Luke 11:33-36 ESV
“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. 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.”
Letting the Light Shine
When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, if our faith is
genuine, we should be enthusiastic about our newfound freedom from the weight
of our bondage to sin, and we should be rejoicing in the God of our salvation,
and we should be on fire for the Lord and for his gospel, and we should be
desiring God and his holiness and righteousness, and we should want to do what
pleases him. We should desire to obey his will and to do what he says we must
do.
We should want others to see that something has changed in
our lives, and that we aren’t who we were before, because of what Jesus did for
us in dying on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live to him and
to his righteousness. We should want others to see the light of Christ in our
lives and to know that Jesus can save them from their slavery (addiction) to
sin, too, and that they can also walk in freedom from bondage to sin.
Healthy Eyes
And while it is true that our physical eyes can and do
sometimes reveal what is going on inside of us, I believe this “eye” is to be
taken more metaphorically to mean judgment, discernment, and wisdom. It is the
ability to decide between truth and error and between right and wrong and to
make wise and right and godly decisions which not only go in the right
direction (the way of God) but which know to reject and to abstain from all
evil.
So, if our eye is healthy spiritually, our whole body
(being) is full of light (truth, godliness, righteousness). We are making right
and godly decisions, not wrong and sinful choices. We are choosing to forsake
our lives of sin and to follow Jesus in obedience, and we are walking in his
ways and in his truth and righteousness in the power of God, by his Spirit. And
we are not ashamed of Christ and his gospel but we are sharing his gospel with
others.
Bad Eyes
But if our eye (judgment, discernment, wisdom) is bad, our
whole body is full of darkness. And this does show up sometimes through our
physical eyes, as well, like where the Scriptures talk about people having eyes
full of adultery. Now certainly this could also be speaking of judgment, that
their judgment is to engage themselves in adultery and not in faithfulness and
in moral purity. And it could be speaking of what they are viewing, such as pornography,
but lust does reveal itself sometimes through physical eyes.
But a bad eye is bad judgment and discernment. It means we
are not acting wisely with spiritual discernment but we are making sinful and
unwise choices which are leading us down a path of sin and not on the path of
righteousness. It means we are willfully choosing sin over righteousness and
disobedience over obedience. It means we are ignoring our Lord’s commands and
we are choosing our own path and we are doing what our flesh dictates and not
what the Spirit commands.
Our Whole Body
Now, notice with me what this says about our bodies, but not
just our physical bodies but our whole being. If we have spiritually healthy
judgments and discernment, by the Spirit, and we are forsaking our lives of sin
to follow Jesus in obedience to his ways, our whole being is full of light
(truth, righteousness, holiness and godliness). We are the Lord’s and we have
salvation from sin and we will inherit the kingdom of heaven.
But if we have spiritually bad judgments and discernment,
and if we are choosing habitual and deliberate sin in place of faithful
obedience to our Lord, our whole being is full of darkness. Like John said, if we
say we have fellowship with God but we walk (in conduct, in practice) in
darkness (in sin, in wickedness), we lie and the truth is not in us. The same
applies if we claim to know God but we are not doing what he commands, we are
liars and the truth is not in us (1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10).
Be Careful
So, there is a warning here to be careful lest the light in
us be darkness. How can this be? Many people today are professing faith in
Jesus Christ but the faith is man-generated, not God-given faith, and it is
being taught to them by charlatans and imitators of righteousness who are
leading them in the wrong direction. They are telling them that all they have
to do is “believe” in Jesus (not defined) and all their sins are forgiven and
heaven is guaranteed them when they die regardless of how they live on this
earth.
And so many of them have not been crucified with Christ in
death to sin and they have not been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life
in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. All they did
was make a profession of faith in Jesus or say some words in a prayer after
another person which are not usually words of true repentance and true humility
of spirit with a heart desire to now change and become like Jesus in character
and to no longer walk in sin.
And so the light that they think now dwells within them is
actually darkness because there was no death to sin and no change of heart and
mind away from sin to walk with the Lord in holiness and righteousness. And so
they continue in deliberate and habitual sin thinking their sins are forgiven
and that heaven is their eternal destiny. But their eye is not healthy, it is
bad, and so their whole being is full of darkness and now they are headed to
hell.
In other words, we can’t just profess faith in Jesus Christ
and assume that our sins are all forgiven and heaven is what awaits us when we
die while we continue to walk in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord.
If sin is what we obey, it will end in death, not in life eternal. But if
obedience to our Lord is what we obey, it will lead to righteousness and to sanctification
and its end is eternal life with God. So know and believe the truth.
[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn
15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1
Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:21-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Php 2:12-13; Col 1:21-23; Col
3:5-10; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn
2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Matt 7:21-23; Ac 26:18; Rev 21:8,27;
Rev 22:14-15]
Living
Water
An
Original Work / November 21, 2013
Based
off Various Scriptures
My people have forsaken Me,
Their Savior, who died on a tree;
Made idols, and they worshipped them;
So empty, they will ne’er fulfill.
Lord, You are the hope of Your chosen ones.
Those who turn away from You will be shamed;
The Spring of Living Water left behind.
Living Water satisfies.
The thirsty, let them come and drink;
Believe in Jesus as their King;
The gift of Jesus given them,
So they will never thirst again.
Indeed, the Living Water flows within.
It springs up like a fountain cleansing sin.
Eternal life in heaven promised them.
Living Water glorifies.
Oh people, won’t you come to Him?
Obey Him and repent of sin.
Let Jesus come and live within.
Surrender all your life to Him.
My people, won’t you turn your hearts to Me?
Forsake your idols and then you’ll be free.
Won’t you come now to Me on bended knee?
Living Water sanctifies.
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