I have had vision problems since I was young, and have been wearing glasses since about the fourth grade. I have made many visits to the eye doctor, and have seen many people in those offices that were in need of vision help, but one thing that I usually do not see in an optometrist’s office is a blind person. Most of the people that are in the offices, can still see, but they need medical attention to help them to see better.
As I read the book of Jude, God brought to my attention a fault on my part. Lately, I have really enjoyed getting into some great discussions online with some acclaimed atheists and agnostics. All of these discussions have been very cordial and respectful, and I love the challenge of talking with these folks. In the back of my mind, I think about the possibility that perhaps God would use something that I might say to shed light into that person’s heart. As Jude writes, however, you find that he is not writing to persuade the lost, unbelieving man to trust in Christ, but that he is encouraging the Christians to contend for the faith within the church.
There were attacks on the received Gospel going on inside of the church coming from people that were claiming to be Christians. This challenged me to concern myself more with the assaults to the Word of God that are going on in Christendom today, rather than getting into arguments with atheists and agnostics. It’s better to help those that already seeing to continue to see clearly, rather than trying to give sight to the blind; the former is a command (the great commission to make disciples) and the latter is a miracle only possible by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. I believe that God could use something that I might say to aid in giving light to a spiritually blind individual, but how much more important it is to work to keep light resilient for those already seeing.
There are plenty of issues in which the light of the Gospel is being blurred today. Perhaps, as the New Testament writers suggest, we as preachers (vision doctors by the power of Christ) should focus on those diseases.
