In these days which we live there seems to be a renewed “spirit of lawlessness” released upon the earth. The Church, speaking about the body of Christ, is not exempt from the influences of this spirit. Lawlessness has entered the body of Christ in an unparalleled manner. Of course the first thing that we need to do is give a definition for lawlessness and see the effects of it upon the body of Christ.
The mystery of “lawlessness” has been at work since the time of the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the garden. Lawlessness is sin but not merely committing sin. The mystery of lawlessness is the promotion of sin by lawful authorities, This would include State and National Governmants and Church or Denominational Governments. I have always said “you can legislate immorality, but you cannot legislate morality”. For instance, when men and women decide that the man is NOT going to be the head of his household, but that they will adopt other arrangements, this is an act in the mystery of lawlessness. When children are promoted as equal or ruling partners in the family, rather than under the authority of their fathers and mothers, this is an act of the mystery of lawlessness. When the discipline of those children including corporal punishment, which is taught in the Scriptures, becomes outlawed and otherwise discouraged by government, this is an act of the mystery of lawlessness. In the church, when believers think they can live any way they want and purpose to walk in sin this is an act of the mystery of lawlessness.
2 Peter 2:19 ESV They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
The fruit or end results of lawlessness are great and costly. Individual lawlessness produces guilt, pain, mental disorders, family break upheavals, disease and finally death. On the national and international scale, lawlessness repels the Spirit of God and results in all kinds of social, political and natural calamity, poverty, vandalism, revolution, war, freak weather conditions, famine, disease epidemics, earthquakes and disasters of all kinds. These disasters are believed by most people to happen purely by chance. Everything has a cause, and that cause is often linked to moral degeneracy. Read Deuteronomy chapter 28 where the amazing link between a nation's moral behavior is explained in detail both from the view of blessings and curses.