Angry for the Wrong Cause

Genesis 34:30

And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.

Jacob’s spirituality was based more on what others thought about him than he was with what God thought about him, which led to a shallow relationship with God. It is no wonder he struggled with gods in his life and family when you see how he was concerned with how he was perceived by those around him. His own daughter had been defiled by one of the young men of the land, and instead of being angry that this young man defiled his daughter, he stayed quiet. Yet, he became angry when his two sons would have nothing to do with what this young man did to their sister, took matters into their own hands, and killed every person from Shechem’s house. When Jacob heard what his sons had done, he was upset because he felt what they did would make him stink among the inhabitants of the land. What he should have been concerned with was the sin that Shechem did to his daughter. What he should have been angry about was that Shechem had no respect for his daughter’s virginity.

Shallow Christians are always more concerned with what the world thinks of them than they are with what God thinks about their Christianity. There are many believers who do many good things, but they do those things because they are concerned with what those in their world think about them. Shallow believers don't live a certain way because it is right or wrong, but they live a certain way so they can be accepted by their world. You cannot have a strong walk with Christ if you don't live a certain way because it is right or wrong.

The concern for the world’s approval always leads to compromise. Whether it be a believer or a church, when you are more concerned with how your world approves of what you do, you will change with your world so you can keep their approval. Many have started out doing right for the wrong reason, only to change their right to wrong because their reasoning for doing right was to be accepted by their world. I have seen churches that once stood strong for truth compromise because they wanted to be accepted by the large crowd. I have seen believers who once seemed to be strong leaders spiritually compromise who they were because their world changed, and they changed with it.

The only way you can avoid this is to be more concerned with being right with truth than being right with your world. If you are concerned with having a large crowd of friends, you will compromise what you believe because the crowd tends to always change. Friendships cannot determine your horizon of right and wrong if you want to keep from compromise. Many have made their loyalty to friendships instead of to truth and compromised truth to be loyal to friends.

My friend, your concern should be about how God sees you and what He thinks of what you believe and how you live. You must remember that you will stand before God for how you have lived for Him and not before your friends or the world you live in. Truth must be your focus that determines how you live and what you believe, and if you lose friendships over truth, they were not true friends in the first place. Loyalty to truth must be where our loyalty lies, and this type of loyalty will keep us from compromise.