Walk

325. What you compromise to keep, you ultimately lose!

2 Peter chapter 1 tells us that God gave us everything that we need to live in this world for life and everything that we need for godliness, or to give us the character of Jesus for this life and the next.

However, many people, even Christians choose to use their own resources for life and godliness, not God’s. The problem is self-deceit. We actually think that we are doing the right thing. Many times we cover up compromising acts with religious self-deceit.

Religious Self-Deceit is the worst!

Judges 17 tells a story of a man named Micah who kept bending principals (and even what he thought God thought about them) to suit his own desire, selfishness, worldly attitude, greed and conscience. Here was a man, a Jew, who lived with his mother. He heard her cursing the person who stole her 1,100 shekels of silver. That scared him. So he went and confessed to his mother that he was the thief. All of the sudden, instead of chastising him, she praised him saying, “Blessed be you by the Lord.”

She then dedicated the silver to the Lord, for her son to make a graven image. She took 200 of the pieces and gave them to a silversmith to make a graven image and a molten image. This was an abomination in the sight of God. These were common household idols that were worshipped instead of God. Actually, they thought of God as an equal. Micah had an entire house full of gods, one for every occasion. He needed a priest for his gods, so he dedicated one of his sons to become a priest to the idols.

One day a homeless person was wandering around (nameless) and Micah said, “Hey man, what are you up to?” The man said that he was of Bethlehem of Judah and was a Levite, or from the family of God’s priests. So Micah got the great idea of hiring this guy to be his own personal priest to God. This is a good example of covering our worldly garbage and hypocrisy with what looks like God. All sorts of religious stuff can make a person feel righteous. He paid him and took him in. Then Micah said the sickest thing, “Now I know that the Lord will favor me since I have a Levite to be my priest.”

Later on a group of Danites (Hebrews also) came by, 600 of them, on their way to conquer a new land for themselves. They came by Micah’s house and noticed the Levite. They offered the guy a better deal if he would be their priest and he took it. He actually stole Micah’s idols and images and ran off with these 600 thugs. Micah came running after them to get back his idols and they threatened his life, so he backed off. They took Micah’s things and his priest. What Micah compromised to keep, he ultimately lost. False gods always leave you empty!

Hypocrisy with religious things affects others.

Children will want to become not so much who their parents are, but who their parents admire. If her parents look at pornography with lust, that pornography is who the daughter will want to be like. If the mother reads or watches worldly stories, the son will want to become an adulterer. The boy who cheats on a test may be using a pen that his father stole from his office. Perhaps Micah lacked integrity because he saw his dad married to a woman who had no integrity and he thought that he could get his dad’s favor by being like his mom.

What is God’s way?

In 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter tells us that God, not us, not the world system, but God has given us EVERYTHING that we need to make it through this life and EVERYTHING that we need to be godly so that we may escape the witchcraft and corruption of this world.

Then, he issues a warning, a strong warning. He tells us that there is a process in which we are required to participate. He says that what we need are in the promises of God. We must partner with God and do certain things in order to inherit the promises. They will not just overtake us, neither will we find them in our laziness. If we do not participate in this process, we will eventually end up going to the world for everything we need, and we will not inherit God’s character.

Peter tells us that he even heard the voice of God during the transfiguration of Jesus, and that the Word of Prophecy, or the anointed Word of God to us now is more reliable than what he heard. It is fine to have a mountaintop experience with the Lord, but Peter says we must live in the valley of normal everyday life by applying ourselves to integrity and diligence. This leads to real fellowship with the Lord. This is His Way, and there we will find Him.

Peter gives us the process, but will we trust the One Who died for us?

The question for all of us is, “Can you trust God Who died for you, or will you trust your own intelligence, wits, pretending and power for life and godliness?”

If you trust God, then you must trust the truth and being real.

If you trust God, you must be willing to give up all of your rights.

If you trust God, you must be willing to be misunderstood, mocked and persecuted.

If you trust God, you must be willing to work hard in obedience to the Holy Spirit’s leadings.

If you trust God, you must be willing to take your hands off of situations and after you have done all in obedience to God, you must stand and trust God to act for you.

If you trust God, you must be willing to be humble, meek and considered nothing.

If you trust God, you must be willing to die to all of your plans and ideas.

If you trust God, you must be willing to use integrity in everything you say and do.

Peter says that the process we need to understand is:

1. We need to trust in the promises of God, or in hearing from God for everything that we need.

2. We need to use our faith to develop virtue, which is defined as excellence, honesty, resolution, Christian energy, integrity, being honest with people, ourselves, and God. Not being double-minded, hypocritical and two-faced. If we are wrong, admit it.

3. We need to exercise our virtue to develop knowledge. This can mean intelligence and can mean knowledge of God’s will. We do not need to let our minds get lazy.

4. We need to exercise our knowledge to develop self-control, patience, and steadfastness.

5. We need to exercise our self-control to develop godliness.

6. We need to exercise our godliness to develop brotherly affection or love.

7. We need to exercise our brotherly affection to develop Christian love.

Peter says that if we lack these things, we are blind to the fact that our sins have been forgiven. However, if we develop those things that we will have a richly proven entry into the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, we will not fall or stumble and we will have a personal contact with Jesus (Paradise).

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