Reasons the Church Has Lost Her Moral Clarity

The Scriptures clearly spell out the peril of mixture and the need to keep things clear of compromise & wishy-washiness.

The first reason the church has lost the capacity to judge itself is because there’s such a profound lack of moral authority in leadership. How can we understand true righteous judgment if we don’t comprehend the fact that God called the church to judge itself and keep itself pure first? “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1)

The second reason the church has lost its capacity to judge itself is a fear of making moral judgments based on the present atmosphere of “tolerance” and political correctness in the world. There is a pervading atmosphere now in our society that we are not to make a call about anything. The question, “Who am I to say that is wrong?” rings through our minds. We feel if we hold something up to the standard of the truth of the Word of God we are judging and somehow being a hypocrite. Peter describes this moral ambiguity as “falling from your own steadfastness”. “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:17-18)

Many Christian leaders abstain from dealing with these unpleasant things by quoting Matthew 7, where Jesus commanded us to “judge not”. This can be a cop-out to excuse our non-involvement. Also, many are afraid of them being persecuted or scrutinized so they don’t even challenge things, even when they know it is wrong. This passage was about making spiritual calls, not rash judgments based on our own opinions, bias, preferences or operating in the flesh based on outward appearances.

“Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” (Matthew 7:24)

“…for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (2 Samuel 16:7)

While we are warned not to judge outwardly, we still have a clear responsibility to take an uncompromising stand for the very clear biblical standards concerning integrity, marriage, homosexuality and purity. Someone must stand up and call these things by the light of clear biblical standards instead of looking the other way. While denominations can separate Christians based on an interpretation of one or two scripture passages, these things are exceedingly clear. We must call light, light and darkness, darkness. The first area we must judge is ourselves and the church.

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)
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One of the great end-time battles will require us to stand up for Truth against a great end-time wave of lawlessness.