ChosenRebel's Blog

It’s been about 25 years since an eye problem I suffered through in my early thirties began to produce what was eventually diagnosed as “night blindness”. I first began to notice that I couldn’t see stars at night. Today, if my wife and I are out, she normally drives on the way home if the sun has gone down and when I have to drive at night and she is not with me, she is nervous and praying and I am cautious and praying. Night blindness is a serious problem. 

All blindness is serious.

Spiritual blindness is most serious of all.

“Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,”  (Rev. 3:17)

Which is why Luke tells us about this incident in Jesus’ ministry:

“And He also spoke a parable to them: “A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?”  (Luke 6:39)

So here Jesus makes up a parable about the literal effects of physical blindness to make a more significant point about spiritual blindness. 

Some things “create” blindness. I said earlier that 25 years ago, I noticed that I couldn’t see stars at night. But that is not strictly true. If I get away in the mountains and away from all other light sources, I can see some stars at night, not as many as most people, but I can see some. But when you are in the midst of a city or a town, even better sighted people will not see as many stars as when they are away from all other ambient light.

There are things that blind us spiritually as well. And the more we are involved with them and the longer or more habitual is our involvement with them, the “blinder” we will become. Some of us are blind because we are so addicted to media, that the Scripture that we say we believe is made null and void in our everyday life. Some of us are blind because we are overly committed to a political party (right or left), or some ideology that we have never subjected to the light of Scripture to truly evaluated its “truth.” Some of us are blind because we are so committed to sports, or working out, or “health”, or our pets, or our hobbies, or our pleasures, or even our sorrows that the light of God’s word is never given a window to expose our blindness. Whatever the particulars are in any of our lives, Jesus anticipated it and spoke to it.

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.”  (Luke 11:33-36)

The only command in the whole passage is verse 35.

³⁵ Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness.

Jesus wants us to be careful about what we see, what we let into our psyche, our soul, through the window of our eyes. Certain things will dull our light. Certain things will dull our sight, will make us spiritually insensate. Theologian and pastor John Piper puts it this way:

“Be careful what you regard as bright and attractive and compelling.
If it is not Christ, you will be filled with darkness,
no matter how bright it seems for a season.
Candles seem bright until the sun comes out.
Then they are useless and are put away.

Christ is the glory we were made to see.
His light alone will fill us and give the light of life
and meaning to every part of our lives.
And when that happens,
we ourselves will shine and give off the rays of Christ.
‘If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark,
it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light’ (v. 36).

A Godward Heart, p. 31
John Piper

Let’s not be willfully blind. Let’s run with all our hearts into the Light of Him who calls us.

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[Here’s a great potential study: Do a concordance search of every mention of “blind, blinding, blindness, etc.” in the New Testament (52) and the Old Testament (37 more). Look at the context of each; which ones are positive, which are negative, which are about eyes and which are about hearts, etc.]