churches in a region to correct it. It must have been a super serious compromise for the Holy Spirit to move Paul as He did to write the letter and say what he said in it.
Galatians 1:6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
In this case, the compromise involved three parts: first, listening to the wrong gospel; second, agreeing, at least in part, with that wrong gospel; and third, the effect such an acceptance had on their behavior.
When the gospel’s grace is treated as insufficient, that is a perversion of the real gospel. When Christ alone is set aside for other things that appeal to self-achievement and set up attitudes of superiority and comparison among believers, that compromises the real gospel.
Galatians 5:4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
Under the New Covenant, the work of Christ on our behalf is magnified and elevated, and it holds the place of greatest importance. We do not put our trust in anything other than His obedience on our behalf to bring us boldly before the throne of grace. Our confidence for the removal of sin is His blood, our hope of forgiveness is in His death at the cross, and our release from bandage is purchased by His blood and secured when He nailed the handwriting and ordinances against us to His cross, forever removing them.
Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
Not walking in the freedom Christ purchased for us at the cross is a compromise—the most serious and grievous compromise of them all. It starts with who we listen to and agree with. A little leaven will leaven the whole lump. I strongly encourage you not to give in to compromise.
