This post was first published during November 2019. –ed.
The exclusive claims of Scripture are at loggerheads with our pluralistic and relativistic culture. Today we live in a world dominated by inclusive prattle and “coexist” bumper stickers. Religions and philosophies only have value and merit inasmuch as they do not step on one anothers’ toes. The marketplace of ideas has been replaced with an all-you-can-eat buffet.
However, if the Word of God is the only truth that speaks authoritatively, it is incompatible with contradicting ideas. First John 2:21 plainly states, “No lie is of the truth.” Paul’s stern warning to the Galatians illustrates the danger of blending God’s truth with error: “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!” (Galatians 1:8). The truth of the gospel doesn’t gain anything through dialogue with false religion. Tolerance toward people is a good and biblical virtue, but tolerance toward false teaching is sin. Paul rhetorically illustrated the foolishness of forging alliances between truth and error in his second epistle to the Corinthians: “What fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:14–15).
To compromise by alliances with false religion was a constant and severe temptation for the struggling church in Corinth. Their city was an especially wicked one, even by the loose moral standards of that day. In fact, Corinth was so infamous for its debauchery that the Greek verb “to Corinthianize” came to mean “to go to bed with a prostitute.” Idolatry permeated every aspect of the city’s culture and society, leading Paul to warn the Corinthian believers, “Do not be idolaters . . . . Flee from idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:7, 14). Because “the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God,” Paul wrote; “I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons” (1 Corinthians 10:20–21).
To infiltrate churches under the guise of tolerance and cooperation is one of Satan’s most cunning ploys. He does not want to fight the church, but rather join it. When he comes against the church, it grows stronger; when he joins with the church, it grows weaker. Undiscerning believers who join in a common spiritual cause with unbiblical forms of Christianity or other false religions open the door wide to satanic infiltration and forfeit the blessing of God. Further, embracing those heretical systems falsely reassures their followers that all is well between them and God, when actually they are headed for eternal damnation.
For decades, many in the church have attempted to build alliances across religious lines to combat various social issues. But such accords lead to confusion about what the mission field is that we’ve been called to reach with the gospel. Moreover, social change is not God’s ultimate goal for His church. The Lord did not redeem us from the due penalty of our sins just for the sake of opposing homosexual marriage, overturning abortion laws, or some other attempt to redeem the culture from injustice and evil. Of course, we need to vigorously oppose evil, but we need to do it in a way that does not compromise the truth or give credibility to false religion or false teachers in the process. Submitting to the authority of God’s Word means recognizing that it is utterly incompatible with error and living accordingly as a separate people.
(Adapted from Final Word and The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: 2 Corinthians)
