“Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.” PROVERBS 29:18
To “cast off restraint” can also be translated to “run wild.” Thus, vision in our lives is not only a controlling and directing factor, but a restraining factor. If we have no vision, we cast off restraint. We run wild. We have nothing directing us. We have nothing controlling us. There is no governing principle for our lives. To live in this age without heavenly vision is to become vulnerable to the breakdown of the moral fabric of society. Man’s thoughts, concepts, values, and degraded morals are gradually taking over. Today there is increasing moral looseness. There are more things taking place that are without restraint, and more things happening that at one time would not have been allowed by the general social conscience.
Surely in the unsaved world there is no vision and no God, so the people cast off restraint. The same can be true with believers. The fact that Paul had to admonish the Ephesians to “no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind” (Eph. 4:17) indicates that it can happen even to believers. As children of God we must have a directing heavenly vision in our lives. Otherwise, we could fall into the condition spoken of in Matthew 24:12: “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.”
This verse indicates that an increasing lack of restraint is being released on the earth. The mystery of lawlessness is at work. It is infecting mankind more and more as the hour approaches for the Lord’s coming. Thus, we need a clear heavenly vision to control us, direct us, and restrain us.