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.

 

 

 

Overtaken by Grace . . .

 

When I woke this morning, my usual aches and pains woke with me. I didn’t want to get up, but movement drives away those aches so I did, but was grumbling. Then God overtook my focus with a song of praise. My whine turned to joy because praise and sinful complaining are incompatible!

Today’s word is OVERTAKE, generally a military term that means to seize the position of and defeat. In my case, praise seized the place ruled by complaining and defeated it!

This is a God-thing. It happened to Paul and Silas when they were locked in a dungeon and God put a song in their hearts. In the OT, it is about people who adhere or cling to other people or objects, but oddly enough, God does not do it. Instead, He does the overtaking. Deuteronomy 28 describes two ways He does it:

“And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. . . . But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you . . . . till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God . . . .”

This term was also used when the Syrians were camped against the Israelites. Four lepers sat at the city gates and reasoned that if they went into the besieged city, they would die by famine but if they went to the Syrian camp, they could be spared or would die. They decided to take that chance. When they entered the camp, no one was there. The army, as predicted by Elisha the prophet, had left everything, even their food. The lepers took food and loot, hiding silver and gold, then said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king’s household.” They understood God’s desire for justice and His ability to overtake their good fortune.

In a different situation, Job said of the wicked who seem to prosper, “He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more; he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone. Terrors overtake him like a flood; in the night a whirlwind carries him off.” God will eventually overtake all efforts for personal glory and gain.

The psalmist had a different idea. He was so convinced of God’s righteousness that he asked the Lord to deal with him if he was doing evil: “O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause, let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust.”

This same person (David) also said of his enemies, “Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually. Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents . . . . let them not be enrolled among the righteous.” His desire for righteousness matched the desire of the One who will overtake all unrighteousness.

Isaiah knew the same truth; righteousness comes from God. When some of God’s people turned from right living, he said:

“The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.”

Jeremiah said something similar to the remnant of Judah. “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces to enter Egypt and go to live there, then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, and there you shall die.” In this case, Egypt represents worldly ways and turning back to them from following the Lord will bring disaster, even to anyone who thinks they are safe. Amos 9:10 wrote: “All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’ ”

Zechariah 1:6 relates a better outcome: “But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, ‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.’ ”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. This OT principle is repeated by Jesus who says to the crowds, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” He enlightens me each day and I’m to live by it. If I do not, my salvation will not be lost, but I will fall into confusion and not shine for Jesus. The principle of obey and be blessed is still true, not to assure or win God’s favor but to glorify the One who has overtaken my life.