Daniel’s Humility
Daniel served his captors and wicked masters so well and loyally that he kept getting promoted. And with every promotion, his influence in Babylon grew greater, eventually leading both King Nebuchadnezzar and King Darius to proclaim Daniel’s God as the only true God.
Yet I’m afraid a modern-day Daniel would be harshly criticized. Many Christians would see him as a spiritual compromiser. He’d be accused of aiding and abetting the enemy.
Today we are far more prone to isolate than to infiltrate. We keep our personal contact with godless leaders and institutions to a minimum. And when we do engage, it’s more likely to be an adversarial confrontation than conducted in a civil conversation. It’s no wonder our cultural influence is at an all-time low.
If we want to significantly influence our modern-day Babylon, we’ll have to change our tactics. Instead of avoiding or attacking the godless leaders of our day, we’ll need to begin to engage them in the same way Daniel did, humbly serving whomever God chooses to temporarily place into positions of authority.
It’s the only way we’ll ever earn the right to be heard.
Without contact, there can be no impact. Yet since the earliest days of the church, many well-meaning Christians have assumed that civil and friendly relationships with wicked and godless people are an implicit endorsement of their sin and values.
It’s a problem the apostle Paul had to address in one of his letters to the Corinthians. They had misunderstood his instructions in an earlier letter when he’d instructed them not to associate with those who were sexually immoral, greedy, dishonest in their business dealings, or worshipping false gods.
They thought he meant to avoid non-Christians who lived that way. So he wrote again to clarify what he meant. He didn’t want them to cut off from non-Christians who lived like hell. In that case, they’d have to leave the world. He wanted them to cut off from self-proclaimed Christians who lived that way.
*Are you seeking to isolate yourself from sinful people, leaders, organizations, or are you seeking to infiltrate their ranks, to be so much of a blessing they can’t help but take notice?
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