Whenever a living movement of heart dies, Christ's way is forsaken. The process of dying reaches its final stage when there is no more wrestling with death, when the struggle for life is deserted and people surrender unresisting to the shadow of death. This includes the natural dying that threatens every movement, when materialism and mediocrity gain a foothold and we avoid the struggle to which Jesus has called us. Today people try to live simultaneously on the basis of law and of grace. A life of nonviolence is called absurd even though Jesus lived such a life.
People oppose an uncompromising stand, calling it legalism and fanaticism.
They say an unqualified yes to materialism, are infatuated with sin, and take pains to show that one can never get rid of it. It basically makes no difference to them whether there is more compromise or less, which all shows how far they are from the way. Only love as experienced in the full forgiveness of sin can bring healing. This cannot be emphasized strongly enough. Yet it is not convincing if the experience of this love does not lead to consequences in practical life.