In Luke 11 our Lord speaks of His going back to the Father by way of the Cross (v. 29). During His absence the people of God would be left in the world to witness for Him. That witness is compared to a light in a candlestick set in a dark place (v. 33). In chapter 12, He warns of things that would dim the light and mar their testimony for God. Just as the high priest of Israel trimmed the lamps in the tabernacle daily, removing what would hinder the light from burning brightly, so our Lord seeks to remove the foreign matter from our lives that the light of our testimony may shine all the brighter for Him and the hope of His coming become the happy anticipation of His beloved people. Five hindrances are mentioned, which if not removed, would destroy our witness for God on earth.
The Sham of Unreality
His first warning is against hypocrisy: “Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees” (see vv. 1-3). The leaven of Herod is worldly conformity. The leaven of the Sadducees is devilish reasoning. The leaven of the Pharisees is fleshly formalities and externals invading the spiritual realm. Thus, the weightier matters of life are displaced by an undue emphasis on things which do not touch the heart or soul.
The sect of the Pharisees was formed by godly Jews during the Maccabean period to bear witness to the separation and purity of the nation. Hypocrisy destroyed that witness. Adherence to forms and traditions became criterions of godliness, while virtues such as judgment, mercy, faith, and devotion to the Lord were despised as secondary things (Mt. 23:23). The leaven of the Pharisees is a compound of at least four unholy ingredients:
1. An insatiable lust for place and position. They loved the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. To receive the applause of men was their chief ambition in life (Lk. 11:43).
2. An arrogant self-appraisal of their own worth. They boasted they were not as other men (Lk. 18:11). To be inflated with the sense of our own importance destroys sympathy and concern for others’ welfare.
Beware of too sublime a sense
Of thine own worth and consequence;
The man who deems himself so great,
And his importance of such weight
In all around, in all that’s done,
Must move and act for him alone
Will find in school of tribulation
The folly of his expectation. (Wm. Cowper)
3. An unholy delight in heresy-hunting (Lk.11:54). This made them the fierce persecutors of all who differed with them. To bolster their narrow bigoted stand they thought nothing of misinterpreting the word of God for their own advantage, or to associate the names of godly men with their unscriptural cause (Mt. 23:16-24; 23:23-31). The spirit of Diotrephes has plagued the Church from its beginning. It was that spirit of domineering that influenced the Judaizing teachers of Paul’s day, and was in such sharp contrast to the beautiful spirit of the apostle who wrote, “Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand” (2 Cor. 1:24).
4. A fleshly satisfaction in outward conformity, “Ye are as graves that appear not” (Lk. 11:44). They put on an outward show that was contradicted by an inward condition of heart. The treasure of truth can only be kept in the casket of a pure conscience (I Tim. 3:9). Truth is without adornment when the lives of those who hold it are without godliness (Titus 2:10). All truth is received to make us more like Christ. It is the mold in which divine power can shape and form us into the image of Christ (Rom. 6:17). No externalism that is used to cover an inward condition requiring the knife of self-judgment will bring joy or blessing to anyone.
Our Lord’s remedy for such an evil is the light of God (v. 3). This demands the single eye. When the eye is single the whole body is full of light (11:34). It is hypocrisy that shuts the soul to the light of God. It brings darkness to the intellect, and blurs our whole moral perception. The single eye alone gives transparency of soul and honesty of heart before God; it displaces all sham and make-belief in our lives.
The Snare of Cowardice
Secondly, our Lord points to the fear of man (vv. 4-7). To remove this snare He assures His disciples that the enemy’s power is limited and under the control of God (v. 4); that each one of them is not forgotten by his heavenly Father (v. 6), and that every detail of their lives is taken into account (v. 7). The fear of man is thus expelled by the greater fear of God.
The fear of God is one of the greatest criterions of godliness in our Bible. This is filial fear—the fear of offending one whom we love. It is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 9:10); it is to hate evil (Prov. 8:13); it purifies the soul (Ps. 19:9); it promotes Christian fellowship (Mal. 3:16); it saves from falling (Ps. 34:7). Moreover, God honors those who fear Him (Ps. 15:4), reveals His secrets to them (Ps. 25:14), protects them (Ps. 33:18), and supports them with His sympathy and pity (Ps. 103:11-13). He also guarantees that they shall live out all their days (Prov. 10:27).
The Shame of Unfaithfulness
Thirdly, our Lord deals with grievous disloyalty (vv. 8-12). The Christian in the midst of hostility is tempted to deny Christ in a moment of weakness, as Peter did. God’s remedy for our weakness is the power of the indwelling Spirit (v. 11). When faced with opposition to our testimony, we are to remember that the eye of the Father is upon us (vv. 6-7), and the promise of the Son is given to us (v. 8). At the very moment we are confessing Christ before others He is confessing us before His Father in heaven. As well, the Holy Ghost dwells within us (v. 12). With such mighty forces at our disposal, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the enemy is absolutely impotent.
The Spirit of Avarice
Fourthly, he points to the danger of covetousness (vv. 13-21). Greed for gain damns many a soul (v. 20), and mars the testimony of many saints. The self-centered life puts an emphasis on earthly things (vv. 15, 20). To live solely for the accumulation of earthly riches is to lay up treasures on earth, where moth and rust corrupt. The Christ-centered life has its emphasis on things above, and lays up treasure in heaven.
The way of escape from selfishness which leads to poverty of soul is to be rich toward God (v. 21), rich in faith (Jas. 2:5), in good works (1 Tim. 6:18), in liberality (2 Cor. 8:2), and in eternal certainties (Col. 2:2). We draw from the treasure chest of heaven’s riches, even Christ, “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). We draw from the riches of His goodness (Rom. 2:4), the riches of His mercy (Eph. 2:4), the riches of His grace (Eph. 1:7), the riches of His wisdom (Rom. 11:33), the riches of His glory (Rom. 9:23; Eph. 3:16). Practically we are enriched to share heaven’s riches with others. Are we good and merciful, gracious and wise, gentle and Christlike in our attitude to others? Our Lord said, “Buy of Me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich” (Rev. 3:18). How poverty-stricken some of us can become, simply because we refuse to allow God to make us rich.
The Sin of Unbelief
Fifthly, our Lord sees sin in over-anxiety (vv. 12-34). There is more to life than food and raiment. If we put God first He assumes the responsibility of supplying every need (v. 31). Why should we worry about little things when life has such tremendous possibilities for God (v. 23), when we are citizens of such a kingdom (v. 31), when worry is so useless (vv. 25-26), when we have such a heavenly Father. Think of our Father’s care (vv. 24, 27), our Father’s knowledge (v. 30), our Father’s promise (v. 31); and our Father’s good pleasure (v. 32). Let us then have faith in God and cease from worrying.
The Lord, thus having removed the hindrances to our testimony, makes the anticipation of His coming a happy outlook. He now gives us two earmarks of those who wait for their Lord’s return: these are girded loins and burning lamps (vv. 35-36), the first to mark us in our service, and the second in our witness. Two illustrations of these are given: the wise stewart who shares his Master’s riches with others (v. 42), and the fire that would be kindled at Pentecost after the baptism of the Cross (vv. 49-50). The girded loins is the gathering up of all our energies and capacities to the control of Christ in His service. Blessed is that servant whom the Lord finds feeding and serving both saint and sinner at His return. The Lord will reciprocate by feeding and serving him (v. 37).
The fire is the symbol of God’s holiness, expressed by the Holy Spirit through the saints. It is the counteracting force of the Church’s witness (2 Thess. 2:7-8). The Spirit of God as the Spirit of power came down at Pentecost under the symbol of “cloven tongues like as of fire.” Cloven tongues point to the church’s mission as separated to the gospel, while the gift of tongues was the sign that its witness was not to be confined to the Jewish nation only, but was for every nation under heaven. (1 Cor. 14:21).
Burning lamps, therefore, witness to the holiness and purity of God’s character, exposing the impurity and guilt of man, yet revealing the way of salvation through Christ’s atoning work of the Cross that enables God to be just, and at the same time to be the Justifier of the one who believes in Jesus.
“Burn, Thou all-consuming fire
Till purest gold is wrought;
Burn till there comes a daily death
To every selfish thought.”
Blessed is every saint who will be found watching at our Lord’s return, watching his prayer life (1 Pet. 4:7), his combatant life (1 Cor. 16), his shepherd life (Heb. 13:17), watching against lethargy (1 Thess. 5:6), defilement (Rev. 16:15), and backsliding (Rev. 3:3).
To lose sight of His coming exposes us to two evils which are the opposite of girded loins and burning lamps; instead of feeding and serving the saints we will be tempted to thresh them; and instead of witnessing for our Lord we will be drunken with the world (v. 45).
Thus, our Lord trims our lamps by drawing us from hypocrisy to the light of God, from the fear of man to the fear of God, from the weakness of flesh to the Spirit of God, from greed for gain to the riches of God, and from worry of heart to the care of God.
May the Lord give us all grace to yield to the correcting touches of His pierced hand, so that our lamps will burn brightly for Him.
Men die in darkness at thy side,
Without a hope to cheer the tomb;
Take up the torch and wave it wide,
The torch that lights earth’s thickest gloom.
Toil on, faint not, keep watch and pray;
Be wise the erring soul to win.
Go forth into the world’s highway
Compel the wanderer to come in.
Toil on and in thy toil rejoice,
For toil comes rest, for exile home,
Soon shalt thou hear the Bridegroom’s voice
The midnight cry, “Behold, I come.”
(H. Bonar)
Written by Robert McClurkin