John 8:40

“The truth is you are plotting to kill me,” Jesus continues, “and I am not doing anything but sharing with you the truth I hear from God. Your behavior is not all like Abraham’s!” John 8:40 EFP 

We all run the risk of living our lives with inconsistencies. It does not just happen, rather it is the result of making moral concessions on the basis of what is expedient, self-serving, or maintaining the status quo in our lives. What may have begun as a minor compromise can in time become as incongruous as the position the religious leaders took with regards to Jesus.

Jesus does not pull any punches when it comes to compromise, or with its kissing-cousin hypocrisy. Both are a spiritual cancer that destroy the soul. The religious leaders in this scene still claim Abraham as their spiritual father, and God as their God by association, yet they are actively plotting murder. That’s a stretch. But I am also tempted to concede in the “minor” things in my life—the things I see, the things I read, the things with which I fill my mind. Even if these things are relatively innocuous, little by little these things crowd out the more important things—time with God, service to others, prayer. It is possible for me to retain the claim to my spiritual heritage while l live a life inconsistent with the core of my faith. Lord, deliver me from compromise and hypocrisy.