Do Not Limp Between Two Opinions
I would like to reflect with you tonight on a phrase spoken by the prophet Elijah to the people of his time. He said to them: “How long will you limp between the two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21).
Do Not Limp Between Two Opinions
The greatest thing that exhausts our spiritual life is not giving our whole heart to God. Thus we sway between God and the world. We walk with the Lord at one time, and with the world at another. And the prophet says: “How long will you limp between the two opinions?”
Among the examples of those who limped between two opinions is Lot’s wife.
Lot’s wife placed her hand in the hand of the angel, who led her and brought her out of Sodom. Her hand was in the angel’s hand, but her heart was inside Sodom. She was limping between the two opinions: between leaving the burning city and loving that burning city.
Among those who limped between the two opinions were Ananias and Sapphira.
Part of them wanted to walk in the way of the children of God: they took their money and laid it at the apostles’ feet, like the ascetic, renouncing people. But at the same time there was in their hearts a love for that money… What if we could combine the spiritual principle with keeping the money?
The rich young man went to Christ asking about the way to eternal life. He had kept the commandments from his youth, to the point that it was said that Christ “loved him.” Yet at the same time he could not give up his money, so he went away sorrowful. He went away sorrowful because Christ placed His hand on the very wound that hurt him. Thus the Lord said, “You cannot serve two masters: God and money.”
It is the same as Elijah’s statement: the futility of limping between two opinions.
Balaam, the prophet who perished, also limped between two opinions.
He wanted to obey God and to speak only the word that God put in his mouth, yet at the same time he desired the money of Balak. He built seven altars and offered seven sacrifices, more than once… Yet he gave advice that did not agree with obedience to God and love for Him. Balaam limped between two opinions. And he perished.
Solomon the wise also limped between two opinions, and people doubted his salvation.
Solomon built the Temple, prayed a prayer, the Lord appeared to him and spoke with him, granted him gifts, and he walked in wisdom. Yet at the same time he married foreign women. He wanted to please God and also to please his wives, so he fell.
The same situation existed to some extent with Samson the mighty.
He wanted to combine keeping his vow with his love for Delilah. He continued to let his hair grow, and also continued the relationship with Delilah. He ended in loss: he lost his vow, his hair, his eyesight, his freedom, his strength, and his dignity.
The problem of limping between two opinions has existed since the days of Cain.
Cain wanted to combine God and sin. On one hand he offered sacrifices to God, and at the same time there was sin crouching, which eventually dominated him.
Lot was the same. He wanted to combine the worship of God with love for the well-watered land, unlike Abraham who separated himself from sinners.
God wants the whole heart to be His. It must not be divided: an hour for your heart and an hour for your Lord, as the proverb says. Or an eye in heaven and an eye in hell. Thus the divine inspiration says in the Book of Deuteronomy (6:5):
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
The word “all” is what settles the matter.
The people of Israel failed in this matter. They went out with Moses from Egypt and walked with the Lord in the wilderness, yet their hearts longed for the pots of meat they had in the land of Egypt, and longed for the melons, onions, and garlic.
The body was with Moses, but the heart was in the land of bondage. This is like the formal worship about which the Lord said: “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.”
These people followed the rituals perfectly, celebrated feasts and seasons at their appointed times, and offered incense, offerings, sacrifices, and burnt offerings, yet there was no relationship between them and God. Therefore the Lord said to them through Isaiah:
“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? says the Lord… When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me… I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.”
“When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood” (Isaiah 1:11–15).
The same situation existed in the days of Christ. They worshiped in the Temple and listened to the words of Moses and the prophets. Yet the same Temple had become a den of thieves, with sellers and money changers and cages of doves. Thus the Lord rebuked them.
A person must settle his position and not limp between two opinions. For what fellowship has light with darkness, or Christ with Belial?
In order to walk in one path, the other must be left. It was rightly said at the beginning of the Holy Bible that God “separated the light from the darkness.”
Pilate also limped between two opinions.
With all his strength—or with all his weakness—he wanted to release Christ, and he testified that he found no fault in that righteous Man. Yet at the same time he wanted to please the Jews and feared angering Caesar. In the end he fell into pleasing the Jews and Caesar.
The same was the case—in another form—with the scribes and Pharisees.
God was on their lips but not in their hearts. They defended God and His law, yet they loved themselves more. They were like whitewashed tombs: the outward appearance was one thing, and the inward heart another. They cleaned the outside of the cup, but not the inside. They were limping between two opinions.
So also were those who lived in hypocrisy.
They limped between two opinions: between worshiping God and worshiping themselves. Outwardly they worshiped God: they prayed, fasted, and gave alms, but inwardly they sought the praise of people and the empty glory of the world.
God wants you to settle the matter—first within your heart, then in your actions afterward.
The Shulamite bride wanted to keep the love of her beloved, and at the same time keep her comfort, so she would not soil her feet nor rise to put on her garment. What was the result? Her beloved turned away and passed by. Her soul went out when he departed.
A person must have one path only—clear and straight, not crooked—heading toward a known goal, not wavering between contradictory aims.
A person cannot please God and please the world at the same time, because love of the world is enmity with God. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Either this or that. And the Scripture says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” Likewise, a person cannot walk according to the Spirit and according to the flesh at the same time.
Among those who limp between two opinions are those with unstable repentance.
He repents today and sins tomorrow; partakes today and sins in the morning. He promises now and breaks it later. He makes a vow and then breaks it. He rises and then falls. The love of God is not stable in the heart. His relationship with God is like a seesaw: at one time up, at another time down.
This is the same problem of those who live in spiritual lukewarmness and who repeat the same sins in their confessions. It is a revolt against sin, proven by confession, and a love for sin, proven by falling.
People limping between two opinions, wavering between darkness and light, not established in heaven nor on earth. They did not remain in the land of Egypt, nor did they enter Canaan. They did not walk with God all the way, nor with Satan all the way. They build and destroy together. As the poet says:
“When will the building ever be completed, if you build it while another destroys?”
Such is the life of many people: building and destroying, rising and falling, standing and falling, advancing and retreating, repentance and sin, without stability.
The same phrase of the prophet Elijah rings in their ears: “How long will you limp between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; and if Baal, follow him.” This hesitant, wavering condition cannot lead to a result.
But the children of God are distinguished by the single straight line that leads to a known goal, in which a person does not waver or shake between diverse paths.
I admire what was said about the Lord Jesus Christ in His final week, that He “set His face toward Jerusalem.”
It was also said about Daniel in the land of captivity that he purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king’s delicacies or with the wine which he drank. It was a firm direction that did not waver, regardless of external factors.
Thus the path of Peter in preaching was clear: “We cannot but speak,” for we ought to obey God rather than men.
There is a clear conviction of the path and a certain determination to remain steadfast in it. Here there is one heart, not two hearts, and this heart is steadfast in God.
May the Lord grant us this one steadfast heart that is not pulled by many paths.
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