God Deals With People According to the Light They Have
The LORD deals with people according to the light they have. Once we have revelation of a certain truth we are responsible for living according to it (or living in light of it). This can be observed in a few key passages, like these:
Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.”
If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.
Christ wasn’t talking about physical blindness in the first passage, but rather spiritual blindness. The Pharisees & other Judaic leaders were very learned in the Holy Scriptures that existed up to that point (John 5:39), but they had unfortunately allowed the spiritual disease of legalism to infect them — aka dead religiosity — and, as such, they were arrogant, rigid know-it-alls who couldn’t see the forest for the trees, spiritually speaking. The very Scriptures they diligently studied pointed to Christ, but here he was on Earth ministering with God’s powerful anointing and yet they rejected him due to their hateful jealousy and, worse, wanted to murder him (John 5:36-40 & John 8:31-47).
Here are a couple other supportive texts:
“The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
Luke 12:47-48 (here’s the whole passage)
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
This obviously isn’t an excuse to stay in ignorance, but it does show that God handles people according to the light they have. For instance, the LORD deals differently with a believer who is in his or her first few years of salvation as opposed to someone who’s been a believer for 37 years and is very versed in the Scriptures along with much experience in the things of God in general.
Our Creator takes into consideration things like the person’s stage of spiritual growth, talents, calling, access to knowledge and understanding of that knowledge. A new believer who grew up in a godless, lawless culture might not know a certain sexual activity is a sin, like fornication, and so God deals with him accordingly. As the believer grows, however, he’ll soon learn truth in regards to sexual propriety thru God’s word and the guidance of the Holy Spirit; the LORD then holds him accountable to what he knows and understands.
As Yeshua said, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48). You could put it this way: If you’re a half-pint, live up to being a half-pint; if you’re a gallon, live up to being a gallon; if you’re a two-ton tank, live up to being a two-ton tank.
Let me close by emphasizing that God is love (1 John 4:16) and therefore is greatly compassionate & merciful with his children:
8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.
9 The Lord is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made.Psalm 145:8-9
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:14-16
Related Topics:
Spiritual Growth — The Four Stages
Spiritual Growth is Like Climbing a Mountain
Altars & Altar Calls and how they’re Relevant
Spirituality — How to be Spirit-Controlled Rather than Flesh-Ruled
What is GLORY in the sense of God’s (Shekinah) GLORY?
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