A New Decalogue: Thou Shalt Not Disagree

By A. W. Tozer

Should a wise man utter vain knowledge?. . .
Should he reason with unprofitable talk?. . . Job 15:3,4

    This above all others is the age of much talk!
Hardly a day passes that the newspapers do not carry
one or another of the headlines "Talks to Begin" or
"Talks to Continue." The notion back of this endless
official chatter is that all differences between men result
from their failure to understand each other!

    This yen to confer has hit the church also, which is not
strange since almost everything the church is doing
these days has been suggested to her by the world. I
observe with pained amusement how many "water
boys" of the pulpit in their efforts to be prophets are
standing up straight and tall and speaking out boldly in
favor of ideas that have been previously fed into their
minds by the psychiatrists, the sociologists, the
novelists, the scientists and the secular educators.

    A new Decalogue has been adopted by the
neo-Christians of our day, the first word of which reads,
"Thou shalt not disagree"; and a new set of Beatitudes too,
which begins "Blessed are they that tolerate everything,
for they shall not be made accountable for anything."

    It is true that the blessing of God is promised to the
peacemaker, for the ability to settle quarrels between
members of God's family is a heavenly gift. That is one
thing, but the effort to achieve unity at the expense of
truth and righteousness is another.

    Darkness and light can never be brought together
by talk. Some things are not negotiable!

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Yours in Christ,
Paul N. F.