Jesus Christ is celebrated for a variety of reasons this time of the year. One of the primary reasons should be because He is Light. John says of Him in his gospel, “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:4,5)
Our hope and sense in these days is that the church in the West will increasingly know and love and worship Him for being the Light. This will happen as we His people welcome and seek His light to break through and expose our spiritual blindness.
Spiritual blindness is a bigger problem in the church than most realize. Our objective in this blog is to speak to that reality from the Proverbs.
King Solomon spoke to this reality often in the latter half of The Proverbs. For instance, he states in chapter 16:
1. “All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the Lord weighs the motives.” Proverbs 16:2
Because we all tend to compare ourselves with others, and because usually there is at least one person in our acquaintance who is seemingly far less moral or righteous than we are, we have learned to justify ourselves. After all “I have never done that”; “I’ve never gone to that place”, “I’ve never watched that movie”, “I’ve never been addicted to that”, etc.
2. “Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, but who can find a trustworthyman?” Proverbs 20:6
What we claim about ourselves, and what is true about us is often two different things. We often feel about ourselves what we would want people to think about us. But “trustworthiness” according to King Solomon is rare indeed. Crucial to a man or woman being truly trustworthy is that they are the same person in private (when no one is watching) that they are in public.
3. “Who can say, ‘I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin’? Differing weights and differing measures, Both of them are abominable to the Lord.” Proverbs 20:9,10
Most of us in so many words speak of ourselves to others as being clean and pure. But often the measuring stick for our cleanness and purity is contrasting ourselves with others or with obvious and known wickedness in our society. One of the things we learn early on in life is how to find someone, who contrasted to us, makes us look good. Men and women do this all the time. But God hates this measuring stick. The best of humanity is still a rotten standard in His eyes.
4. “Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts.” Proverbs 21:2
Again our tendency is to justify ourselves (almost always by contrasting ourselves with someone we deem obviously worse in word and deed). But while we might not do the things they do or say the things they say, God looks at our hearts, our motives, our inner attitudes, and our inner conversations. His weighing standard is of course Himself!
5. “There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, Yet is not washed from his filthiness.” Proverbs 30:12
It is normal for people on this planet to literally consider ourselves as “pure” when in fact we are filthy internally. Our personal assessment about ourselves can rarely be trusted unless it is based on the righteous standard of the holiness of God.
Thankfully Jesus is Light! He is going to open our eyes and remove our blindness. He came to wash us thoroughly and completely from all of our sins, and the corruption our sins have produced. May we all learn to cling to Him for His much needed Light, and His precious blood that washes us white as snow.
“who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” Titus 2:14
“how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:14
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