Luke 8:16-18 (NIV) “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him.”
Jesus had just finished telling His followers the meaning of the parable of the sower that He had presented to the crowd, a meaning that many of the listeners in the crowd could not see because their rejection of the good news and of Jesus Himself had closed their ears and blinded their eyes.
The core truth presented here, shown by a comparison with the parallel passage in Matthew 5:14-16 using the imagery of a lamp under a bowl, is that the people of the kingdom are not to hide the light, the truth that they have been given by Jesus that guides their lives and actions Jesus did not teach the idea of “secret Christians.” The fact that His disciples were His disciples was expected to be evident to all, friend or foe. And He also did not expect them to keep the truths of the kingdom to themselves as “secret teachings.”
Jesus shared the deep truths of the kingdom frequently among the crowds that flocked to hear Him. He didn’t filter them, but He knew that even though He talked about them using illustrations that made the truths obvious to those with ears that could hear, those whose hearts were open, those same illustrations hid the true meaning from those whose hearts were hard and who had closed their ears to the truth. In a sense, the truth was always hidden in plain sight from those who would not receive it.
This was reinforced by Jesus’ words that everything that was hidden would be revealed, brought into the light. Many religions pride themselves on having a body of secret truths that are only revealed to initiates. There are even some sects and factions of Christianity that claim to have a store of hidden knowledge that has supposedly been passed down only to initiates from the days of Jesus.
But Christianity needs no hidden knowledge, and doesn’t benefit if the secrets of living in the kingdom are restricted to only a few. All that is necessary for salvation, for sanctification, and for successfully living life in the kingdom of God are plainly written in the words of the Bible. But, as always, the things of the Spirit are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14). Without the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s heart to give light to what the followers of Jesus wrote, much of what is clearly recorded on the pages of Scripture is inscrutable and confusing.
This helps explain Jesus’ closing words. Even Jesus’ own followers must be careful how they listened, just as Christians today must be careful in how we read. Those who have the Holy Spirit, and who listen to His guidance as we read, will always be able to find deeper truths in the words, no matter how often we read them. But those who don’t have the Holy Spirit won’t be able to discern the truths in a single paragraph. Even what they think they know of the truths of Jesus’ words will end up being lost to them.
Father, I have experienced both sides of this. When I was involved in the New Age, I was taught “secret interpretations” of the Scriptures that only led me further away from the true light. But when I turned away from all of that and came into the light of Christ, when the Holy Spirit transformed my life in a moment and took up residence in my heart, I could suddenly see the real meaning of the words of Scripture that had always been there, but that my eyes had been too clouded with “secret knowledge” to see. And those plain truths were far more amazing and life changing than any of the so-called deep secrets that I had learned before. Thank You, Lord, for making so readily accessible all we need to know to live for You, and for giving us Your Spirit, so that we can see it. Amen.