Alaskan hunters reveal a gruesome, but telling lesson. Eskimos often kill wolves by dipping a razor sharp knife in blood, allowing it to freeze to the blade. The hunter then buries the handle in the snow with the blade sticking up. Enticed by the scent of blood, the unsuspecting wolf licks the blade. With the taste of its own blood, and the numbing effect of freezing temperatures, the wolf licks faster, unaware that he is slowly killing himself.

Scripture warns that we can also be masterfully deceived. Throughout the last few decades we have been desensitized. Small compromises have undermined our spiritual health; we are dying spiritually as individuals, and as a nation. The once obvious “rights and wrongs” have been coated with layers of appealing cultural relativism. Granted, there are larger issues, but let me offer a few seemingly harmless examples.

Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not writing this as if I have overcome all the challenges associated with being a Christian—nor do I want to approach this topic with a “holier than you” attitude, but to not be open and honest about this critical issue would be unwise and unbiblical. I’ve witnessed soft porn on Christian websites, questionable movie clips shown during PowerPoint sermons, and Christian youth leaders talk about their favorite sexually charged movie—all under the guise of “relating” to the culture. I’ve also seen Christian organizations use a 30-foot tall, inflatable sexual organ to promote conferences educating people about the dangers of pornography, and I recently heard of a stripper who witnesses about Christ while stripping.

While the intentions of the aforementioned might be good, their actions send a very mixed message. We do need to “reach people where they are” in our postmodern culture, Jesus did this masterfully; however, compromise sends a mixed message when the messenger does not truly reflect the message. The President wouldn’t send Elmo to express his sympathy for a family who lost a loved one in combat. In the same way, we shouldn’t diminish the gospel by compromising the message. I Timothy 4:12 exhorts us to be examples of purity and decency.

Before asking if an event, website, promotional idea, or advertisement is “culturally relevant,” we should ask does it glorify Christ? Is it consistent with Christian character? Will it send the right message? Will it cause others to stumble? God wants us to reach out to our community, but not if we compromise when we reach.

People look for authenticity; they understand that a compromised life sends a compromised message. A.W. Tozer rightly noted, “Where does Christianity destroy itself in a given generation? It destroys itself by not living in the light, by professing a truth it does not obey.” W. Graham Scroggie adds, “Light and darkness, right and wrong, good and evil, truth and error are incompatibles; when they compromise it is the light, the right, the good, and the truth that are damaged.”

Why so little power and passion in the church today? When truth and spirit-led ministries are compromised, the church reflects the culture rather than the gospel. The church has so popularized the ministry that it’s often hard to distinguish them from the world.

In America, we have become a church bored with holiness, but we enjoy compromise, as in the issue of entertainment. What was defined as pornography a few decades ago now fills our television screens on a nightly basis; what a sad testimony to the world.

We spend very little time with God in prayer and reflection. Humility and brokenness are all but forgotten qualities. Consequently, the Holy Spirit is not guiding us; Hollywood is. Granted, there are many Christian leaders, and churches, who are doing an exceptional job, but, as a whole, we have lost our moral compass and have drifted off course.

Cancer begins with a single cell. In time, this tiny cell consumes the life of the body. The full-blown moral crisis that we are experiencing today began with small compromises that were left unchallenged. We would do well to heed God’s principles: Times change, but His standards do not.