Bible Study series: Luke 11:33-36. Don’t hide your light under a basket.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click on this link:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 11:33-36
33 “No one lights a lamp and places it in a hidden place or under a basket, but upon a lampstand, so that everyone who comes in may see the light. 34 The lamp of the body is your eye. When your eye is healthy, the whole body is also light. When it is evil, your body is dark. 35 Watch therefore that the ‘light’ which is in you is not dark. 36 Therefore, if your whole body is light, not having any part of darkness, it shall be completely light, as when a lamp shines brightly on you.” (Luke 11:33-36)
Comments:
This passage relates to this earlier one in Luke:
16 No one lighting a lamp hides it under of container or places it under a bed, but puts it on a lampstand, so those who come in may see the light. 17 For these is no hidden thing which shall not be manifest, neither a secret thing which shall not be known and come into the open. 18 Pay attention therefore how you hear. For whoever has it shall be given him; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken from him. (Luke 8:16-18)
33-36:
Now let’s analyze vv. 33-36.
Some interpretations say that in a Jewish context, the sound eye = generosity, while the evil eye = stingy or parsimonious.
Another interpretation says that this is an illustration about truth (light) v. falsehood (darkness) and true perception (light) v. self-deception (darkness), impacting (or infecting) your inner being. Here, as usual, Jesus’s teaching does not emphasize philosophical thinking, but moral living and one’s relationship with God. In the context, vv. 14-23, in which Jesus’s critics believed he had expelled demons by the prince of demons, he here explains by metaphors how wrong and deceived they were. Their minds were so darkened that they actually believed that his authority came from Satan, so that Satan’s kingdom would be effective if it were divided against itself! Their “light” really was darkness. Further, in vv. 24-26 Jesus taught that a swept and ordered person can undergo further, stronger attacks. Here he expands on the idea with moral truths through the images of light and darkness.
In my view, this is how the images can be transposed:
Light = truth = Christ’s message
Darkness = falsehood = Satan’s message
Eye = gateway to or perception of the mind
Whole body = whole inner being
One could also add that Jesus himself is the light of the world (Luke 2:32; John 1:9; 3:19; 8:12).
Now what about your mind and total inner being? Do they receive light or darkness?
This pericope or section is a short parable. See v. 5 for more comments on what a parable is.
33:
This verse is obvious. No one does absurd things. Now let’s see what lessons can be drawn from the opposite case.
“There is no automatic ‘inner light’ as far as Jesus is concerned” (Bock, p. 1101). It only exists in the teaching of Jesus (Luke 1:78-79; 2:32; John 1:4; 3:19-21; 9:39-41; Acts 26:18).
34:
In this verse the eye takes in the light, just as the mind takes in truths or falsehoods. In your initial intake of truth or falsehood, the mind can become light or dark, which in turn impacts your entire inner being. When your perception and mind take in moral truths and relational knowledge of God, your whole being is light (an adjective, not in the nominative). When your perception and mind take in moral falsehoods and false beliefs about moral truths and relational knowledge of God, then your whole being will become dark.
35:
Jesus now applies his obvious principle of taking in light or darkness. He tells the people to be careful and pay attention. They can be so self-deluded that the “light” in them is actually dark, but they do not perceive their self-deception. That is self-deception to the furthest degree. It is tough to break. To break self-deception, follow the basic foundations listed in. v. 26.
I put the word light in quotation marks because Jesus is stating an odd phenomenon. Literally, a light cannot be darkness, but morally one’s “light” can appear to the person to be bright, but it is really dark. Self-deception is powerful.
36:
Now he ends on the positive. Fully following Jesus towards God is when your whole inner being is full of light, without one part of darkness in you. You listen to and obey his teaching (v. 28; cf. Luke 6:46-49). You follow him completely.
13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said:
“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. (Eph. 5:13-16, NIV)
GrowApp for Luke 11:33-36
1. What can you do to prevent self-deception and darkness from entering your whole being?
2. What can you do to allow true perception and light to enter your whole being?
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11. Eyewitness Testimony in Luke’s Gospel
3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
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