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There is a sharp and blaring contrast that divides the blackness of the deceitfulness of sin from the bright white of truth which alone serves as a sure foundation for virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, kindness, godliness, and charity, or the defining characteristics of true and living righteousness which comes through faith in, and faithfulness to, the living God. For faith without faithfulness is merely a personal deception.
When men fail to see the sharp and distinct line, which is unmistakable to the seeing, it is for one of two reasons. Either they are ignorant or they have allowed their own hearts for self-serving reasons to mingle the two together. Like it or not, only in Truth can men truly be free. But that becomes the defining point of when, where, and why evil in the hearts of men compel them to reject the truth of what freedom is, triggering in them a desperate need to redefine it into something it is not.
Freedom is not the liberty to do whatsoever one may want, for in a world where two or more motivations exist, strife and contention would abound and anarchy would rule. No, true freedom exists in the knowledge and ability to do what pleases the Creator who established harmony and not chaos, by defining righteousness as opposed to the unrighteousness of sin. Thus freedom is the “white” power of knowledge and understanding that clearly exposes the “black” deception that kills through sin. It is an understanding that empowers one to walk in righteousness, living by and through oneness with God. But this freedom, true freedom, is only obtainable through a surrendered heart to Jesus who redeems men from sin.
Jesus warned us, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” That narrow path can only be navigated when one sees the sharp contrast that divides the blackness of the deceitfulness of sin from the bright white of truth, for when they are allowed to be mingled in a doubled minded heart, man will always walk in the grey thickness of fog and lose their ability to see whether the ground upon which they stand is surefooting or not.
Therefore, let him who thinks he is safe where he stands take heed lest he fall. For in Christ, everything falls to one side or the other, into the white or the black. There is nothing neutral, nothing, where things of God and the things of the world have merged together into agreement and harmony. Such is why we pray, “Lead me not into temptation” and “Deliver us from evil,” for unless He guides us by His Spirit of Truth we will surely fall.
This is why we are warned, “There is a way that seems right to man, but the end of it is death.” If you have to ask, or make feeble attempts to defend things in your life with the age old argument of “What is wrong with…?” Then you probably are already deep into the grey fog and should stop and pray that God might graciously restore you to the path of righteousness. For only there can you answer with conviction of truth “What is right with” what you are saying and doing.
Does this offend you? If so you need to ask yourself why.
.“The one who is not with Me is against Me, and the one who does not gather with Me scatters.”
Gates of the City 