The audio for this devotional is not available for now, but you can have your device read it to you.
Reading options
Verse:“When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.” —Deuteronomy 18:9
Everyone knows it’s easier to go downhill than uphill.
Likewise, it is easier to compromise our religious values in the society in which we live than to preserve them. For this reason, Moses warned the Israelites before they entered the land of Canaan, “When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations” (Deuteronomy 18:9).
But how does compromise occur? In the Signs of the Times dated June 2, 1881, Ellen White wrote, “Many feel that they must make some concessions to please their irreligious relatives and friends. As it is not always easy to draw the line, one concession prepares the way for another until those who were once true followers of Christ are in life and character conformed to the customs of the world.
The connection with God is broken.
They are Christians in name only.
When the test hour comes, then their hope is seen to be without foundation. They have sold themselves and their children to the enemy.
They have dishonored God, and in the revelation of His righteous judgments, they will reap what they have sown. Christ will say to them, as He said to ancient Israel, ‘Ye have not obeyed My voice. Why have ye done this?’” People’s intentions are innocent —just “to please their irreligious relatives and friends”— and can even assume an evangelistic air. They believe that by conforming more closely to the lifestyle of their relatives and friends, it will be easier to reach them with the Adventist message.
But we can never forget that “conformity to worldly customs converts the church to the world; it never converts the world to Christ.” The outcome is very predictable —“one concession prepares the way for another” on the road downhill toward “the customs of the world.” When our Christian standards and moral values are at stake, our stand should be as firm and uncompromising as that of Daniel and his friends in the Babylonian court (Daniel 1; 3). You must be motivated by principle.
Never sell your soul merely to please relatives and friends!