Friday: Two Cases of Compromise
WEEK 45
FRIDAY
TWO CASES OF COMPROMISE
James 3:6-12
We are looking at the mastery of dishonesty and lies, which is vital. Lord Salisbury (1830–1903), asked the qualifications necessary for a judge, replied, “The first thing is integrity. And then it would be of some advantage if he knew some law.”* That is the atmosphere of Acts.
Besides the case of Ananias and Sapphira, there were two other compromises with truth, and both got Paul in trouble. One was: “Knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul exclaimed in the council, ‘Brothers, I am a Pharisee and a descendant of Pharisees.’ . . . These words aroused a dispute between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided” (Acts 23:6-7). It was a wise maneuver to divide the council and get the Pharisees on his side, but it was a wrong emphasis. For him to say “I am a Pharisee” was to call attention away from the central fact of his life; he was primarily a Christian and had outgrown his Pharisaism. He had counted all things loss to gain Christ, and Pharisaism was one of them. To try to divide the council by an irrelevance wasn’t up to Paul, and it only got him into a riot. Compromises end in collapses.
Another instance of a compromise and collapse was when the Jerusalem leaders said to Paul:
“Brother, you see how many thousands of Jews have become believers, and all of them keep the Law passionately. . . . You must therefore do what we tell you. Four men among us have made a solemn promise. Take them with you, go through the purification ritual with them, and pay the cost of having their heads shaved. Everyone will know there is nothing to those reports about you but that you too live a life in keeping with the Law.” (21:20, 23-24)
But Paul didn’t “live in in keeping with the Law”; he was under grace. To do this was to repudiate everything he said in Galatians. But he compromised to please the Jewish leaders. It did no good and led to his arrest. It was not this Paul speaking, “We reject secrecy and shameful actions. We don’t use deception, and we don’t tamper with God’s word. Instead, we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God by the public announcement of the truth” (2 Cor. 4:2).
O Jesus, you are Truth and make us love truth. Help us to renounce all hidden, devious ways, and speaking the truths openly, commend ourselves to every person’s conscience. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Not only shall I renounce dishonesty and lies; I shall replace compromise with truth and honesty.
*No published source was found for this quotation. Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, served as prime minister of the United Kingdom 1895–1902.