Martin Chemnitz, the sixteenth-century Reformer, points out that spiritual blindness can run one of two different ways. There is pharisaical blindness, or there's what he calls Epicurean blindness - named for the philosophical school whose motto was: eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow you're going to die.
Pharisaical blindness arises when you think you're doing pretty well all on your own. You're not so bad of a person - in fact, you're better than most. That kind of blindness shuns the light that Christ shines because it shows you're anything but. Just revisit what Christ does with the Law in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). He doesn't leave it on the surface. He drills all the way down and there exposes in your heart that you certainly have not been loving God with your all or your neighbors as yourself.
Epicurean blindness is not so much about lying to yourself about your goodness. It is instead lying to yourself about whether sin is your friend or your enemy. And when you tell yourself it's your friend and gladly indulge it - you're in darkness. A lot of folks prefer it that way. Prefer avoiding the light that shines in Christ. Blindnesses
- Pr. Will Weedon
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