Filled with Light?

Scripture:

Luke 11:33   “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar, but on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. ³⁴ Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness. ³⁵ Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. ³⁶ If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”

Observation:

While this little passage may seem out of place, it really is not. Jesus is challenging the spiritual condition of those who call themselves God’s people. This has to do with the willful reception of God’s light into every aspect of the person’s life. 

In the first century they didn’t understand how the eye functioned, as we do today. They believed that the light came out of the eyes, not into the eyes, and that what came out, reflected what was inside the person. Therefore, the person who lit a lamp was the one who heard the word of God. The question was what they would do with the light they had received from hearing the word through Jesus. Would they allow their entire life to be filled with that light? Neale tell us, “Willful rejection of the spiritual life can not only plunge the soul into darkness but imprison it there (compare 11:26), rendering it finally incapable of spiritual insight” (NBBC). This is a warning against having a hard heart and the danger of spiritual blindness. 

This is also a challenge to those who have been filled with the light of the world. That light is to shine out of our eyes so that it is visible to the world. We are never to hide our light, but we are to be shining brightly in the darkness, or as Paul puts it, “so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world” (Philippians 2:15, NRSV). 

Application:

The call from Jesus is not just to the crowds, or the Pharisees, but to his disciples. Those who will choose to follow Jesus are to be entirely filled with his light so that his light can shine through them to the world. They didn’t comprehend that he would be leaving them soon and that they would be responsible to carry the light forward. He needed them to be filled to overflowing with his light. 

That desire on the part of Jesus hasn’t changed through the centuries. We are called to be true discipleship, but that discipleship will cost us something. We must be willing to be filled to the full with the light of Christ, and this means that we are willing to have all obstacles to that light removed. This includes our motives, our wants, and our personal desires. All of these need to be handed over to Jesus Christ so that we can faithfully reflect his light into the world. 

Hardheartedness and darkness creep in and take over when we are not continually filled anew with light. This happens far too easily when we are busy and occupied by the things of life. I’ve shared with people that one of the highlights of this last year was the amount of time I was able to spend in God’s word and in prayer. It has made a real difference and I hope that as the pace of my life picks up, I will not allow the busyness to distract me from allowing the light to shine in and out brightly. I want to be filled with the Lord’s light, and reflect him back to the world. 

Prayer:

Lord, please, shine your light into every crevasse of my life and help me to allow your light to transform me. I want to reflect your light to the world . Amen.