Jack Stephens: Compromise

Compromise seeks to infiltrate and take over the local church and its work. Its beginnings always seem small and innocuous, but it stifles the true work of the Spirit in God's people and smothers the Gospel in the twisting vines of a weak, watered-down, worldly message. This never happens as a sudden diversion into error, since such a move would be too obvious and the church would react against it. Jude warns us to "contend for the faith" because "certain men" have "crept in unawares."

If you notice a gradual decline in emphasis on truth and an increasing emphasis on love, perhaps stated as a need for balance between the two, look for the fatal flower of faulty doctrine. Scriptural love is always firmly rooted in and grows out of Truth. If there is a flaw in our love, it is because of a flaw in our stand in the Truth. -Jack Stephens

Source: http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/creeping.htm