Recently, I was doing a podcast with a friend and realized at the end of the conversation that our topics of discussion were all the result of blindness. Jesus put blindness into perspective:
Matthew 15:14 So ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.
Jesus was talking to His disciples about the defilement of a person’s life. He explained it was not related to what was digested as in food but in the content of the person's heart. Blindness can start in our thinking, but it ultimately becomes a part of what is at the core of us as a person … as defined as the ‘heart.’ Jesus said it is what comes out of a person, out of the core of the person, the heart, that defiles them. If what comes out of a person is foundationally a blindness toward God, truth, and Jesus, then according to Jesus’ description that person would be defiled.
Blindness is a defilement of life. Blindness cannot distinguish between what is significant and what is not. The leadership of God (the priests) was to teach people the difference between ‘the common and the Holy’ to distinguish what is significant to God and what is significant to man. When we fail to distinguish this difference, we end up as Isaiah said:
Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
I have quoted the late David Wilkerson many times in recent months because what he said about the blindness of the last days was very prophetic. He said,
You will not be able to distinguish between good and evil they will be the same. ~David Wilkerson
That of course is the epitome of blindness … you cannot distinguish between what is right and what is wrong.
Our culture is blind because they have no moral compass, no sense of right or wrong, and no conscience about anything. The downward spiral of our day happens because there is nothing significant in our thinking, or in what we believe in our hearts. The coarseness and emptiness in our entertainment is an indication of how shallow our thinking has become. Even among Christians, conversations have little significance … we fill up with ideas, trendy spiritual books, and trite sayings, but never really live in the faith that is demonstrated in the Bible.
Currently, I am confronting my own blindness about my faith. As I read through the Gospel of John, I see repeatedly the blindness of people toward Jesus. It's not only the bigoted leaders who do not believe in Him but also His own family who did not believe. People followed Jesus because they saw the miracles … all because of what they saw. Faith is as defined:
Hebrews 11:1 Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.
Today, blindness about faith is rampant in church circles. We say we believe, but we live a life void of faith. I can admit that for much of my life, I have been weak in faith. I believe when it is convenient to do so, but whine and groan when things are hard, and I see no results of God helping me cope. Then, David discovered this when he was perplexed at the success of evil and the demise of good:
Psalm 73 16So, I tried to understand why the wicked prosper. But what a difficult task it is! 17Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked.
When we approach God with our lack of faith, our dismissive attitude toward God, and His lack of interaction with our dilemmas, we will learn a perspective that dials into God and see things differently. In other words, life that is only viewed through human eyes can be deceiving, and when we get into the presence of God and allow His Word to speak to us, perspectives change … we now can see things by faith. Why? Because God has assured us of His oversight in our lives. Don’t be fooled by what is happening now, in time you will understand and see God at work. I now realize when I look back on all the dilemmas in my life, God has made a way through all of them, and the outcome was better than I could have ever imagined.
But if blindness rules your life, you will never see God at work, and your perspectives will be based upon what you sense, feel, and know. The real difference comes from a perspective that is rooted in faith in the living God.
Challenging the Culture with Truth … Larry Kutzler