“For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” 1 Peter 1.9
The world is blind. People without Christ are lost in darkness doomed to wander about without direction. Humans naturally tend to follow their desires which lead them every which way except to Christ. Apart from Christ, we are susceptible to momentary pleasures and appealing doctrines. An example of this is when Jesus feeds the five thousand in John 6.1-15. Jesus performs the miracle of feeding five thousand men with just a few loaves and fish. He then goes into the wilderness to pray while his disciples cross the sea. At night Jesus walks across the water and joins them, calming the storm and their fears. The next day, the crowds notice that Jesus is nowhere to be seen, they know that the disciples crossed the sea the day before and they decide to go look for Him there. When the crowds find Jesus they begin questioning Him on how He arrived there. Jesus ignores their question and immediately confronts them. John 6.26 ‘Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on Him God the Father has set His seal.” Jesus calls out their nearsightedness by addressing their desire to gratify their flesh. They do not really want Jesus, they only want what He can give them.
Jesus begins His sermon about being the Bread of Life, he references Isaiah 55.2-3, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.” This contrasts two perspectives: the earthly temporary perspective vs. the eternal everlasting perspective, or put another way: the flesh vs. the Spirit.
When we walk in the flesh we are nearsighted. We do not look beyond our fleshly selves. We choose to keep our gaze inward and self-centered. We become sensual and driven by our desires. Denying ourselves and crucifying our flesh seem like terrible statements. We avoid discomfort, physical and mental, rather choosing to live a life of ease and free of trouble. People can have moments of clarity where they recognize what they ought to do, but when it is time to make the decision they cave to their flesh. The bread that does not last is far too tempting to give up.
Without the Gospel we are directionless, our natural resting state is to be a slave to the flesh. We default to walking in our own flesh as Paul says in Galatians 5.17 “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
Paul explains that the only way to not gratify the desires of the flesh is to walk in the Spirit. In Ephesians he explains our previous state before our salvation, “…Tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”
So, we need the Spirit to live. To walk according to the truth is to walk in the Spirit. Jesus came to bear witness to the truth and whoever is “of the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18.37) We need the Spirit to see, to raise our gaze towards God and eternity. Jesus gives us the Spirit in John 16.13 “he will guide you into all truth.” This is the beginning of lifting our minds toward God. We are also commanded to do so in Colossians 3.1-5. Christians should not be shortsighted. There are no mere mortals here. We must be drawing people to look at God and show them the truth.
Those apart from Christ are like the ones that Jesus points out in John 6.36 “you have seen me and yet you do not believe.” And we are like the Ethiopian eunuch before Phillip arrives “how can I unless someone guides me?” Without the Spirit to guide us into truth and without Christ to be that truth we cannot move our gaze off ourselves.
I think the world time and time again proves this to us. The world is desperate for solutions, but they cannot endure eternity. They have no desire to look beyond this world toward Christ, there is no love for Him. It is focused on saving this current world by seemingly any means necessary. The humanistic worldview openly declares its nearsightedness by declaring that there is no God, or supernatural, and only what can be physically observed is what truly is. Tragically, what we see is the main thing that is proven not to last.
Ultimately, only the Gospel will do. Without it, we are blind being led by the blind. Our guides are the fallen worldviews of the world and all their various regimes, governments, and broken religions. People apart from Christ are busted and broken, sheep without a Shepherd, they need a guide. Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd and He has promised us a guide that will always lead us back to Him. With Christ we have hope and we can see. Hope is seeing far down the road of life, even beyond life itself. Through faith in Christ, we will see God. 1 Corinthians 13.12 wonderfully illustrates this “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully even as I have been fully known.” On this earth, we must choose to have hope and faith in God who has promised so much more than this finite earth.