One of the reasons that our society is in such a state of moral decay is that it holds up the idea of compromise as if it were an unquestionable virtue.  While it’s true that compromise can be a good and helpful thing in some cases, it doesn’t necessarily follow that compromise is always right or beneficial.  For instance, if you want to paint the room blue and she wants to paint the room yellow, maybe green might be a good compromise.  Or if you want to see an action movie and she wants to see a romantic movie, perhaps an action-romance movie would be a good compromise.  But if we’re dealing with principles of right and wrong, compromise is never appropriate or good, for the compromising of good principles always results in depraved conduct.

Since we have an ancient Enemy who desires to subvert every steadfast principle of unchanging Scripture and would love to see all of humanity enslaved to depraved conduct, he must work to influence human thinking toward the subversion of such principles.  But because very few people influenced in this manner have the guts to openly say that Biblical principles are wrong, they must instead chip insidiously away at these principles by degrees of compromise, as we shall now make obvious by studying but two examples.

The Eighth Commandment is you shall not steal (Exodus 20:15), and literally sets in stone for us a steadfast principle of right and wrong: no one has the right to someone else’s property.  Since those who despise godly principles will not have the spine to openly promote the opposite principle (you shall steal), they covertly attack this Biblical principle through the institution of governmental compassion, which is accomplished through the forced redistribution of wealth.

This was at first done, of course, by appealing to the most noble of causes (such as helping the orphan or the widow), but once Mr. Noble Cause has his foot in the door, you will never be able to close it, and every cause or need will follow until your house is no longer yours.  Once the good moral principle (you shall not steal) has sufficiently been turned upon its head, it will not be long before everyone believes that they have a right to everyone else’s property, and such a society will naturally find itself being besieged by the likes of the Occupy movement.

Another excellent example of compromising by degrees is found in response to the Sixth Commandment of Exodus 20:13, where we are introduced to the principle that murder is wrong.  Since the godless will not openly say that murder is right, they must here again chip away at this principle by degrees, which they do by appealing to emotion – something ably demonstrated through the pro-choice movement.

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.  When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!  But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:39-44).

The importance of this passage of Scripture cannot be overemphasized when considering the issue of abortion.  John – who was still in his mother’s womb – leaped for joy when his Savior entered the home.  This tells us that a child in a mother’s womb is fully human and can experience thought and emotion.  It also shows us that the barely-pregnant Mary was carrying the Lord in her womb, and that it was being in the Lord’s physical presence that brought the unborn John such joy.  The conclusion is inescapable: human life begins at conception, and so to end that life is an act of murder.

The original Murderer (John 8:44) will not dare to openly replace the principle of you shall not murder with its Hellish counterpart of you shall murder; instead, he will influence human thought toward attacking Heaven’s principle by degrees through appealing to the most heart-wrenching cases, such as the need to kill the child if the conception took place through incest or rape.  Once that degree has its foot in the door, it naturally grows to include those babies who may have birth defects, and from there to unwanted pregnancies and so on until there is no baby that may not be murdered in its mother’s womb.  Eventually the good principle is dethroned by these degrees of compromise, leaving its evil twin as the de facto principle in charge, with no one questioning its validity or soundness.

Every good, every great and every beneficial idea for humanity has its genesis in the principles of Scripture.  When we apply those principles to the affairs of humanity, human dignity and nobility will flourish.  When we ignore those principles, the fair brow ofhumanity will sink into the gutter of Hellish behavior, and human affairs will literally mirror the conditions of Hades.  The seductive hiss of the Serpent bids us to follow him into that dark oblivion, but we must at all costs stand fast and hold to the principles of God’s Word.  To do otherwise will destroy the very fabric of civilization.