“They do not compromise with evil, and they walk only in his paths.” Psalm 119:3
If someone has fallen into gross sin, it began with compromise. In every situation you can think of, that is how it began. Very rarely do people fall away from God overnight. It may look as though they did, but it does not happen that way. Maybe you knew someone who was always at church, and then they suddenly disappeared. Later you found out they were involved in something they shouldn’t be doing. You thought, “I do not get it. I just saw them in church.” However, compromise probably had been part of their life for a long time, and they finally caved in.
Compromise was the first step down for Solomon. While he was amassing a fortune, he began collecting wives too. Though Scripture warns against this, he just could not stop. And one compromise led to another.
The devil may be wicked, but he is also cunning. He does not tell us what he is up to in the beginning. Instead, he starts with a little enticement. That is exactly what happened to Solomon. His downward spiral began with a simple rationalization, and tragically, he veered way off course. In Ecclesiastes he wrote, “Generations come, and generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again” (1:4–5 NLT). What a contrast to the words of Jeremiah on the same subject: “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning” (Lamentations 3:22–23 NLT). It all depends on how you look at life. Solomon ultimately concluded that everything is empty without God.
If you are living your life without God, even if you have everything this world has to offer, it can be downright depressing. But with God, you wake up each morning knowing there are new opportunities to worship Him, to walk with Him, and to serve Him.
