Works of Darkness

Scripture makes it plain that hidden sins are “works of darkness.“ Christ clearly stated, “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!“ (Matthew 6:23, NKJV). We know from God’s Word that light has no communion with darkness.

Peter told us that Christ “preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient…“ (1 Peter 3:19-20). Disobedience cast these souls into a prison of darkness. Likewise today, every willful act of disobedience causes the light of discernment within us to darken. Over time our perception of truth becomes distorted, and our “open heaven“ grows clouded.

The Lord suffers greatly whenever hidden sin brings gross darkness upon our souls. Nothing grieves him more than when we resist and reject his warnings and convictions. Consider this tragic case described in a letter we received.

“My husband has given himself over completely to internet pornography. Now I’ve filed for divorce, and he doesn’t even care. We were happily married for twenty-five years before all this happened. I couldn’t understand why he spent so much time shut up in his room with his computer. Finally, one day I walked in and was shocked by the ugly filth I saw on the screen. I knew he was addicted. He said, ’I can’t help it. I’m going to do as I please.’ He’d became obsessed. His personality had changed, and a meanness came over him.“

The apostle Paul directs a horrifying statement to those who walk “…in the futility of their mind“ (Ephesians 4:17). Such people justify their sin, no longer seeking deliverance from it. Paul said of them, “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart“ (Ephesians 4:18).

How did they become so dark and blinded? They fell under a blindness that comes upon all who give themselves over to sin: “Who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness“ (Ephesians 4:19). John Owen, the Puritan writer, spelled out the tragic result, “A man under the power of some predominant lust is under false security and does not discern coming perilous times.“