Luke 11:33-36 NASB
“No one lights a lamp and puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your 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. So watch out that the light in you is not darkness. Therefore if your whole body is full of light, without any dark part, it will be wholly illuminated, as when the lamp illuminates you with its light.”
We read in John 3 that Jesus Christ is the Light who came
into the world but that (some or many) people loved the darkness rather than
the Light, for their deeds were evil. And Jesus Christ is God, and he is the
only begotten Son of God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. So he was and is totally righteous, morally pure, upright,
honest, faithful, and sinless. So this is speaking of people who love (prefer,
take pleasure in, long for) their sins rather than Jesus and moral purity and
uprightness and honesty and faithfulness and obedience to the Lord.
So, combined with the passage in Luke 11, together they say,
essentially, that no one who has truly come into the light will still walk in
darkness. No one who has truly come into the light is going to immediately put
away that light so that he can continue in sin (wickedness, immorality, lying,
adultery, etc.). Those who never turn from their sins and who never walk in
obedience to the Lord, but who continue on in deliberate and habitual sin after
making a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, are not of genuine faith in Jesus
Christ. For they are still walking in the darkness (1 John 1:5-10; 1 John
3:4-10).
Now when this says here that your eye is the lamp of your
body, it is speaking figuratively. It has more to do with the sight of your
mind, i.e. with your perception, intuitiveness, judgment, sense, and
discernment. So, this would be like saying that your discernment, your judgment,
and your sense of right and wrong is the lamp (light) of your body. And a light
is what makes things visible, seen, or understood. So how we judge and discern things
in this life affects our understanding of those things. And how we understand
those things affects our thinking and behaviors.
For let’s look at what it says next. It says that when your
eye is clear, your whole body is full of light. And what is meant by “clear”?
It has to do with singleness of mind and purpose, an undivided focus that gives
full attention to the Lord and to the teachings of the Scriptures. It is not
being double-minded. It does not have to do with hypocrisy and a mixed agenda.
It is the singleness of mind that we should have toward serving our Lord that
is free from all that would pull us away from that soundness of mind and
purpose of living morally pure, upright, honest, obedient and faithful lives to
God.
So, let’s put that all together. What is the message here?
If our judgment and our discernment and wisdom is singular in mind and purpose
with regard to Jesus Christ and to moral purity, uprightness, honesty,
faithfulness, and obedience to our Lord, then our whole body is full of light.
And light is the opposite of darkness, and darkness is all that is evil,
wicked, immoral, dishonest, unfaithful and disobedient to the Lord. So we are
not going to be those who are deliberately and habitually walking (in conduct)
in sin, but we are going to be walking in moral purity in obedience to our
Lord.
But on the flip side of that, if our judgment and
discernment and wisdom is bad (not good, not pure and honest and righteous, but
evil and wicked and dishonest and corrupt), then our whole body (our whole
being) is full of darkness (evil, wickedness, moral impurity, dishonesty,
hatred, etc.). And there are many people professing faith in Jesus Christ today
here in America whose judgment is bad, not good, for they are leaving that door
wide open to evil in their lives so that they keep going back to the same evil.
They are not shutting that door to evil, because in reality they don’t want to.
And many of them are being taught that they don’t have to,
that they don’t have to repent of (forsake) their sinful practices, and that
they don’t have to obey the Lord and his commandments (New Covenant), and that
they don’t have to walk in moral purity and righteousness but that they still
have their ticket into heaven. And so they are being given carte blanche to
continue in deliberate and habitual sin against God and against other humans
while they “claim who they are in Christ” and while they claim forgiveness of all
sins and heaven as their eternal destiny. But that is not what the Bible
teaches.
And so what this is teaching here is that if our judgment is
bad (evil, wicked), and so we are choosing to walk in darkness (sin,
wickedness), and not in righteousness and holiness and in obedience to our
Lord, then our whole being is full of darkness (the absence of all light and truth
and Jesus Christ). So we don’t know Christ, we are not born of God, we are not
saved from our sins, we do not have eternal life with God, and heaven is not
our eternal home, regardless of what our lips profess. We may think we have the
light, but the “light” we think we have is really darkness (not of God).
So, don’t be caught (found) in the darkness thinking that
you are in the light just because you made a verbal profession of faith in
Jesus Christ once in your life (or even more than once). For how we live and
the choices that we make in this life reveal (like a lamp) if we are truly of
the light or still of the darkness. And we can’t have it both ways. But this is
not to say we must live absolutely perfect lives. But lack of perfection is
never to be used as an excuse for continuing to walk in the darkness. For if
sin is what we practice, and if obedience to our Lord and holy living are not, heaven
is not ours.
Seek the Lord
An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based off Isaiah 55
“Come to Me all you
who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and
eat what’s good today,
And your soul will
delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and
you will live.
I have made an
eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of
the Lamb.”
Seek the Lord while
He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked
forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the
Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons
him.
“For My thoughts are
not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My
ways,”
declares the Lord,
our God.
“My word that goes
out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return
to Me unfulfilled.
My word will
accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal
I intend.
You will go in joy
and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will
burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees
clap their hands.”
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