"He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us
into the kingdom of the Son of His love,"
(Col. 1:13)
The early church father Chrysostom aptly noted that the word for "power" equals "tyranny" here in this passage. A tyranny is where evil powers rule. Tyranny is where you are forced or compelled to do something against your wishes. Saddam Hussein is a modern day tyrant. Adolf Hitler was a tyrant. However, the tyrant of all tyrants is Satan himself! Satan holds countless millions under his 'tyranny of darkness'. Make no mistake, Satan is real! He is no mythological figure!
Satan is the enemy of God, and the enemy of everything God loves. Ever since he was cast out of heaven, he has been animated and motivated by an intense hatred of God. He has only one ambition, namely to destroy God's work and to produce chaos in God's creation. Satan has a dominion. His kingdom and oppressive rule is a tyranny of darkness where his authority is exercised. It is a life of oppression where sin whips you into its submission, and guilt presses you to make bricks without straw! The tyranny of Satan causes people to think, act, and do stupid things! The power of Darkness is the vice of personal pleasure over the virtue of personal purity! It is the power, which causes a person to pursue personal gratification rather than personal self-control and restraint. The tyranny of darkness cripples our will and our common sense. The enslavement of the faculties of common sense caves in to the driving forces of the flesh. Common sense ought to tell you that a particular action is going to cause you harm - but the tyranny of your lust drives you to do it anyway - that' the tyranny and power of darkness!
Why do people do the sinfully stupid and harmful things that they do? I've met people on the streets of New Orleans during our Mardi-Gras outreach who were doing the most outrageous and outlandish things, and I've asked them "Why are you doing that?" They have said to me, "I don't know what's come over me! I would never normally act this way!"
Paul states in Romans 6, "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness...you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness,..."
There is a power of evil that when you step into it that power takes you over, and you start doing things that you would never normally do! (What else can explain the epidemic of student shootings across this nation!)?
Isaiah calls it, being "driven into darkness" "They will pass through it hard pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness. (Isa 8:21-22)
Again, Paul describes those who are under this tyranny this way:
"…[who] walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,..." (Eph2:3); "...having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. (Eph. 4:18-19).
Let's note some things about "The power of Darkness."
The power or kingdom of darkness is a topsy-turvy world where evil is called good and good is called evil! Where light is called darkness and darkness is called light! 'Darkness' means just what it says: A person is unable to see, understand, or know. Picture this scene: A person trying to walk and stumble through a world of darkness. He doesn't know where He is going - He doesn't understand: Who he really is; where he has come from; where he is (or) where he is going. This is the very reason people struggle against God so much. That is the condition of the millions of people who are without Jesus Christ! People that are under the tyranny of darkness do not know why God created them and what God has planned for them. They never know these things; they never know the truth of this world and life or God. They walk in a life and world of darkness, blinded from the truth because, "Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe, so they are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News that is shining upon them. They don't understand the message we preach about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God." (2 Cor 4:4 NLT)
The Power of darkness is an active power that enslaves men to the weakness of their sin and stands in opposition to the light of God. It deceives people into believing that the pleasures of sin for a season are more valuable and greater than the pleasure of God for an eternity!
Now thanks be to God who has broken the "tyranny of darkness" from those who have believed and received the gospel of salvation! "For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves," (Col. 1:13 NIV). The word here used for 'rescued' in the Greek is Rhuomai, which means to, 'draw out' or "to snatch out of," (i.e. water or fire).
Oh! What that ought to awaken within our minds! Think of the terrible things that might have happened to you if you had never become a Christian! Have you ever thought about where you would be right now if Christ had not intervened in your life? Knowing my own heart, my own rebellious spirit, and the, "I don't care attitude" that I had, I think I'd either be dead, in jail, or dying from some disease! Where would you and I be if God had not plunged His hand down into the cesspool into which we had fallen and pulled us out? But those who are in Christ have all been rescued, as if by one of those SWAT teams that snatches a victim out of a dangerous situation. So Jesus has, "rescued us from the dominion of darkness," from the tyranny of darkness, and from groping around in the dark after empty and futile goals. Jesus appeared in order to deliver us from the power of Satan! "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." (1 John 3:8)
Now, the call to us as the church and as individual Christians is to go and break the "tyranny of darkness' in people's lives, 'to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.' (Acts 26:18)
How can we break the "Tyranny of darkness" off people's lives? I believe it can all be summed up in what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:2 "...we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God."
Paul is saying, 'if we as Christians would reject all shameful and underhanded methods. If we would not try to trick anyone, and if we would not distort the word of God to make it culturally palatable or politically correct, we would see the power of God manifested in the witness of our lives! And then people would listen to us and their eyes would be opened!'
Furthermore, we must treat people with Love and respect - in spite of their sin, and in spite of the darkness, they are in. "Hate the sin - love the sinner!" It's an easy cliché to throw around - But how often are those lines blurred? How often do we blur the lines between hating the sin, and acting like we hate the sinner? Those lines become easily blurred and distorted by the way we approach the sinner. They hear us say we love them - but they see us often times acting very differently! Yelling at them, arguing with them, or acting with an attitude of disgust toward them! You will never convince people you love them if you act in disgust toward them. You will never win them - if you refuse to act in love toward them. I have learned through the years that Conversational Evangelism goes a lot farther than Confrontational Evangelism!
The Church has a mandate from the Lord to go and break the tyranny of darkness from people's lives. I believe the culture and the world will become more wicked with every passing day until Jesus comes for His own. It is difficult to imagine the antagonism of most people against God, however, stand on a street corner with a banner or cross and watch what happens!
(2 Tim 3:13) "But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." However, having said that, I also am not a fatalist.
We are here to bring people into the purpose of God!
And how God does that is by giving us biblical principles by which we can structure our lives, our society, & our community.
The church is, (or ought to be) a restraining influence, the conscience of the culture, the remnant which prevents the total corruption of the society until God's purposes are fulfilled. It is the reason why the church exists today. Our goal isn't to simply moralize society. It is to bring to earth through the gospel the kingdom & government of God! The church is called to be the place where people, finding Jesus Christ, can also find liberty and freedom from the oppression of the tyranny of darkness! Go! Release the captives and set them free in Jesus' name!