John 9:39-41
39 Jesus said,[a] “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
As far as hard sayings go, this is one that, for me, tends to slip under the radar. But it's certainly food-for-thought, and one that I'll be mulling over in the days to come.
Kids (and when I say kids, I mean teens) will often ask about this very thing. Obviously they don't use this language, but the gist of the question is: At what point does something become "wrong"? And it's a valid question. This is usually brought up somewhere amidst the how-far-is-too-far/how-short-is-too-short discussion. Some things are black and white, sure, but what about the many (many!) gray areas?
Well, for me, these verses are a good, valid answer to that question. Jesus is talking to the Pharisees about their own hard hearts, but I certainly think the principle applies today. Our maturity, our understanding, our growth is something that the Lord keeps in mind, and it's something he takes into account when he views our lives. Some things are not clearly right or wrong, but we must constantly be striving to be something better. To mature in our faith. And as we do, we will find more and more things to change about ourselves and our actions. It's not necessarily that we were doing "wrong", per se, before; it's just that we find a more excellent way. And when your eyes are opened to that more excellent way, it is God's intention that we never revert to our former ways.
When I was in college, I wore clothes that were much shorter than what I wear now. I was a naive kid... honestly. I would have denied - vehemently - that it was even possible that what I was wearing could "cause my brother to stumble". (I've been challenged on this: "Come on. You know you knew what you were doing." I submit to you that I was so absurdly naive that I didn't think anyone ever lusted after anyone, period. It was that bad.) One day, and I don't remember what was said or who said it, but I came home to my dorm room and looked at my clothes, and I realized that some of them had to go. I could "see", so to speak. And from that day on, it would have been wrong for me to keep wearing those clothes. I had to get rid of them, that very night. A few months later, I purged again, more this time, because I had matured some more.
That's the process. Do I believe that I would have been condemned for the clothes I was wearing prior to that night? No, because I was "blind" to their inappropriateness. But would I be judged if I took to wearing those same things now? I believe I would, because "now that you... can see, your guilt remains". Now, is this an excuse to never learn/grow/mature? Of course not. We must grow. But growing is good. A great experience.
As the song says, I will never be the same again. And that's a good, good thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment