We do not advocate a ready adaptation to one’s environment, a chameleon-like accommodation to the social customs of those with whom one associates. Nor can we approve that general laziness of character that allows one’s will and emotions to be steered quickly in on direction or another.
The fact is there must be a steel-like hardness in every person’s character. That hardness remains quiescent until some opportunity for deceit or self-advantage looms, then that tough core of loyalty prohibits on from easily yielding to siren voices of evil. Without this “steel,” life has no single purpose, no definite destination. Like surface water, life would follow channels already in existence.
But this hardness is only to be called into action when there is enticement to wrong. Toward God and righteousness the soul is to be pliable and easily instructed.
David graphically advised, “Be ye not as the horse or the mule whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle lest they come near unto thee.” As Adam Clarke observes: the horse is headlong and the mule is headstrong. One tends to run away from responsibility, the other balks at it and refused to accept it.
The pliable Christian can be guided by the eye. A glance from the Savior, a hint from His Word, will suffice.
In like manner the Christian will easily agree with his brethren when moral or spiritual issues are not at stake. The Christian will find his joy in co-operation with God’s elect, not in disdainful separation from them.
--George E. Failing
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