Accommodating
by Charles R. Swindoll 1 Peter 1:13-2:3
I don't know anyone who would build a summer home at the base of Mount Vesuvius, and it would be tough trying to get campers to pitch their tents where Big Foot had been spotted. No family I know is interested in vacationing in a houseboat up the Suez Canal.
And yet there are Christians running loose today who flirt with risks far greater than these. And they do so with such calm faces you'd swear they had ice water in their veins.
Who are they? They are the ones who rewrite the Bible to accommodate their lifestyle. Whenever they run across Scripture verses or principles that attack their position, they alter them to accommodate their practice. That way, two things occur: 1) All desires (no matter how wrong) are fulfilled. 2) All guilt (no matter how justified) is erased.
Here is a sampling of accommodating theology:
God wants me to be happy. I can't be happy married to her. So I'm leaving . . . and I know He will understand.
There was a time when this might have been considered immoral. But not today. The Lord gave me this desire and wants me to enjoy it.
Look, nobody's perfect. So I got in deeper than I planned. Sure, it's a little shady, but what's grace all about, anyway?
Hey, life's too short to sweat the small stuff. We're not under law, you know.
If that's true . . . if that's right, then what in the world does it mean to be holy?
"Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior" (1 Pet. 1:15).
Or pure?
"For this is the will of God, . . . that you abstain from sexual immorality" (1 Thess. 4:3).
Or under grace?
"Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!" (Rom. 6:15).
The simple fact is this: If we sow a lifestyle that is in direct disobedience to God's revealed Word, we ultimately reap disaster.
The consequences of sin may not come immediately . . . but they will come eventually. And when they do, there will be no excuses, no rationalization, no accommodation. God doesn't compromise with consequences.
When the bill comes due, the wages of willful sin must be paid in full.
Excerpted from Day by Day with Charles Swindoll, Copyright © 2000 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. (Thomas Nelson Publishers). All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.
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