In my last two posts, I wrote about four factors that can blind a Christian. If you haven’t read these posts, here is the link to the first one: Spiritual blindness (part 1)

In this present article, I will focus on two other detrimentals carrying the same capacity in their wings, namely. “A lukewarm state” and “A lack of spiritual life”.

Fifth cause of spiritual blindness: A lukewarm state

These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.” (Revelation 3:14–18)

Here you have a church that thought they were doing great, but their assessment was actually the result of blindness, “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and need nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked …”

As I have written elsewhere, spiritual sight is indispensable to obtain Christian knowledge. I am not referring here to Christian information, because you can be stone-blind and fill your head with this sort of lifeless data. But when it comes to the knowledge of the Holy, spiritual sight becomes a must-have.

The side effects of lukewarmness

Now, what happened to that church can happen to any Christian, for we, as individuals, can enter a lukewarm state almost imperceptibly, unaware that something prejudicial has happened to us.

The tragedy resides in the fact that not only can the lukewarm state make us blind, it can also lead us to spiritual hallucinations—as was the case with the church of the Laodiceans. They thought they were rich, wealthy, and in need of nothing, when they were, in actuality, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. If this is not a hallucination, tell me what is?

It is this kind of hallucinatory blindness that wreaks havoc in the lives of many Christians, for when we manage to factualize the illusory, we stray from the path of truth and wander into falsehood. And to make things worse, the lukewarm Christian might remain in his lethargic state since he doesn’t suffer from frostbite. In that sense, the cold Christian has an advantage. The spiritual shiverings he experiences prompt him to seek divine fire, but unfortunately, the lukewarm believer doesn’t have this sense of emergency and can remain lukewarm and blind for a very long time.

Sixth cause of spiritual blindness: A lack of spiritual life

There is a revealing scripture in the gospel of John that calls for meditation. Referring to Jesus, the apostle wrote: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of man” (John 1:4). These words imply that the absence of life equates the absence of light. Therefore, we can say, and say with certitude, that where there is no light, there is blindness.

This substantive truth is confirmed in the same gospel where we read:

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

Here, the verb ‘follows’ has a twofold implication. First, it tells us that the Light is not static. It moves, and moves forward. And then it tells us that the Light can be followed, implying a progression in the one who follows. Therefore, the Christian who gets entangled in the things of this world or turns cold and languid is on the brink of darkness. It is so because the light will keep moving regardless of our stationary condition. That is precisely the point Jesus is making in John 12:35:

A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; …”

What is true about the light is also true about the life. When Jesus says, “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself” (John 5:26), He is saying that we, finite humans, do not have life in ourselves. Therefore, our life as well as our light is derived from Him. This reality highlights the importance of meeting the conditions of discipleship, for only those who meet them will be apt to follow the light:

When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.’” (Mark 8:34)

These words declare authoritatively that the “following” is contingent on our self-denial and cross-picking. Therefore, the requirements of discipleship are by no means optional as we are often told; they are intrinsic to the Christian Life and by derivation, to the Christian Light. As I have written in my two articles entitled “Two misconceptions about discipleship”, the person who thinks one becomes a Christian first, and a disciple after, is simply promoting a subtle deception.

We read in the book of Acts: “the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch” (Acts 11:26). This affirmation evinces that a Christian is nothing more and nothing less than a disciple. Actually, as far as the Scriptures are concerned, the two words can be interchanged without causing any tension. But somehow, we have deformed the concept and created two entities where the Bible presents only one. In creating these two entities, we have produced two kinds of Christianity: One relatively cheap and easy, the other quite expensive and difficult. Moreover, we are told we are free to choose the one we prefer, and that the result of our choice will by no means affect our salvation. Then we seem surprised when people choose the cheaper kind, that is, the kind that leads to blindness.

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