No Compromise
July 30th, 2008
(By John MacArthur)
It was Martin Luther who said:
“The world at the present time is sagaciously discussing how to quell the controversy and strife over doctrine and faith, and how to effect a compromise between the Church and the Papacy. Let the learned, the wise, it is said, bishops, emperor and princes, arbitrate. Each side can easily yield something, and it is better to concede some things which can be construed according to individual interpretation, than that so much persecution, bloodshed, war, and terrible, endless dissension and destruction be permitted.
“Here is lack of understanding, for understanding proves by the Word that such patchwork is not according to God’s will, but that doctrine, faith and worship must be preserved pure and unadulterated; there must be no mingling with human nonsense, human opinions or wisdom.
“The Scriptures give us this rule: ‘We must obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29).”
It is interesting to speculate what the church would be like today if Martin Luther had been prone to compromise. The pressure was heavy on him to tone down his teaching, soften his message, stop poking his finger in the eye of the papacy. Even many of his friends and supporters urged Luther to come to terms with Rome for the sake of harmony in the church. Luther himself prayed earnestly that the effect of his teaching would not be divisive.
When he nailed his 95 Theses to the door, the last thing he wanted to do was split the church.
Yet sometimes division is fitting, even healthy, for the church. Especially in times like Luther’s—and like ours—when the visible church seems full of counterfeit Christians, it is right for the true people of God to declare themselves. Compromise is sometimes a worse evil than division. Second Corinthians 6:14-17 isn’t speaking only of marriage when it says,
Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord.
Division in the Church is sometimes healthy, and I agree that it is necessary today in certain places, e.g. the current split of the Anglican Communion over issues of homosexuality.
However, particualrly at the individual level, it is important to be very cautious and prayerful before leaving a church; and even when that happens, we must never forget that we know and hold the truth on a matter solely by God’s grace and this should lead us to continue pray for those who don’t.
Division in the Church should never be without a vision of reconciliation.
Not being separate from the world is the problem with the emergent church at large today. The church (body of believers) in America as I can see has lost her testimony because there is no marked difference (not better than, but different than) the unbelieving world. When we have churches playing rock music (Hells Bells I believe) and the pastor stating that X amount of folks just got “saved” and if you have a problem with that (the method I take it the Rock Music) maybe you need to come back next week and get saved. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of Christ, not Rock Music. And we know we could go on and on with other examples. There will be divisions of doctrine (only one interpretation of scripture as the LORD intended), affections, desires etc…. Go into any so called fellowship near you say as we know a few faithful and you’ll see the worship is ALL ABOUT ME or Him doing for ME. There will be divisions, what matters though is why we will have them.
Tim,
Personal opinion - if the worst thing you can say about the church today involves the style of music being played, either the church is in a lot better shape than I thought or you need to take a closer look at the church. Style of music isn’t the problem. Content of music and content of message strikes a bit closer to the problem. You hint at that in your comment, but don’t seem to go beyond saying rock music is the problem when it isn’t the problem at all.
I agree with the music having “I” trouble instead of humbly adoring the attributes, mighty deeds and commands of God as given in Scripture. Every generation has suffered this error no matter what genre of music they enjoyed. Please Lord, empower Your people to make music worthy of You! No more imitating the “now sound” and allowing Nashville to determine what is sung in every church! Thank You for those faithful to the songs of their hearts in Christ Jesus! Bring on the full orchestra in harmony!
My biggest concerns are the new-age practices, the false prophets bringing “Fresh Fire” (strange fire is severely judged in Scripture - be warned!) and the pastors elevating movies/TV/emergent authors to make their sermons more *relevant* - just preach the word! “Bible study” curriculum is so meatless, and like the music, it’s full of false teachings of “what do I do to make God do what I want” so I can be made full.
Going to church makes so many of us so angry anymore. It is very difficult to continue under leadership that is so deceived. Though many attending church are ripe grain ready for the harvest, many tares are taking deep root in the leadership. It is heart-breaking, frustrating, confusing, and beyond irritating to the point of considering the “church” to be too false to continue in it. Then what? Praise God for this ministry!
Chris, I think you are on target! There are many facets and layers of complexity that require Love, Grace and Patience as well as discernment, action and conviction (as exemplified by Luther)
Let me respond with my first thought – from 1 Cor. 11:19 “…there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized….”
In saying that, many brethren will loudly AMEN the sentiment – without discerning, what I perceive to be great sadness conveyed in what Paul is saying. He previously states, “Because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse…” He is giving particular instructions regarding the travesty of abuses at the Lord’s Supper.
This is not a “proof text” for ‘Separated’ Brethren who want to draw a line in the sand. Rock music is not the problem. It certainly is (in general) symptomatic of a malaise that is epidemic in Americanized Christian Church culture.
However, if the Rocker/musician is Christian – how ought we to minister to him (or her)? Has the thought even crossed our mind? How is Galatians 6:1-5 applied? V 5 “…every man shall bear his own load…” How does 1 Cor.3:10b – 15 keep us in check? V12 “Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done”
Will not the Lord sift through the ashes of each one’s life? Would it not be a great shame if the ‘separated’ one had less substance remaining – in spite of his greater knowledge?
Doesn’t this drive us back to our knees and to the questions “How then shall we live?”
- or – (back to the article) How then shall we separate, (and not violate the essence of the Christian ethic summarized in Cor.13 – “the greatest of these is Love…”)?
I think the hardest thing in the world to do is to maintain a healthy tension between standing up for what is Right and maintaining a Christ like meekness.
The church is to be the pillar and support of the truth and Christians are people who have received the love of the truth so as to be saved. There should be “no compromise” with falsehood among us. We should take our stand for truth no matter the consequences. That’s what Luther did along with all the saints of all the ages. There was no compromise or motive of self-preservation but obedience to God and His truth inspite of consequences. We definitely need more of that today!
Chris: Please see my comment on how faith comes in my post. This not and attack on music, but on waht some pastors call faithful ministry. Please read my post thoughtfully and carefully. It does adrress more than music.
i am very interested in this post. i could not agree more that the Gospel must be lived and preached in all of it’s purity, but the argument in this article is quite vague. who is this referring to? who are these “counterfeit Christians”?
we are already a Church divided. the more we split, the more we view “our side” as the one being the ONE TRUE body of believers, judging the others to be counterfeit. don’t get me wrong, the protestant reformation was very necessary. but, should we constantly seek to divide before we seek to repair?
this way of thinking is troubling to me. while we are most certainly to be uncompromising concerning our faith in Christ, our Lord’s prayer was that his future disciples be bound in unity with each other so that the world might now he has sent them. instead of constantly seeking to divide, why don’t we try to mend the broken nature of the body of Christ??
i am very interested in this post. i could not agree more that the Gospel must be lived and preached in all of it’s purity, but the argument in this article is quite vague. who is this referring to? who are these “counterfeit Christians”?
we are already a Church divided. the more we split, the more we view “our side” as the one being the ONE TRUE body of believers, thereby judging all others to be counterfeit. don’t get me wrong, the protestant reformation was very necessary, but should we constantly seek to divide before we seek to repair?
i also don’t think the current state of the Church is in any way comparable to the reformation era. we live in a very pluralistic society. Church and State were ONE during the reformation. Christendom is a thing of the past, thank the Lord.
this way of thinking is troubling to me. while we are most certainly to be uncompromising concerning our faith in Christ, our Lord’s prayer was that his future disciples be bound in unity with each other so that the world might now he has sent them. instead of constantly seeking to divide, why don’t we try to mend the broken nature of the body of Christ?? why don’t we try shaking the dust off our feet rather than picking it up and throwing it in our brother’s eyes?
i had not read Henry H’s comment prior to my posting, but wanted to say that i appreciate and agree with it. the tension is so difficult, but i think most of the time we fall into the trap of leaning too quickly toward the side of division and strife…
Although I am slightly angered at the fact that my comment got erased thanks to my weird computer, I will make an effort to re-write it.
Dave,
I believe there are two reasons the article does not refer to counterfeit Christians by name: they are many and spread out, and it is up to each individual to discern these kinds of matters. The Spirit should be the one to reveal these things to us, not a fellow brother, no matter how realiable he may be.
You are right to say that “we are a church already divided”. I completely agree. Matthew 13:24-30 presents a parable that illustrates that there are some who are not of us (the church) even though they are among us (1 John 2:19). The division within the church between those who are truly His and those who aren’t exists whether we want it to or not, whether we are aware of it or not, and whether we accept it or not. Furthermore, Matthew 7:15-23 calls us to distinguish between the two groups, warning that if we don’t discern (without judging) we expose ourselves to the dangers of falling into false doctrine and into the hands of false prophets.
Although the state of our church today isn’t exactly as it was in Luther’s time, the main component he fought against is still present: heresy. There seem to be heretical teachings in abundance today and we must be able to tell who preaches truth and who preaches lies. I do not believe these false teachers should be considered brothers or part of the body of Christ, and there is, therefore, no brokenness to mend there. I do not judge them, for to judge them would be to condemn them to hell, and I still hold the hope that they will accept God’s true gospel and repent of their sins. However, I do make the distinction, refuse to call them brothers, and do not accept their messages.
Brother, I hope you will read the scriptures with an open heart and mind so that you may allow the Lord to speak to you and clear this confusion with His word. While we are warned not to judge, we are called to discern and be aware of false Christians. If we fail to do so we run many risks.
In His love,
Lilly
So Dave, how long do you leave the cancer in before you excise it? A month, a year, five years? How much will you let it metastisize, and how much will you let it pollute the body before you take it out? The longer you leave it in the deeper and wider you must cut to get it out. A little leaven does indeed leaven the whole lump!
Having been in churches that have gone down the path mentioned above I can tell you that once you start down the slippery slope of tolerance for unity’s sake the compromise begins and does not stop.
Morris
hi morris,
i definitely see what your saying and agree. i just think that the human thing to do is immediately seek to divide over issues. it’s easier that way. i am just saying that i believe it to be more beneficial to the body if we can work through issues rather than divide over them.
i wouldn’t say that we should tolerate something that is found to be wrong, but that we should work through it, if possible.
lilly,
i just wanted to say thank you and i believe your heart to be sincere and honest in regards to this issue.
however, i must say that i do not believe myself to be confused as to what Christ teaches regarding this issue. he has shown me that people are worth the time and effort, no matter how confused or messed up they may be.
Dave,
I completely agree with you! However, I don’t think this article is about those who are confused, but about those who claim to be of Christ but are not. We must pray that God may give us the discernment necessary to tell the difference between a confused brother and a false Christian.
In His love,
Lilly
Hello all,
I am new to this blog, but thank you for the opportunity to discuss. Jesus Himself made it clear - “upon this rock I will build my church.” And Paul goes a step further - “but now God hath set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him.” This is a major reason that our congregations struggle. Too many people are setting themselves where they like the music, the people are nice, the pastor can preach, etc. How many truly take the time to ask the Lord where it pleases Him to set them?
Hi,
I would like to say thank you for this great discussion. I agree, Morris we do have to love our neighbors, but at the same time, we have to be willing not to compromise. Counterfeit Christians are throughout the church. I agree we have to be very discerning in our local churches and not allow the leaven to spread.
I believe John is putting forth a tremendous effort to protect the integrity of the Church. What troubles me is the fact that there are so many Christians who do not speak up or make efforts to protect the Church from “counterfeit Christians.” Jesus said in Mathew 24:5, False Christ’s will come to deceive. I hope we do not mistake confused and deceived Christians as “counterfeit Christians” in this struggle.
Juan
Henry H.: “I think the hardest thing in the world to do is to maintain a healthy tension between standing up for what is Right and maintaining a Christ like meekness.”
I don’t know if it’s the hardest thing in the world, but it certainly is very, very hard.
When I look at Jesus and the apostles and many of the saints throughout history, what I see is this:
They stand up for what is right and then they are persecuted, and the difficult part is that they are often persecuted from those who proclaim to be followers of Christ.
For example, if folks point out the false teachings by Rob Bell, these folks are then persecuted for standing up for biblical doctrine vis-a-vis and against the unbiblical doctrine taught by Rob Bell.
Truth…
i really don’t think you can compare the persecution of the early Christians to what you receive when you attack (persecute) a perceived heretic like Rob Bell. this is not at all reminiscent to the reason for the sufferings of the early Christians, nor is it in any way similar to the severity of their sufferings.
Christ is the ultimate example of what it looks like to stand up for what is True, while also being able to give grace to the sinner when everyone else wants to stone them. this is our picture of God and this is what living without compromise must look like.