Volume 2 Issue 2 April 1996
by Danny Glover
Compromise is at the core of this doctrine. Its proponents, which include President Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and newly elected German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, disavow the traditional views of both left and right and preach the gospel of “the new center.”
Fine, you say, but what does all that have to do with Christianity? The answer is simple:
Although the Third Way is the new buzzword in political circles, it is far from a new concept-- and it is by no means a philosophy limited to the realm of government.
The human desire to compromise -- to avoid controversy and find “a happy medium” -- is apparent even in matters of religion. And the pressures to be tolerant and “spiritually correct” by society’s standards grow greater each day.
Just as the centrists of the political world insist that no policy belief is sacred, the advocates of a spiritual Third Way (though they may not use the phrase itself) demand that no religious principles be written in stone. No one, they say, can truly expect a centuries-old document like the Bible to be binding in a modern society. The rules of morality and spirituality must change to fit the mores of the age.
This religious mindset of seeking the middle ground between Biblical morality and societal standards of right and wrong is apparent within the pages of the Bible. In New Testament times, it emerged in the first-century church at Laodicea, and the Lord roundly condemned these early Third Way believers. His contempt for them, in fact, seemed greater than for those who reject the truth altogether.
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot,” Christ said to the Laodiceans, according to Revelations 3. “I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.”
In a lesson about the spiritual dangers of riches in particular, Christ warned his disciples that, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13).
Third Way Christians are of the sort Paul described to the young preacher Timothy. They -- like the Pharisees, with their broad phylacteries and garment borders enlarged for show (Matthew 23:5) -- have an appearance of spirituality, if only in their attendance at some worship service. But they have no tolerance for the truth.
“For the time will come,” Paul wrote in II Timothy 4:3, “when they will not endure sound
doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”
Or they may be like the wealthy ruler who came to Christ seeking the key to eternal life (Matthew 19:16-22; Luke 18: 18-23). This ruler was a righteous man; he had never murdered another, committed adultery or spoken falsely of others, and he had honored his parents and showed love to his neighbors.
Yet when Christ told the man that he should “go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in me,” the young man left “sorrowful.” His quest to find a Third Way to salvation -- living morally yet loving money more than God -- had failed.
The same fate awaits those of us who believe we can achieve salvation by living a mostly
righteous life while ignoring the commands that make us uncomfortable or changing God’s rules to fit our desires.
Each of us must choose which path to follow in life, and the choices have not changed since the genesis of man. We can walk the difficult path chosen by few and enter the narrow gate that leads to life, or we can follow the masses down the broad way and through the wide gate that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:12).
There is no Third Way to heaven. Neither is there a First Way or a Second Way. There is only the Way, and that way is Jesus.
As Christ Himself said in response to a question from the apostle Thomas, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
