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Throughout history, God has graciously raised up countless believers who lived exemplary spirit-filled lives, brought multitudes to Christ, and accomplished many great things in His strength and for His glory. While none of these men and women were perfect by any means, they all shared a common mindset that made their God-given success and influence possible. This immensely important similarity was that they all stood firm on the authority of God's Word, accepting all His words as true, relevant, and important to their daily lives.
Unfortunately, Christians and churches who do this are becoming increasingly and alarmingly rare. This is especially apparent in how most of them approach today's godless culture and hot button issues. Rather than seeking the infallible wisdom and perfect answers found only in God's Word, they instead consult worldly politicians, influencers, professors, and entertainers who hold to ungodly positions that completely contradict the Scriptures. By adopting these unbiblical beliefs, many churches and believers have compromised on the sanctity of life, the origin of Creation, marriage, and other crucial topics in an effort to be nonconfrontational, affirming, and appealing to the world. Although it may appear harmless to adopt worldly positions on these matters while believing other portions of Scripture, the Bible reveals how doing so results in multiple detrimental consequences for us, other believers, and the unsaved.
The primary issue with these compromises is that they produce double mindedness. James 1:5-8 discuss this, noting in verse 5 how all believers have the astounding privilege to ask God for His perfect wisdom, which He imparts to us through His Word and the Holy Spirit. However, many believers and churches respond to this world's problems by instead turning to its imperfect and corrupt wisdom, rejecting what God says and embracing godless ideologies in doing so. James 1:6-8 note how this represents a lack of faith in God, which causes our worldview to become unstable and inconsistent with His Word. As this passage explains, any level of compromise with worldly wisdom damages our trust in God and our willingness to seek His perfect wisdom.
Also, the double mindedness that comes from this compromise severely damages our faith. This occurs because it introduces serious inconsistencies in our worldview due to God's Word and the world's wisdom having completely different teachings and values. While many believers and churches attempt to combine these two in their beliefs, Jesus notes how this is completely unsustainable in Matthew 6:24. This is due to our inability to serve two masters, for we will eventually love one and hate the other. This occurs here because whenever we choose the world's values and positions over God's, we show that we do not trust His perfect desires and wisdom in that area, indicating a lack of faith. Unfortunately, because these compromises always draw us away from God, failing to reject worldly beliefs and values greatly weakens our faith in Him.
Furthermore, as our faith in God and His Word falters, so does our spiritual fruitfulness. Romans 8:7-8 note that serving and pleasing God are impossible when our minds are occupied by the flesh and the world. This occurs because the two are completely opposed to God's Word and ways. Consequentially, when we adopt worldly beliefs, we place ourselves in opposition to God and reject His Word's authority, making it impossible to please Him. Because God cannot teach, guide, or bless us in this position, our works become spiritually powerless, our flesh gains significant influence over our thoughts and decisions, and our spirits become dry and weak. Thus, compromise with the world not only damages our faith, but also severely stifles our ability to grow spiritually.
Finally, rejecting Biblical authority dramatically weakens our witness, hindering our ability to carry out our most important mission as believers. Carrying out the Great Commission requires us to be the salt and light Jesus calls us to be in Matthew 5:13-16. Concerning the two, we are salt through obeying God's Word and imitating Christ through our lives, while we are light by proclaiming the Gospel to the lost and performing spirit-filled good works. These two respectively preserve our culture from falling into complete depravity and draw the lost to Christ. However, our ability to do this is severely hindered when we adopt and preach worldly wisdom to avoid being offensive or to be affirming. Although doing so can make life cushy and easy for the unsaved in this life, we leave them condemned to eternal suffering and separation from God in the next one. Thus, our Christ-given mission to preach the Gospel cannot be completed when we hide our lights and lose our saltiness through compromise with worldly wisdom.
Sadly, many believers and churches today do not believe and apply the entity of God's Word. In becoming double minded through adopting worldly attitudes, beliefs, and values, they have severely damaged their faith, become spiritually unfruitful, and lost their saltiness and brightness. Fortunately, our loving and gracious heavenly Father offers recovery from these perils through genuine repentance and a willingness to wholeheartedly surrender to the authority of His Word. Furthermore, avoiding them is possible when we rely on the Holy Spirit to help us approach every situation and problem through seeking God's wisdom and remaining surrendered to the authority of His Word.
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