Accommodation Without Capitulation

When God's people were carried into exile in Babylon, they found themselves living under the dominion of the very powers they had turned to instead of the Lord. They were captives in a foreign land, seemingly powerless, stripped of their freedom.

But God gave them a stunning instruction: "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare" (Jeremiah 29:7, NRSV).

Wait—what? Pray for your captors? Seek the prosperity of the place where you're enslaved?

And the word there for "welfare" is shalom—peace, wholeness, prosperity, safety, completeness.

This seemed counterintuitive then, and it seems counterintuitive now. But God was teaching them something revolutionary about how His Kingdom operates, something that would eventually transform the entire world.

The Power of Prayer

The word for "pray" in this passage is the Hebrew word palal. It doesn't mean just asking God for help. It's a judicial word that means to arbitrate, to intercede, to declare, to interpose.

Even in the Old Testament, it means to sit in with the judges and declare what's righteous into the land.

These people in captivity actually had the ability to release God's Kingdom into Babylon by praying. But sometimes we think praying is just talking at God, giving Him our wish list. It's not. It's a powerful, world-transforming action.

Here's the problem: if we see ourselves as slaves because of our external circumstances, if we see ourselves as powerless because we don't have the ability to affect our abusive situation or because we don't have the ability to create a happier environment because the people we work for are difficult, we've begun to think of ourselves as weak, as victims.

And there's nothing further from the truth.

You actually have the ability to transform those situations.

How Slaves Changed the World

When Paul wrote to slaves in the first century, he gave them revolutionary instructions. Five times in his letters, he said, "Slaves, be subject to your masters." But then he added something stunning: "as if you were serving the Lord himself" (see Ephesians 6:5-7, Colossians 3:22-24).

He said, "Don't just do what they're requiring you to do. Don't just go with them one mile because they can legally make you go one mile. Go with them two."

Why? Because it takes it out of the world's dominating systems and brings it into a system where it's being done voluntarily.

You begin to release God's Kingdom because you say, "You may have the ability to make me do something, but you can't make me love you. I can do that on my own."

And when you do it, you begin to subvert that power structure that's holding people captive, dominating them on purpose.

Now, Paul also says to the same slaves, "If you can be free, that's better. Go be free" (see 1 Corinthians 7:21). Most of them didn't have that opportunity, though. So he's teaching them how they can live within the environment they're stuck in and still transform the environment from the inside out.

The Kingdom is like leaven, slowly permeating and transforming the whole lump (Matthew 13:33). That's what love does. That's what submission does. That's what yielding does.

A Revolutionary Phrase

Gregory came up with a phrase that captures this perfectly: Accommodation without capitulation.

Let me say that again: Accommodation without capitulation.

Accommodation means to make room for. It means go ahead and yield. Go ahead and compromise. But without surrender. Without capitulation.

So you're in slavery. You can't help it. You're going to make room by saying, "Okay, I'm going to yield. And I'm not just going to do what you tell me to do. I'm actually going to take it up a notch, and I'm going to serve you like you're my best friend."

But you're not surrendering the truth that you should be free. You're not surrendering the truth that this whole system should change.

That's accommodation without capitulation.

You can operate in love and kindness and honor toward those in authority—even unjust authority—while never surrendering the truth that things should be different. You're transforming hearts, not just forcing compliance.

My Twenty Years

I understand this principle because I lived it.

When I came to know the Lord, I was in the middle of a very difficult marriage. Even though I operated at a high level of peace on the inside, my former husband did not. I had to constantly maneuver to make sure things stayed even, because we didn't want anything to get set off.

I don't know if any of you have lived with people like that, but let me tell you: that is not God's will for humanity.

Yet I walked in honor for 20 years in a situation that was really difficult. I was believing for my marriage the whole time. I even went into marriage ministry, hoping that by pouring into other marriages, I could transform my own.

But here's what I learned: because I sowed in honor and I worked for peace, I did not try to coerce my way in that relationship. I actually wanted that peace to change the other person. And it had the power to.

But God Himself won't force His will on another. And I couldn't make him choose the Lord's way. That had to be his choice.

I'm very thankful for the day I was released from that marriage. But I don't regret the years of walking in honor. Why? Because I was operating in God's Kingdom principles even in captivity. I was releasing peace. I was going the extra mile. I was accommodating without capitulating.

And today, with Gregory, peace explodes exponentially. Because now we're both doing it.

When You're Stuck

When you're stuck in hard places—a tough marriage, a difficult job, living in circumstances you can't immediately change—you can get stuck in survival mode. Just going through the motions. Just trying to get through the day.

You're not thinking about building houses, planting gardens, watching out for your children's children's children. You're just surviving.

And when you do that, you begin to grow weary and you lose hope.

But God was telling those captives in Babylon: Don't just survive. Thrive. Build houses. Plant gardens. Get married. Have children. Multiply. Don't decrease.

Flourish where you are. And in doing so, release My Kingdom into the very place that's holding you captive.

How the World Actually Changed

Do we have slavery in our world today as the norm? No. What changed the culture? The gospel.

And what is the gospel? It's the good news that releases peace into the environment. It's the good news that taught the disciples: This is how you transform the world. You don't go out there and make them do it your way.

Jesus said, "If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting" (John 18:36, NRSV). He told Peter, "Put your sword back into its place" (Matthew 26:52, NRSV).

Why? Because when you operate in the world's systems, you only empower the darkness. It's when you release peace, when you're operating from a place of love, that you transform hearts.

And when you transform their heart, it's not just their body that does what you want. It's their whole family. It's the cities that begin to line up with it.

Think about this: The year I was born, it became illegal in the United States to discriminate based on race or gender. In my lifetime. There are some things we just take for granted.

How did we get there?

The Power of Nonviolent Love

Martin Luther King Jr.'s message was powerful for one reason: Love and peace. Nonviolent, nonviolent, nonviolent response to iniquity.

Because if you just fight back, you may make them do your will, but you're not going to capture their heart. You're not going to transform their home, their city, their society. It's not going to get carried down from one generation to the next.

What happens as soon as somebody more powerful comes up? They just take it back.

We transform the world by transforming from the inside out, and only love can do that. And love carries peace. Shalom—nothing missing, nothing broken.

So we don't go in and break them and make them do it our way.

When King had his followers operate in nonviolent resistance, when he said, "Stop throwing rocks. Stop it. You're not helping," he was teaching them accommodation without capitulation.

When they would sit in silent protest, when they would not fight back even as the police came and beat them and turned fire hoses on them, what happened? The whites began to become outraged. It touched their hearts. The ones who held the power in that moment began to share it.

Why? Because the protesters weren't trying to take the power. They were transforming hearts.

You can't demand equality. You can't force people to share power. The ones in authority have to want to yield. And that doesn't happen through force. It only happens through peace.

Joseph and Daniel

Both Joseph and Daniel were slaves. And both of them changed the world.

Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers. He was falsely accused and thrown in prison. He spent years in captivity. Yet he served Potiphar faithfully. He served the jailer faithfully. He served Pharaoh faithfully.

And eventually, he became the second most powerful person in Egypt. He saved the whole known world from a famine—and he was a slave who couldn't even go home.

How did he do that? He operated in honor toward his captors. He released God's Kingdom into Egypt through faithful service, through wisdom, through love.

Daniel was also a slave. He was taken captive to Babylon as a young man. But Daniel won the heart of the king. The Scripture says other people didn't like him because he had the favor of the king (Daniel 6:4).

When they made up charges and had him thrown into the lion's den, the king—who loved Daniel so much—ran to the pit the next morning. He was praying to God (and didn't even know God yet). He hoped Daniel was still alive. And he was.

Then all the ones who made that rule got thrown in. And before they even touched the ground, the lions were eating them.

The peace of those men—Joseph and Daniel—transformed nations. They changed the world. And they did it as slaves.

You Can Change Your World

You can change your world by accommodating without capitulating, by yielding without surrender.

You don't have to sit there and say, "I'm going to get my way." Instead, you ask, "Lord, how are we going to release peace into this place?"

That's what transforms the situation.

And the door may open where you just need to leave. Boundaries may need to be set where you have to go, and that's okay. But when you're leaving, you're leaving in a place of peace because your peace returned to you.

If not, when you release your peace, it multiplies. It actually brings the King of Peace into the situation.

And you have the ability to do that in your life. No one has that ability to do it for you but you.

Not Powerless

Even if you're in slavery—whether literal or metaphorical—you're not powerless.

Even if you're in an abusive relationship, you're not without options. (And let me be clear: if you're in physical danger, please seek help. Set boundaries. Sometimes you need to leave. That's okay.)

Even if you're in a difficult work environment where you feel stuck, you're not a victim.

Why? Because you have the God of the universe living on the inside of you. He's the King of Peace. You can release His Kingdom into any environment.

When you do it in your home, when you do it at your workplace, when there's somebody else there—somebody else that Holy Spirit is stirring on the inside—they're going to catch hold of your peace.

There may be plenty that don't, and that's okay. Your peace will return to you.

But that's how you spread it. That's how you transform the world from the inside out.

The Choice Before You

So here's the question: Are you going to see yourself as a victim of your circumstances? Or are you going to see yourself as an ambassador of God's Kingdom, equipped with the most powerful force in the universe—love expressed through peace?

Are you going to demand your own way? Or are you going to release peace and watch it transform hearts?

Are you going to fight for power? Or are you going to serve your way into influence?

Accommodation without capitulation. Yielding without surrender. Going the extra mile while never forgetting that freedom is better. Operating in love while never capitulating to lies about what's right.

This is how the Kingdom works. This is how slaves defeated slavery. This is how the powerless gained power. This is how love conquered hate.

And this is how you can change your world—from the inside out.

Blessings,
Susan 😊