33 “No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. 35 Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. 36 If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays.”
As soon as I read this passage, it reminded me of one of the radio devotions I had heard during the many hours I spend in my van. (You can read how it applied to one of my other posts here) Today's scripture passage was a reminder that we are to be a light "so that those who enter may see the light" The NHOP devotion says:
In today’s world, we are called to be light. In other words, we are to turn the light on in the midst of confusing darkness. Imagine someone who liked to build a house in the dark. He would have to go on feelings rather than precise measurements that he could never see.
“It feels like an inch and a half.”
“It seems to be pretty straight”
Well we all know that this would never do and that that house would come tumbling down. Here we are in a society today, which much of our decisions are based on feelings, or what seems right. Our foundation is being lost and now good is being called evil and evil is being called good.
Instead of getting angry at those who are building, we, as Christians, need to turn on the light switch.
As Christians, we are called to radiate God's light to those around us. We should not be keeping it to ourselves because that is not how it is supposed to be. If we consider the lives we live as a house we are building, don't we have the obligation to shine our light so that others can build a more firm foundation? If we are keeping the light hidden (like in a cellar or under a basket) we are allowing other around us to build their lives in the dark. They can try to build it the best that they can, but it sure to fail.It is in the light, that all is revealed. Building a house in the light reveals the exact measurement, it reveals foundation problems, it reveals dangers and problems. Building a house in the dark hides all of these things. Darkness conceals any of the potential problems and the way to fix them.
MacArthur explains:
"And because of the universality of this experience of light and darkness, we all understand without an explanation exactly what the metaphor's intending to communicate. The simple idea is this, light reveals and darkness conceals. Absolute light reveals absolutely, and absolute darkness covers absolutely. In fact, the apostle Paul articulated this axiomatic, proverbial, self-evident reality in Ephesians 5:13. He said this: "All things become visible when they are exposed by the light." And so the apostle Paul followed in the example of Jesus, understood that the idea of light and darkness become wonderful tools for which to communicate, or by which to communicate spiritual truth. Light reveals; darkness conceals. That is why blindness is so limiting. Light is everywhere. A blind person can't perceive it. All that light, all that disclosure, all that revelation--and it's useless....The simple truth is this, light is everywhere but blind people can't see it."
When we are without Christ we are blind. Blind to our sin, blind to our need for forgiveness, and blind to God's leading. We can try to live our lives on our own but we can't do it on our own. We are living in darkness and don't recognize the need for light. However, the light is always there.
MacArthur says:
It was never an issue of light. It was always an issue of sight. And it is today. You say you don't have enough information about Jesus, you don't know how to conclude about Jesus. I remember one night when Larry King said to me, "I wish I had your faith." Faith comes by hearing the message about Christ. There's plenty of light; the issue is sight. And so Jesus concludes this discussion in verses 33 to 36 by talking about the difference between light and sight. They were wicked because they were laying the responsibility for their unbelief at the feet of Jesus and simply saying, "You didn't make Your point. We didn't have enough light. We came to the conclusion we came to because that's all the information You gave us. You left us in the dark."
But that wasn't really the issue. They were blind willfully because they hated His message. They hated the indictment of their sin and hypocrisy and false religion and self-righteousness. They hated the idea that He called on them to acknowledge themselves as poor prisoners blind and oppressed, sinners under the judgment of God headed for eternal punishment who needed to repent and be saved. They hated that message. And so it skewed their ability to see the truth. You remember back in Luke 4 when Jesus went to His own synagogue and preached one sermon and told those self-righteous people in His own town that He had grown up with that they were not who they thought they were. They were not right with God. They were alienated from God. They were poor prisoners, blind and oppressed, who needed to be saved, who needed to repent--and they tried to kill Him after one sermon. They were blind, and they were willfully blind.
Willfully blind. That is what keeps us in the dark. It is not the absence of light, it is the ignorance of not seeing it and allowing it to reveal instead of allowing darkness to conceal.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Luke 11:37-44
1 comment:
Willfully blind. Sinners love their sin far too much to shine light on it or give it up. But ignorance is anything but bliss in this situation!
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