“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew 6:22-23

“They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand.” Isaiah 44:18

How well can you see? Not literally, but spiritually. Are you overwhelmed by “spiritual cataracts” that cloud your vision and your perspective on life and faith? Is your view of others distorted? Do you glimpse only a small glimmer of what faith is (and can be)? In Matthew 6:22-23, the Greek word for “body” meant more than one’s physical anatomy. It meant what we today might call one’s total personality. Keeping this in mind, we could paraphrase Jesus’ words as follows: “The eye is the lamp of your total personality; or in other words, it is the way you see things, the way you look at things, basically your whole perspective on life and faith, even in how you look at others.” The parallels between physical and spiritual cataracts are important to discover in order to avoid any distortion of our vision of Jesus! (2 Corinthians 11:1-5)

Many physical cataracts begin as small spots or specks on the lens of the eye. These spots interfere with light rays that pass through the lens to be focused as an image on the retina in the back of the eye. The greater the number of specks the more obscure the image, resulting in a clouding over of the lens of the eye which causes distorted vision. These specks can become so dense that the entire lens becomes milky white, and the light rays can’t pass through the lens, resulting in blindness. It is interesting to note that the light is still there; it just can’t pass through the lens of the eye. There is no pain; the loss of vision is gradual: it sneaks up on you. Cataracts, if left uncorrected, will eventually result in complete blindness.

Spiritually, little specks of sin can begin to cloud our vision of the light of Jesus. (John 8:12) These spiritual “specks of sawdust” may seem inconsequential at first, but can grow into “planks” that totally obscure our spiritual vision. (Luke 6:41) Two popular spiritual “specks” that can cloud our vision of Jesus are insensitivity to sin and false doctrine. Recently, I have seen first-hand the impact of these “spiritual specks” at one of the most prestigious college campuses in America, the University of the California – Los Angeles, commonly known as UCLA. The opportunity to lead a campus ministry in Los Angeles is an incredible honor, as well as an enormous challenge. There are over 700,000 campus students in the Los Angeles area, with thousands of new students entering every year. Sadly, many of these students leave the protection of a sheltered family environment and proceed to engage in countless acts of sexual immorality, debauchery, and drunkenness. While becoming intellectually “wealthy”, they are becoming morally bankrupt.

Spiritual Cataract #1:
INSENSITIVITY TO SIN

“They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.” Ephesians 4:18-19

My insensitivity to sin was a huge cataract that nearly blinded me to the point of no return. To this day I am grateful to God to have escaped from my sexual immorality without fathering a child or contracting a sexually transmitted disease during the first three years of my undergraduate schooling. Despite my success in academics and leadership, I was prideful, deceitful, and morally destitute. My love for pleasure so blinded me that I became totally insensitive to impurity, and instead, had a “continual lust for more.” Despite growing up in a “religious” household, I deceived myself into thinking that my self-imposed ignorance was better than outright hypocrisy.

My exposure to mainstream Christianity through the years had disgusted me to the point of nausea, as I served as an organist in several denominational churches throughout high school. I saw the emotionalism and superficiality of Pentecostal and Evangelical churches, as well as the guilt and obligation imposed by the Catholic Church, and consciously decided to give up hope in discovering the truth. By the time I arrived at Cornell University, I was done; done with the hypocrisy I saw in “churchgoers;” done with the church choirs filled with people who had been immoral the night before; done with preachers whose boring messages did little to challenge or inspire me. By the grace of God, I found the truth of His word during finals week of my junior year and was baptized into Christ! It took brothers getting into my life and gently peeling back the layers of self-deceit to root-out my sin with the Word of God.

Sadly, I believe my life parallels the life of many campus students. Freshman year, students are thrown into the deep waters of secularism and humanism. Their feeble religious foundations easily give way in the face of rampant peer-pressure and promiscuity. Since arriving at UCLA in January, we studied with scores of students and shared our faith with hundreds resulting in our newest baptism, Adam, this past week! As we talked with the students, it became clear that the “religious” groups on campus were lukewarm due to their lack of sensitivity to sin. This dullness discouraged students who wanted to be radical. Despite the 57 “Christian groups” on UCLA’s campus, the message of total commitment is foreign in a land of tolerance and disunity in regards to race, life and doctrine.

How sensitive are you to the sin in your life? How urgent are you to deal with the sin that may be blinding you spiritually from being like Jesus? Are you sensitive to your cowardice, unbelief, and impurity? We must remember that liars go to hell as well! (Revelation 21:8) “Spiritual cataracts” affect both Christians and non-Christians in the same way. So often our sin can blind us to the point where our outlook becomes so jaded that almost nothing can help. The moment we begin to lose our sensitivity to the sin, our spiritual cataracts will continue to grow until we are blinded by our own dullness and inability to act.

This very condition occurred in the lives of many in our former fellowship. They “grew weary and lost heart” through their “hurts,” hardships and disappointments. (Hebrews 12:3) In fact, this bitterness – which manifests itself in anger, criticalness, depression and spiritual numbness – can only be healed by repentance. (Luke 5:31-32) Luke Jesus, one must extend forgiveness to all – “[enduring] the cross” and “[enduring] opposition from sinful men.” (Hebrews 12:2-3) Otherwise, they will be forever disheartened, “their eyes…plastered over [from bitterness] so they cannot see, and their minds closed” to God working in a new movement.

Spiritual Cataract #2:
FALSE DOCTRINE

“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears what to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:2-4

C.S. Lewis used the term “a great cataract of nonsense” to describe how people use a modern idea to misconstrue a Biblically sound practice. Probably the best example today is a false conversion method called “The Sinner’s Prayer.” It is also popularly known as “The Four Spiritual Laws.” Instead of obeying the Bible’s plan of salvation which demands belief, repentance and baptism, hundreds of millions hold to the notion that one can pray Jesus into one’s heart and that baptism is merely “an outward sign of an inward grace.” (Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, Romans 6:3-5, 1 Peter 3:18-21) This false practice began in 19th century America, some 1800 years after the first century church began. When someone seeking salvation looks at the Bible through the lens of what he or she has been taught instead of discerning correct Biblical doctrine, their blind obedience to traditions of men “nullify the Word of God.” (Mark 7:6-9)

Campus Crusade for Christ, an interdenominational “Christian organization” that began at UCLA in 1951 through the well-intentioned late Bill and Vonette Bright, sadly is guilty of this false and incorrigible practice. Thousands of students around the world have been sincerely deceived into thinking that praying a prayer without any repentance can lead to their salvation. Recently my wife went to the Campus Crusade website in order to show the absurdity of such a position. She simply clicked on the button to accept “The Sinner’s Prayer” and was told she was now a “Christian” and should join a local church. I must confess my indignation that so many sincere “believers” are so blinded by their sentimentality through relationships. “They gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear, [turning] away from the truth.”

Pray for us to call every “Christian organization” on the UCLA campus to be united in obedience to the Word of God! We will soon be hosting a series at UCLA entitled, “Christianity: Biblically Defined” that will expose the false doctrines present in mainstream Christianity and challenge students to discover what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus!

After examining these spiritual distortions, how is your spiritual worldview? Just as there are dangers in delaying surgery for cataracts too long, there are also dangers in delaying repentance. Our spiritual cataracts will build up, a little bit at a time, until we become spiritually blind; and as the Scriptures teach, “Without vision the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18 KJV) Therefore, perform a spiritual eye exam – sanctify yourself by the Word of God – and may your vision of Jesus always remain pure as you put your trust in His Word. The age-old adage has never been more true: “Seeing is BELIEVING.”

Andrew N. Smellie

Love, true biblical love, is an amazing and powerful force. It spans all ages, races, and languages. It can be felt by everyone on the planet, regardless of that person’s level of verbal or non-verbal communication. It cannot be bought, stolen, or sold, only given. It can reconcile families, friends, and enemies. It can melt even the hardest heart.

Love is defined many times in the bible. Paul writes, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a) Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,” as recorded by John. (John 15:13) Later, John writes, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” (1 John 3:16) Also, in the same letter, John states, “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3)

The biblical definition of love can be very challenging for all of us! And yet everyone who has made the decision to become a disciple, or Christian, MUST love! The two most important commandments in the bible are “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
(Matthew 22:37-40) Jesus says that the two commandments that sum up all the Law and Prophets, all of the bible, are loving (or obeying) God, and loving people. In fact, Jesus says that our love for each other is to be so strong and distinctive that “all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) This is truly a radical concept! As Christians, we are to love each other to the extent that everyone who sees us, regardless of age, race, or language, will know that we are a Christian, that we are following Christ! This type of love is not just what we do, but who we are. It is our identity!

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” (1 John 3:16) From this passage, we understand what love is because we see Christ’s example of love, the laying down of his life for us. Also, we follow him in that self-sacrifice because he laid down his life for us first, and he calls us to follow him! I believe it is very easy to say that we love each other, and yet fall far short of the example set for us by Jesus.

In every scripture which defines love, whether defined by obedience, patience, forgiveness, trust, kindness, or physically dying for another person, the common theme is self-denial, or self-sacrifice! I propose that, in conversation, we use the phrase “I sacrifice myself for you” or “I lay my life down for you” instead of “I love you.” And instead of saying “I love God,” we say “I obey God.” This will help us keep in touch with what it truly means to love people and love God. When making such a statement, we are forced to ask ourselves, “Do I really love others? Do I really show myself to be a disciple by my love for people? Do I really sacrifice myself for others? Do I really lay down my life for my friends?” And, of course we must also ask similar questions about our love for God. “Do I really love God? Do I obey God?” The great news is that love is always defined by an action following a decision. I f we realize that we aren’t loving God or people the way that we are called to, we can simply make the decision to repent and love; and then we can follow that decision with action. We do not need to rely on feeling a certain way, we simply need to do the right thing.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.” I believe this statement is correct. Saying “I love you” is very easy to do. Living out a life of self-sacrifice for each other is much more challenging! I believe we must do it, though, and we will truly see that “the greatest of these is love!”

Luke Speckman

Campus Minister