The Bible commands us to run from the darkness (1 Timothy 6:11), not to see how much of it we can let into our life before it becomes a problem. In our churches and our lives, we see the results of compromise compounded over years. We now see it on vulgar display in our country every day. I remember embracing a more progressive form of Christianity for many years. A more socially hip church and theology seemed like a welcome relief from what I perceived to be the tired and stagnating Christianity of my youth.
Satan is a clever and effective liar. You have to give him that. It’s one thing to be deceived, another to admit it, but something even more to turn from it. This is where we find ourselves today. After decades of compromising with the culture, we now find the faith of our fathers in somewhat of a death spiral.
Make no mistake, the gates of hell will not prevail against the Kingdom of God (Matthew 16:18). Satan will never eliminate the Church from earth. That doesn’t mean the lack of action and backbone from believers won’t marginalize it. Until every believer stops winking at sin, the Church will founder and the good news of Jesus Christ will not be preached to a world in desperate need of His saving grace. If this generation of believers will not stand firm in the faith, there won’t be a next generation who can freely worship our God as we do today.
We no longer run from the darkness because we rather like the comfortable acceptance we receive from society. Since we don’t face active persecution, we see no reason to rock the boat. For the sake of being accepted and left alone, we’ve allowed darkness to cohabitate with light. Except that isn’t possible. Where there is darkness, there is no light (2 Corinthians 6:14). But when we shine the light into the darkness, the darkness flees before it (John 1:5).
To run from the darkness means we don’t engage with it. We don’t see how close we can get. We don’t speak to it or command it. God’s Word commands us to run from it (2 Timothy 2:22). We used to live in darkness and we were dead in it (Ephesians 5:8-10). When we came to Jesus, He gave us a new life (2 Corinthians 5:17). He raised us out of the dark and into the light. A blind man who receives his sight doesn’t walk around with his eyes closed. He doesn’t gouge out his eyes so he can be blind again. And yet this is what we do with sin every day. We’d rather live in it than run from it.
The Church needs to repent. Every believer must repent of inviting and playing in the darkness. We’ve been fools, adopting the teachings, structure, music, and ideas of the world. The Word of God sits idly by while we espouse the latest thinking from someone who doesn’t even believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We must turn back and run from the darkness. We must return to the plain teachings of the Bible, call sin what it is, and no longer tolerate any compromise in the Church. Take an honest inventory of your own beliefs. Where have you allowed compromise to creep in? It all needs to go. Run from the darkness and into the light. Run into the arms of the Savior and leave the things of this world behind.