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Of Darkness and Dimness
“Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” John 3:19
We live in a dark world and when you live in darkness anything goes. The darkness I speak of is spiritual in nature therefore, it is not obvious to those who live in it that they are in the dark. They actually think they have light to live by but they don’t understand that it is Satan who has “transformed himself into an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14). It is an illusion. To make this darkness even more insidious he provides wisdom for those who live in it—causing them to think they have found the way to “the good life.” But James tells us this wisdom is “earthly, sensual, demonic,” and where it exists, “confusion and every evil thing are there.” (James 3:15-16) Terrifying!
You would think that Christ-followers would easily recognize spiritual darkness and avoid it. Yet the writer of Hebrews warned, “Beware brethren, lest there be in any of you and evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God but exhort one another daily while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:12-13) The warning is stern for when we who have the light turn from it we go into darkness just like an unsaved person. This often has its own insidious danger. Because we have the knowledge of Christ and His light we are left with what I call dimness. We’re not completely in the dark like those who don’t know Christ but because of unbelief we turn from the living God, not in outright denial but in the choice to set our own course for living. We’re living in dimness and we’ve gotten used to it. Just as we were warned so it happens; we are “hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
I fear that much of the church today has this strange mixture of light and dark and has settled into the dimness. It is like Israel in the Old Testament when they came into the temple to worship the LORD and right in the same place erected idols to false gods. A strange mixture. So many in the church are content to live in this dimness. We’ve gotten used to it. We are operating under the influence of demonic wisdom and think we’re “okay.” What we need is a flash of brilliant light—the light of God’s glory. We need a wake-up call and God is helping us with all kinds of weather disasters, economic downturns and a myriad of other life consequences. One of the clearest indicators that something is wrong is the lack of God’s presence and power among us.
The antidote to darkness is light—it dispels darkness. I think its time someone turned the light on!
Pastor Dan
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