“If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” 1 John 1:6 What is the first thing that you see when someone turns off the lights in the room that you are in? The answer is easy: You see darkness.
What about after two or three minutes of standing in the darkness? What do you see now? Do things appear as dark as they initially were when the lights were first turned off?
What happens is that the longer that you are in the darkness, the more that you will adjust to the absence of light. It will appear as though things are lighter or brighter but in reality they are just as dark as they were to begin with.
I am deeply concerned for the Body of Christ. My heart breaks as I see so many individuals and so many churches adjusting to the darkness around them while sincerely believing that they are walking in the light.
What was unacceptable behavior a few years ago is now seen as common place in the ranks of the modern church. Instead of desiring to be “Holy as He is Holy” we have instead adjusted and adapted to the darkness of sin and compromise in the name of being relevant.
Somehow the idea has slipped in that we need to imitate the world in order to win them to Jesus. What happened to imitating Jesus in order to win them to Jesus?
The “Seeker Sensitive” movement has really become the “Sin Sensitive” movement as people have learned to walk in the dark and think that they are in the light. They have adjusted to the darkness and are under the delusion that God is pleased with their carnality!
The Apostle John was dealing with a group of Christian who had been convinced that their lukewarm version of Christianity was an acceptable form of faith. John quickly and sharply addressed this issue and called it like he saw it, “If we say that we have fellowship with (Jesus) and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
The fellowship that he spoke of was the koinonia or intimate communion that the faithful believer should expect to enjoy. This intimacy can only be attained and maintained when there is a constant fidelity to the Lord.
But if we “claim” to have that type of life-transforming and righteousness producing fellowship—but have adjusted to the darkness –then the Word of God calls our claim into question.
What does it mean to “walk in darkness” anyway? The Greek word that John uses here is the word skotos and Thayer’s defines it as such:
1.Used of night darkness
2.Used of darkened eyesight or blindness
3.Used of ignorance in regards to the human duty towards divine things, which is then accompanied by immorality and ungodliness resulting in the eternal misery of hell.
Wow! That should chill anyone to the bone who is not in the desperate pursuit of the will of God.
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Almost every single person that I meet and minister to on the streets of this Nation lay claim to some type of salvation experience.
They say things like, “Go talk to someone that really needs it, I am already going to heaven.” All the while they are looking and acting exactly like the world that Jesus died to save us from!
Someone, somewhere gave them a version of the Word that had been adjusted to the darkness. A mother, or aunt or preacher or Sunday school teacher convinced them that the only thing that God required out of them for salvation was a meaningless, and fruitless prayer that neither changed them nor saved them!
They have believed the lie and as a result they have become liars! They failed to give them the full counsel of God and instead have reduced the CRIMSON BLOOD OF JESUS to a more palatable PASTEL PINK!
They have “cherry picked” a few scriptures out of context that appeal to the flesh, but do absolutely nothing in regards to transforming the spirit! They just “adjust to the darkness.” What about the next verse in 1st John Chapter 1
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light...the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
What if we don’t walk in the light then? Simple—the Blood of Jesus will not cleanse us from all sins!
You can join any church that you want to join! You can get yourself dipped, dunked, sprinkled, confirmed and blessed. You can do the Walk to Emmaus, the Purpose Driven Life, or do three Hail Mary’s and five Our Father’s —but if your life is not reflective of the Glorious, Transforming, and Holy Word of the LIVING GOD—then you are a LIAR and you do not know the TRUTH!
When the Apostles of Old penned the words that we call the Bible under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit, they did so with the expectancy that those who read these sacred writings would see, live and experience the same type of walk that they did.
They PREACHED a message of HOLINESS because they LIVED the message of HOLINESS.
They PREACHED a message with POWER because they LIVED a message of POWER!
They PREACHED a message of BOLDNESS because they LIVED a message of BOLDNESS!
What message are you living? Or have you just simply stepped out of the light and “adjusted to the darkness?”
The thing about “adjusting to the darkness” is that you are able to convince yourself that you can still see!
Sure, the detail is lacking and you may have to squint to make out something, but at least you are not totally blind! Sin is okay with allowing you to live the illusion of light just as long as you never step into the light!
I am asking all of you who are reading this to ask yourself the same thing that I am having to ask myself every single day as I expose myself to the light of God’s Word: “Holy Spirit please have mercy upon me and reveal to me any area where I have adjusted to the darkness.”
Job 34:21-22 declares, “His eyes are on the ways of men; he sees their every step. There is no dark place, no deep shadow, where evildoers can hide.”
It is time to raise the standard and walk in the measure of Light that the Lord Jesus has revealed to us through His death, burial and resurrection and cease from the deceitful snare of “adjusting to the darkness.”
