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Recently I was reading records of what search phrases people had used to find Ensigns, and saw that someone had typed in something like “good men don’t compromise”. So I thought that over some, and I decided that principled men—the ones we would possibly think of as the least likely to compromise—are actually the ones most likely to compromise. Think of it this way: we compromise when we allow or promote something that we used to believe was wrong—something that we had a principle against. “Good”—perhaps righteous would be a better term when we’re speaking in the Biblical context—men have a lot of principles, and the devil is out to ruin godly people by making them forsake their principles. Ungodly men have fewer principles to break, and the devil does not need to win them over to his side, since they’re already there. So it’s probably much more probable that a godly man will compromise and break one of his principles.

Possibly the greatest threat to the church today is the mentality that “that Biblical principle doesn’t apply to me.” We might say it openly—such as the people who try to make 1 Corinthians 11 apply only to the generation or geographical location to which it was written—or we might not even realize that we’re thinking that way; it’s not necessarily that difficult to convince ourselves that something we want to believe is in fact true. But we hit problems in our spiritual lives whenever we avoid a Biblical principle by trying to apply it to someone else.

There’s a problem, though, in that this seems to be our natural inclination. We naturally think that it’s “bad” men who compromise, who are in danger of eternal judgment, who come under the wrath of God. And probably most of ourselves don’t think of ourselves as “bad” people. So we can see ourselves as out of danger, when in fact there is grave danger all around. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

We are in danger of compromise with the world. We are in danger of falling away. We are in danger of coming under the wrath of God. And we have a responsibility to avoid these things.

In Matthew 13, in the parable of the sower, it seems that at least half of the people represented actually accepted the gospel. But three of the four left the gospel in the end. Which group will we be part of?