Daily Devotional for Tuesday, May 2

Felix’ Political Correctness

“And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter,” Acts 24:22.

Compromise gets things done in the world of politics and business. It is not necessarily a bad thing. We call positive outcomes based on compromise a win-win solution to a problem. This means all sides to an issue come away with enough of what they wanted to consider the outcome a win for their side. So generally, compromise is a good thing. However, some things cannot be compromised, namely, the things found in God’s Word. We cannot really explore this issue here, but this makes things difficult for Christians seeking political office. In my opinion, I honestly do not think any person can hold true to every Christian value and be elected to major office.
Felix, of course, was not a Christian, but only knew a bit of this new faith. We might think what Felix did was compromise. It is not compromise, though, because what Felix really did was pass the buck. He knew Paul was guilty of no violation of Roman law, and as such could not be charged. On the other hand, releasing Paul would really anger the Jews. Felix’ responsibility was to keep order, so his best decision was to make no decision. Accordingly, he referred the whole matter for further review.
What does this mean for you? Even though the world requires compromise to operate, God never condones compromise on the things He says in His Word. This fact is non-negotiable. If faced with the choice of either compromising with the world or standing firm on God’s Word, your only acceptable choice is to stand with God’s Word. The only real question is what you will do when faced with a choice?

THOUGHT: If we find ourselves in an environment where we have to compromise our faith or lose our position, then the only solution is to find a new position.

Wally Fry