No Room For Compromise

By F. D. Adkins

When my children were of elementary and middle school age, we would choose a book to read together that had a movie made after it. Then, once we had finished the book, we would watch the movie together as a family. My kids quickly realized that the movies were never exactly the same as the book. Some movies had left scenes out, probably because of time restraints. Another film had changed the age of the main character from a child to an older teen which appeared to be because they wanted to add a bit of a romantic edge to the story. And believe it or not, one movie had eliminated a key message that was contained within the book, a message that I felt was the most important. In any regard, my point is that whether movies differ from the book because of time restraints, the desire to appeal to a different audience, or for any other reason, the change is made because the initial book did not completely fit into the parameters that the movie company was looking for.

As I was thinking about various things affecting our culture today and the stresses on our young people to understand and decipher right from wrong when so many ideas are thrown at them, I came to the realization that we, as a society, are doing the same thing with the Word of God that movie companies do when they adapt a book into a film. Instead of obeying and interpreting God’s Word as it is written, we are picking, choosing, and twisting the scripture to accommodate and fit the way we want to live.

But 2 Timothy 3:16 (KJV) states, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (Note: It does not say ‘some scripture’, it says “all scripture”.)

James 1:22-24 (KJV) says, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.”

So, from these two verses, we know that all of the Bible is given by God and that we are to do what it says (not just hear the words and ignore the parts we do not like), but Revelation 3:15-16 (KJV) details just how upset it makes God when we do not fully commit to Him. “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” When we compromise our faith by changing God’s Word to conform to society, it makes God sick.

I close with one final verse:

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Romans 12:2 KJV