We live in the age of the individual. We may live in community but the perspective that is most important to us is our own. We experience everything according to how it impacts us and it is difficult for us to imagine a different perspective. The last great bastion of selflessness is motherhood where one individual seems to exist only for the betterment and preservation of another. Sadly, even this is being eroded so that we find more and more children being cared for by someone who is not their mom nor even a relative.
Long live the individual (tongue in cheek) who doesn't necessarily think the world resolves around him but simply doesn't care that it includes other people. We see a lot of things being birthed in this rather self-centered atmosphere, such as relativism. It doesn't matter the truth the community sees, if an individual says he doesn't agree with truth and declares it is something that it is not, the whole community must bow to his wishes. So a boy is no longer a boy if he decides he is a girl. The whole community must agree because we must protect the individual.
In all this mess we have Jesus, who is the only source of truth because he is truth. In Luke 11 we find the religious elite asking for another sign to prove he is who he is. It isn't enough that they have witnessed hundreds of healings, the casting out of demons, the control over nature and even over death. They wanted greater revelation. Jesus told them that they would get no further revelation then what he had already provided. Then he taught about the lamp.
This teaching was a continuation to his response about the sign. His light was not hidden. It was clearly seen as if on a hill and easy to see by it. These critics need not ask to see more because he had let his light shine for all of them. Then he said this:
The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. (Luke 11:34-35)
This is related to the precepts, foundational matters that we build our life on, such as the principle that Jesus is our light. But what this entire thing is telling us is that we need to be content with the revelation and understanding that he gives to us and not waste our time going beyond what we have. Too many of us don't spend the time we need to in what we have already been given and want to rush into more. Sometimes when we reach for more we become like those of Jesus' time, full of pride, self-learning and ignorant of the real truth.
The problem was that they weren't really ignorant of the real truth. They knew, they understood, they just didn't like it because it didn't match up with what they wanted. They had reached so far that they had lost the light and had allowed their principles and foundations to shift so they were now full of darkness. Jesus told them then as he continues to tell us now:
If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light. (v. 36)
Even though the Word of God is living and constantly increasing our revelation, some are setting it aside for what they hope will be great knowledge and truth. They are really looking for something to sustain their own individual selfish foundations. They are leading others with them and so we find increasing apostasy in the Body of Christ. The solution is a simple one: Get your eyes back on Jesus so you can be filled with light. His Word gives us great revelation into this light, and empowered by the Spirit, we have enough to sustain us for eternity.
I will continue to say it: Things are only going to get worse. For this reason we should be even more diligent to keep our eyes on Jesus, to seek greater understanding and revelation from the Word and to love him with all we have to love. Let us keep our eyes good so the light in us will be good. When we have Jesus we need nothing else. Remember that!
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