WILL YOU COMPROMISE?
1 Kings 11:1-13
INTRODUCTION: Not all compromise is wrong. We can learn from others the ethic of give-and-take. Healthy compromise is demonstrated when we are able to give in without sacrificing our God given values and beliefs. However our focus today will be on another kind of compromise that leads us to abandon sound standards, and we are left morally and spiritually bankrupt. Those who have compromised with the world and have given up on what they know the Lord God has commanded them to do are a good study for us to avoid what they had to learn the hard way. 1 Corinthians 10:11-13.
I. A LESSON TO LEARN!
One example we find in the Old Testament of a compromise that ended in tragedy is the story of King Solomon. 1 Kings 10:23-24. Solomon was a very wise, respected ruler who understood the value of obedience to the commands of God. Yet Solomon in all his wisdom deliberately disobeyed God’s warning given to all the children of Israel: Deuteronomy 7:1-4.Solomon knew God’s rules about marrying foreign women, especially women that worshiped idols. Yet Solomon compromised in this area and married seven hundred wives and had three hundred concubines and sure enough they turned Solomon’s heart away from the Lord. Solomon chose to disobey God and do what felt good to him. If Solomon in all his wisdom could be swayed into compromise and fall from his blessings with the Lord we need to take heed!
II. RISKING EVERYTHING!
Why would Solomon risk everything when he had so much to lose? It was because he really didn’t believe he was risking it all. All he did was admire the women from a distance and he had Strike One! Solomon could have had any Israelite woman he chose but those foreign women just looked so cool. 1 Kings 11:1-2. What had been important to Solomon took a back seat to his pursuit of forbidden pleasure. Admiration of itself may not be wrong, but admiration hardly ever ends at just admiration. Association was the next step in the process: 1 Kings 11:2. Admiration wrongly focused is extremely risky, but association is downright dangerous because it leads to involvement: 1 Kings 11:4. The pattern of ongoing compromise becomes unmistakably clear as we look at Solomon’s struggle with the truth he knows and the compromises he was making. Solomon’s compromise became a stronghold in his heart that Satan used to distract him from the truths he knew from God’s Law. Solomon’s involvement with compromise lead him to possession and total abandonment and disobedience to God’s Law and Solomon’s idolatry that ended in his collapse. Proverbs 29:1; 1 Kings 11:5-8. Satan always wants us to believe his lies that when we compromise the clear commands of God it will just make our lives more full and bountiful. Genesis 3:1-6; Psalm 84:11. Compromise is costly when we compromise the clear teachings of the Word of God. Compromise is not only costly but it also corrupts good morals. After Solomon’s compromise and corruption cam total collapse: 1 Kings 11:11; Proverbs 28:13-14.
III. APPLICATION FOR OUR LIVES!
Anything that we admire above the principles that our God has given us is an idol. What we chose to allow in our lives that our God has forbidden will eventually conquer us: 2 Kings17:13-15. We all need accountability partners in our lives: James 5:16. We must guard our hearts: Proverbs 4:23.