James 4:17 — Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

For the last two weekends I have had to spend time working, when I really wanted to do something else. I found myself in a position I get into from time to time, with duty interfering with desire.

There are times when I know what I should be doing, but I just don’t feel like doing it. Unfortunately, “no” is just not an option. For thousands of years, the Lord has had simple requirements of His people and made them plain in His word. He made His expectations clear through Moses:

 And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)

He said pretty much the same thing through Micah:

He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8)

Now it might be said that Moses was some kind of aristocrat, and Micah of Moreseth a country boy … But the message didn’t change. And it didn’t change when it was delivered in the New Testament by James, the brother of Jesus. If you know what the right thing to do is, and you don’t do it, that’s sin.

The message has come down the centuries, and been passed on to us. But we live in a modern world don’t we, where absolutes are to be questioned? Surely there’s room for a little compromise, a middle way? I’m afraid not. In fact Johnny Mercer nailed that idea in his song “Accentuate The Positive” in 1944:

To illustrate my last remark, Jonah in the Whale, Noah in the ark, What did they do, just when everything looked so dark

They said we better, accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative,

But don’t mess with mister inbetween

When it comes to doing the right thing, there’s no room for compromise in the believer’s life. Never has been, never will be. So I spent a good chunk of time working over the last two weekends, and I’ll be working on finishing my taxes this weekend. Duty. I’s the only option.