Permissiveness in matters of faith

I don't want to be guilty of "plowing the same ground," as my grandma used to say, but I guess I should remind us all that we are studying in the thirteenth (and final) chapter of Nehemiah. We might have some peeps that are just joining us, or some that have some catching up to do.
When I first studied the chapter, the thing that impressed me was that Nehemiah returned from Persia to find one of the same problems that believers face in our world today. Permissiveness had crept into the faith community, but Nehemiah was quick to spot it -- and to stop it!

The first place that Nehemiah writes about is the area of compromise in matters of faith. And this one can be a tough one, so buckle up and hang on, OK? (grin)
The chapters in Nehemiah have mentioned some storage rooms that were used for grain offerings, utensils used in worship and sacrifices, and the tithes that the people brought in. We see this again in verse 5:

and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests. (Nehemiah 13:5)

So, we see that this room was important for keeping inventory of necessary temple items: grain offerings, incense, new wine, olive oil, and the incense and utensils for the temple worship. Eliashib was the high priest at this time (his name means "God restores" or "God causes to return."  Eliashib had taken it upon himself to clear out the room -- and he must have done the same with one or more smaller rooms:

I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense. (v. 9)

We can see that in this verse, more than one single room is referred to. Looks like Eliashib must have created a whole apartment for someone . . . let's keep looking.

 Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah,  (v.4)

Whoaaaaaaah, pardner! That name looks familiar -- isn't he one of the bad guys?
In a word, yes.
He's THAT Tobiah. Tobiah the Ammonite.
Wow.
If I remember correctly, Tobiah was a scoffer. A mocker. And he strongly (SUPER strongly) opposed Nehemiah's efforts to rebuild the wall!

When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites.But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?”  (Nehemiah 2:10, 19)

Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!” But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. 8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. (Nehemiah 4:3, 7-8)

In chapter six, we saw that Tobiah was very familiar (I guess today we would say he was "well connected," or that he was really good at networking.) with the Jews and that he had persuaded many of them that he was a good guy. But at the same time, he was sending letters full of trashtalk to Nehemiah. (You can check it out in chapter six, verses seventeen through nineteen.)
So what in the world was Eliashib thinking?
Giving this guy a personal residence in the temple of Jehovah!
Why?
Well, scholars' research gives us some clues from the Bible . . . . the first thing is that the high priest and Tobiah were related. Here in chapter thirteen, we are told:

Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, (v. 4)

And remember back in chapter six?

Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. 18 For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shekaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. (Nehemiah 6:17-18)

Another factor may have been that Tobiah had a Jewish name; it meant "God is good." So he wasn't totally Ammonite, right? We don't have to be so wary; we don't have to say he can't be a part of our community . . . he's just partially Ammonite! It's always more difficult to draw the line against a "good" person who is just mixed up on some things, than against an outwardly wicked person who is spouting obviously wrong stuff. We can see that is would have been tough to side with a "strict" commandment like this from the Levitical law -- excluding all Ammonites from the assembly of Israel -- when your relative is an Ammonite, and especially when he seems to be part Jewish!

To put that in terms of today's world, let's give an example. . . . . It is tough to insist that the Catholic way of salvation is not God's way when you have friends and perhaps relatives who are in the Catholic faith. It's tough to insist that Muslims are not following God's way of salvation when they use almost all of the same terminology that the Bible uses. It's hard to say these things when we may see these people giving to others, working in a food bank, sacrificing for the needs of many, etc.
And I'm NOT saying that we should shun people of other faiths! Don't take that away from this post, because that is not the point here. However, if we are close to people of other faiths, it can be easy to allow permissiveness in matters of faith. It's easy for them to influence us.

Let me explain with our two example faiths: the Catholic Church insulates people from God, because He is mainly approached through priests and saints. Catholic salvation is received by faith, but then must be maintained by good works and participation in the Sacraments.  However, Bible-believing Christians pray directly to our Father God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. We don't deny the importance of good works or that Christs tells us to observe the "Lord's Supper" and baptism. We do those in remembrance of Him - and obedience to Him. But the difference is that we view these things as a RESULT of salvation, not a REQUIREMENT for salvation.
Muslims use much of the same terminology that appears in the Bible: salvation, sin, heaven, one God, and law. The thing that is missing from their "dictionary" is the word "savior." The Muslims believe a Savior is unnecessary -- they alone must atone for their sin by their works.

It's easy to allow permissiveness to creep in through the open door of relationships. We want to be friendly and to influence others for good. We want to have the opportunities to tell them about our Savior. But we must be vigilant, or their beliefs may influence us and cause us to compromise our own beliefs. Wrong friendships can seriously damage us spiritually. Let's be welcoming and open to those of other faiths, and work within those friendships to influence them with the good news of the gospel.
But let's be careful to choose our closest friends and allies from those who want to follow Jesus Christ! Let's be certain that we do not compromise in matters of faith.