In writing to the Corinthians, Paul uses the expression “man’s day” (1 Cor. 4:3 JND), and we are living in a day when men and their principles are plainly manifested as such. As a result, many are spiritually unable to detect where the rights of Christ or the principles of truth are encroached upon. A character of professed Christianity has sprung up which finds its appropriate expression in the title “human.” Separation has come to mean toleration; unity of the Spirit, coalition; unworldliness, as much of the world as you can keep; that which scripture designates as covetousness means being prudent.
There is nothing in this attitude that would outrage the conscience; it is not a denial of the truth. On the contrary, the truth is owned, except where the acknowledgment of it would interfere with the world which so many hold fast! Satan’s great aim is to present in the same person or company an acknowledgement of the truth with a certain credit and at the same time present a practical denial of it. In this way, he especially damages the truth, because it is exhibited by those on whose conscience it has no power. It is equally true as regards the position to which the truth conducts the soul: This is boasted in so that the truth and the ecclesiastical position suited to it are both accepted. Herein consists the greatest snare of lukewarmness! That the truth can be accepted without any divine answer to its claims is worse than if openly refused, because in the latter case it might be supposed what effects would follow. But the other presents the glaring inconsistency of truth accepted and its practical power denied; this is the moral swamp in which Satan will land the church, so nauseous to Christ. This leaven is rapidly at work and finds its most apt expression in principles and ways openly adopted and contended for on every side. There is nothing so well suits the devil as saints holding a position without practical effect, while open worldliness and looseness creep in unchallenged, under the garb of divine position. In 2 Timothy 2:5, the Apostle by the Spirit describes the state as “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”
How solemn! May the Lord keep us very near and true to Himself! Where this principle is not detected, the Laodicean haze blinds the eye. The leaven is permeating the church rapidly. Man has been acknowledged instead of ignored, addressed through his intellect or senses, given a place, so planting the seeds that ripen in the end. The state of characteristic indifference is tested by Him who is “the faithful and true witness.” May the Lord in mercy in the midst of this growing evil preserve to Himself a few of whom it may be said, “They that feared the Lord spake often one to another” (Mal. 3:1616Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. (Malachi 3:16)).
W. T. Turpin, adapted