Levels of darkness
"Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you." (NIV) Luke 11:34-36
No one likes darkness – or maybe I should say most people dislike darkness. Darkness obstructs clear sight, brings confusion, makes one vulnerable and it is distasteful. So, we always have so many means of providing some amount of light – electricity, lamps, torches, candles. We want to have a clear sight and reduce the problems of darkness. If our source of light is faulty, or it is not providing as much light as we want, we fix it. Yes, we fix it! So how about the light that is in us…is it shining as it should? Or we have not found the light yet?
In Luke 11:14-36, Jesus rebuked the people for thinking His power was from Beelzebul and that they had not seen that He was the Christ, the Savior, the Light of the World. The people had eyes, they walked with him, but they didn’t see the light, because their eyes were bad, therefore their body would be full of darkness. In the context, I find three groups of people from Jesus’ teachings that may apply to us today: full darkness; part darkness; no darkness/full light.
- Full Darkness: These are people who do not know Christ at all. They haven’t seen Him, they haven’t benefited from His blood.
- Part darkness: These are people who have become Christians, they profess Christ but only in public, not private or they have “opaque objects” on some part of their lives so there is no light shining there.
- No darkness: These are people who have good eyes and have seen the light and so their whole body is full of light with no darkness at all.
What is your level of darkness before God? Are you ready to fix it? The Good news is we have a Savior whose arms are wide open to receive us and elevate us from full darkness to no darkness (John 8:12). Contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you need help in this regard. God bless you.
Reflection
The author identifies three levels of darkness based on how much we know Christ and portray Him in our lives. Please, think about each level of darkness and do a self-assessment.
If you are not at the level of “No darkness”, the time is now to act and elevate yourself.
If you are at the level of “No darkness”, it is also time for you to shine to draw more people from darkness. For “No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed. But he sets it on a lampstand so that those who enter in may see the light” Luke 8:16.