Every once in a while I think about a quote I heard from an unknown source:
“We see things not only as they are– but as we are.”
The thought reminds me of what the Apostle Paul wrote to Titus when he said, “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled” (Titus 1:15).
Have occasionally wondered what Paul had in mind. While his statement could be read like an unqualified general truth, his subject probably offers some helpful limitation on “the insight.” Because the previous verse (v14) mentions “Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth,” many believe he was probably responding to the danger of Jewish and possibly Gnostic ideas that included self-depriving rules about what to eat or drink to purify oneself. (i.e. Col 2:20-23; 1 Tim. 4:1-5).
If the context shows that Paul was thinking about religious rules of diet and self-denial, then he was probably emphasizing, as Jesus did, that, for example, it is not what we put into our stomachs that defiles our spirit, but rather what comes out of our mouths (i.e. words that reflect the attention of our hearts as he explained in Matt 15:17-18).
In the 11th chapter of Luke, Jesus talked about “the danger of dark light.“ Speaking to people who tended to focus on the outward keeping of religious laws, he said, “The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness” (Luke 11:34-35).
The light or lamp/eye of the soul that Jesus was referring to seems to be “the attention of heart”.
A few statements later, while confronting religious leaders preoccupied with outward purity, the Lord said, “But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you” (v 41). Here he seems to put together “being concerned about others” and “purity of heart” which he also linked in his Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:7-8).
So what help do we find here for ourselves today? Here’s what I’m asking myself. Where is my attention? Who or what has my heart right now? Is everything about feeding, indulging, protecting, and defending myself, or am I concerned about others?
Depending on what you are going through today, those may not be the questions that would help you. But, for me, they seem to have something to do with what I might see or miss today…
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