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The Bible Teaching Commentary on Genesis: The Book of Foundations
Commentaries that specialize on training the teacher!
Righteousness, not Compromise
Tolerating a little sin
Righteousness not Compromise |The hardest part to give up | Can I be righteous? | How can I? | Impact of little sin | A little lust | Clarifying righteousness | Legal definitions | Good people and heaven | Chinese character for righteousness | Three Aspects of Righteousness | Testimonies | Godly Man index
Purpose
'Tolerating a little sin' is part of the Righteousness, not Compromise series that illustrates the danger of compromise in three areas: anger, lusts and worry.
God says in Psalm 28:13 that if we cover up sin, we will not prosper. Hiding even a little sin causes trouble in our lives. {Importance of Confession}
"He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper,
But he who confesses and forsakes [them] will find compassion."
We will now examine the problems that arise when we tolerate a little sin in three areas, namely anger, lusts and worry.
When we say a little anger is okay, we will never be able to overcome the sin of anger. 
One of the keys to overcoming any sin is to repent from it and recognize it is wrong. The tolerance of that little bit of anger causes us to fail in effectively eliminating anger from our lives.
Paul clearly tells us that anger has to be quickly resolved before harm comes.
"BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger" (Ephesians 6:26).
"For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God" (James 1:20) .
As long as we hold out defending a little bit of unresolved anger, our discernment is covered with a defensive guilt. We will not even be able to see that we have anger.
Many people with anger cannot see their own anger. They don't want to. They might acknowledge that big blow up was wrong (with great difficulty) but not that their spirit was wrong. They justify their anger.
How can we be righteous men of God if we believe we can accomplish God's righteousness through it? We won't. We need to give it up.
 "Like a trampled spring and a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked" (Proverbs 25:26).A little poison ruins the whole river. |
LUSTS
When we say a little lust is okay, we will never be able to love our wives. This might sound extremist, but it should be obvious. Lusts are opposite to love. We defend our little lusts not because we have done a good job refraining from bigger lusts, but because we are cleverly hiding the ones we do have.
"Now flee from youthful lusts,
and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart"
(2 Timothy 2:22).
"But I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:28).
We must deny our wicked hearts that produce it. Toleration of a little pornography reveals our whole heart is terribly wrong and unforgiven. As long as we indulge our flesh, we will increasingly encounter more complex and difficult situations.
When we say a little anxiety is okay, we then will never be able to overcome the problem of worry. We must see how God views our worries before we can turn from them. When we see ourselves beginning to worry, we should recognize that we are not trusting in God.
Usually there is an associated sin of trusting in other things such as money, etc. We then need to confess our sins, ask for cleansing and cry out for help.
"Be anxious for nothing,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known to God." (Philippians 4:6).
"Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." (Isaiah 41:10)
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Summary
Compromise always leads to the toleration of a little sin. God is righteous and therefore will not stand a little sin. The sins that we hold to, no matter their amount, always reflect the impurities in our heart.
Covering up our sins will always cause further difficulties. Abraham, Daniel, Joseph (OT), Saul, David, Ruth, Jesus' disciples are just a small number of the examples. A study of each one usually emphasizes one or more of the key aspects.
This is the reason in counseling that though the person might confess that he has done wrong in a certain area, we must get down to specifics. We need to explore whether he thinks that a little is okay. The breakthrough often comes at the point he sees how all anger or lust or worry is offensive to God and breaks down in confession before Him.
An adamant counter argument often arises when we seek out the last hiding sin, "But I suppose you don't think I am doing any good!?" They will sense that you are approaching their 'sin zone' and try to protect it.
In this case they will camouflage themselves by accusing you of not seeing any good. But as long as they think repentance for 90% of their sin is okay, then they are being self-righteous and deceptive. Of course, we need to encourage people for improvement. But a little tolerated sin will keep them from overcoming their sin. This is why most people can't break their 'habits.'
Let's explore a bit further at the implications of compromise - tolerating a little bit of sin. You will surprisingly see the whole evil heart spring to life from this little root. This is scary!
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