Walking in the Dark

The opposite of being alert and watchful is being in the dark, either mentally or spiritually.

“5 You are all children of light, and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness, 6 so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep in the night, and those who are drunken are drunken in the night.”
1Thes 5:5-7 WEB

If you are in the dark, you won’t see what you need to see.

“Jesus therefore said to them, “Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn’t overtake you. He who walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he is going.”
Jn 12:35 WEB

Sin, doing what is wrong, blinds us,
hobbles us, changes how we see things.

“You shall not twist justice: you shall not respect persons; neither shall you take a bribe; for a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.”
Deut 16:19 nf

You don’t have to be ignorant or ruined for wrong things to affect you, and to affect your judgment! You can be wise and righteous, and these things can affect you. We can be very sophisticated and learned people and end up darkened in our sins.

“Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding. ”
Hos 4:11 WEB

Rejecting the commandments puts
blinders on us.

The commandments do test us and sort us out. When we hesitate and halt at doing what God says, it places limits on what we can see and comprehend and experience in those directions. Sometimes it is simple things of mercy and compassion for others that we reject, so we end up going around in mental and spiritual circles which lead nowhere.

“But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
1Jn 2:11 WEB

In their distorted logic on oaths, Jesus said to the leaders of the scribes and Pharisees,

“You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?”
Mtt 23:17 WEB

Satan will deliberately blind us if we will let him.

“in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.”
2Cor 4:4 WEB

Jesus can give us relief from our darkness

“ Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.” ”
Jn 8:12 WEB

But sometimes we know our deeds are evil,
so we don’t want the light.

“This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.”
Jn 3:19 WEB

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

nf is my own translation based on the WEB.