The Compromise of Solomon

Recently someone sent me a marketing video from a private high school in Tennessee.  The video consists of several graduating senior young men watching videos of himself from sixth grade.  Their younger self asks their older self questions like “is your favorite hobby still solving a Rubik's cube?” and “is your favorite food still Mexican?”  These videos start off fairly fun and lighthearted but then turn a bit more poignant.  “What is your biggest life lesson so far?” one man’s younger self asks.  “What life advice would you have given me as a sixth grader?” is another question.  As the seniors answer these questions from themselves six years earlier, they grow wistful and even emotional.  In those moments, they are able to identify successes and failures, hopes fulfilled and dreams denied.

As I watched, I pondered for myself, would the younger me be thankful for where the older me is today?  As we consider the theme from Solomon’s final years, we can imagine how a conversation like this with his younger self might have gone for him.  Solomon’s younger self might have asked his older self “do you still love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength?”  We might imagine the sorrow and shame in how Solomon could answer that question in his later days.  There are ways in which the multitude of compromises we can make can lead to sin and its consequences that we could have never imagined.

While scripture does not instruct us to speak to our younger selves, it does call for us to remember earlier days - days when God had first written His promises on our heart.  The times when the Spirit was being experienced in profound and powerful ways.  When Jesus seemed like that friend closer than a brother.  When sanctification seemed easier.  God calls us to recall and remember those days and then reminds us that He is the same - yesterday, today, and forever.

What is one way to fight against compromising our faith?  Remember!  Paul in 2 Timothy 2:8 tells a struggling Timothy to simply “remember Jesus Christ”.  When we take even the smallest steps away from God and toward the dishonoring affections of our deceitful heart, we are believing the lie that God has changed somehow and is not really good or trustworthy.  Don’t believe that lie - don’t become gospel amnesiacs, as Paul Tripp says.  Remember former days and the gracious promises of Christ crucified and raised for you.  

And as you remember Jesus Christ, the more you realize that He is just as irresistible as He was “back then”.  The joy of the Lord was not just your strength at an earlier age, the joy of the Lord is your strength today!  What more can overwhelm the lies of our enemy and the temptation to compromise God’s word?!  If your younger self were to ask you today “is Jesus still wonderful?”, your answer can be an enthusiastic “yes!”