Degrees of Blindness?

 

Today’s devotional tells of a missionary on a ship during a dark night. He woke up to the frantic cry of “Man overboard!” He rose from bed, grabbed a portable lamp beside it, and held it at the cabin window. He couldn’t see anything but was told the next morning that the light from that lamp was enough for those on deck to see the missing man and rescue him.

Two thoughts come to mind. One is that old song, “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.” No Christian knows what God can do with even our smallest actions.

Second, illumination from God often comes through small actions. Someone says something kind or thoughtful. A sermon includes a verse I needed to hear. Someone presents a gift without realizing I’d been praying for that very thing. I’m tired and a parking place empties close to where I’m going.

Mostly, God uses His Word to shed light on my attitudes. His light is often surprising. Others may not notice, but He knows when I need light to get out of a shadow.

He says I am part of “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that I may proclaim the excellencies of him who called me out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

God’s illumination grants the ability to understand truth and live by it. Darkness in the natural realm is debilitating. In the spiritual realm, it is even more devastating as it describes living in unbelief and sin and not having a clue what is happening.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. (1 John 1:5–6)

This passage is often used to discern between Christians and unbelievers who are blind to the light of Christ’s glorious gospel. Yet note John uses “we” giving the sense that some who walk in darkness know enough to say they are in fellowship with God, even though they are lying about it. Jesus said of such people, "They love darkness and reject light because they don’t want their evil deeds to be exposed.” (John 3:19–20)  1 John suggests even believers can know we should acknowledge and confess our sin, but pride keeps it from happening.

The darkest blindness is this: “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4) However, rejecting light is not the same as being so blind that there is no realization that light exists.

Bottom line: John writes to Christians telling us not to turn from the light, never to fake it, to act as if I am in fellowship and walking with Jesus but am hanging on to some sin, saying it is not there, or refusing to confess it. Lest someone says that is not possible, ask me how I know! Hypocrisy and back-sliding does exist in the family of God.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 1:6–2:6)

Blindness may be a lack of salvation, but it can also be disobedience, a temporary deception, pride, failure to read the Word, ignorance or immaturity. In any case, the answer is in this passage. Stop lying, making excuses, and confess all sin to Jesus who is our advocate and the One who paid the penalty for it.

PRAY: Darkness is confusing and dangerous. Jesus, I need light from You every day. I cannot turn it on by myself, but I can respond to it. You save me from sin and enable me to walk in the light. What a joy that You give truth and understanding, a privilege and grace I cannot earn and do not deserve.

PONDER: 1 John describes what walking in light looks like. Read it often and let Jesus shed His light on any dark places and shadows He finds in me.

 

 

 

Restoring God’s people . . .

 

READ Hosea 10–14

When other Christians are caught in sin, the NT says to restore them in a spirit of meekness. With this on my mind, reading the OT prophets is challenging. Were they meek? The words they speak are from a Holy God who has been patient with them for centuries. How did they do it? In these chapters, I notice several things. One is that they told the people what’s what — no sugar-coating their sinfulness:

Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors, therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle; mothers were dashed in pieces with their children. Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great evil. At dawn the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off. (Hosea 10:12–15)

Much earlier, they asked for a king, but they didn’t obey him, nor did they listen to God. He declared their fate:

They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them because of their own counsels. My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all. (11:5–7)

And yet there is mercy in His words and hope . . .

I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. They shall go after the Lord; he will roar like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west; they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord. (11:9–11)

God knows they cannot do this without His enablement. If they could, they would not be in the state they were in. He says to them, “So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.” (12:6) And again, He tells them like it is:

But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior. It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought; but when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me. So I am to them like a lion; like a leopard I will lurk beside the way. I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rip them open. He destroys you, O Israel, for you are against me, against your helper. Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities? Where are all your rulers— those of whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”? I gave you a king in my anger, and I took him away in my wrath. (13:4–11)

Eventually they got it. At first their response may have been mere words, but after the exile and living in a land of idolatry until they were sick of it, the people of God realized this truth:

Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.” (14:3)

The big picture for this nation is the same as the big picture for God’s people today. God says, “O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit. Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.” (14:8–9)

God is the only one who cares for us. Our idols (anything we trust instead of Him) are helpless. They cannot hear our prayers or care for our needs, and even if they could and did, their ‘help’ would not satisfy or be the right choices for us. Idols, whether inanimate or alive are not able to produce in us or for us what only God can do. And this answers my question: always point those caught in sin to the only One who can do anything about it, making sure that I’m not trusting my words or actions to ‘fix’ the problems, again, only God can do that.