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It's not the wickedness of the pagan that breaks my heart. It's the compromise of the Christian that grieves my soul.
R. C. Sproul
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the disappointment in the moral failures of those who claim to uphold religious values rather than the actions of those who do not believe.

R.C. Sproul expresses a profound sense of sorrow not for the wrongdoings of non-believers, but for the compromises made by those who identify as Christians. This reflects a deeper concern for integrity and genuine faithfulness among believers, suggesting that the failure to uphold one's principles in the face of temptation or societal pressures is a more grievous offense than the immorality found in those outside the faith.

Themes

WickednessCompromiseFaithIntegritySoulGrief

In practice

Example use cases

Using this quote in a sermon to discuss the importance of integrity in faith.

More from R. C. Sproul

To be spiritually dead is to be diabolically alive
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I’ve often wondered where Jesus would apply His hastily made whip if He were to visit our culture. My guess is that it would not be money-changing tables in the temple that would feel His wrath, but the display racks in Christian bookstores.
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The real crisis of worship today is not that the preaching is paltry or that it's too drafty in church. It is that people have no sense of the presence of God, and if they have no sense of His presence, how can they be moved to express the deepest feelings of their souls to honor, revere, worship, and glorify God?
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We talk about predestination because the Bible talks about predestination. If we desire to build our theology on the Bible, we run head on into this concept. We soon discover that John Calvin did not invent it.
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Without God man has no reference point to define himself.
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I do not want to drive across a bridge designed by an engineer who believed the numbers in structural stress models are relative truths.
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