And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?
The spiritually blind cannot rightly guide others, and blind leader with blind followers fall together into danger, ruin and destruction. The one who follows such a leader does so because he himself is blindfolded, and both come to harm and to destruction together. This is instruction from One who cannot err and applies to every follower of Christ.
Blindness here is failure to discern one's true spiritual condition and misreading and misinterpreting it. It is not knowing or following God's will, having no living personal experience of God's grace to impart, and lacking a clear understanding of Scripture. It is being spiritually asleep, blind in mind, and deaf to truth, never having the eyes opened and never hearing nor understanding.
That blindness includes cherishing a mischievous disposition and an unsanctified tongue, and indulging criticism and talebearing. It includes cherishing jealousy and hatred toward brethren, turning the weapons of warfare against them, and doing Satan's work of causing alienation and division among brethren, than which there are no sins greater in God's sight. Such a person puts himself under Satan's power and lives in darkness and blindness, and his influence spreads the darkness of his soul to others so that both he and those he leads fall together.
A minister without grace cannot convey what he does not possess, for without a living personal experience of God's grace there is nothing to impart. His teaching hardens and prejudices hearers instead of leading them to truth, and spoils fields that others must afterward work. Those who teach the truth bear grave responsibility, because their work can turn souls to Christ or turn them in the wrong direction, including by a course of action and example that fails to recognize dangers threatening souls.
The verse also describes mutual deception in which blinded people keep each other in error because they themselves are blindfolded. So a father by credulity promotes his daughter's false visions as messages from God, and she in turn confirms his erroneous views, and each keeps the other from the truth.
The warning applies to teachers who oppose the Sabbath while misleading seekers after light, for they are blind to the truth and those who trust their guidance are in danger of being led astray with them. It applies to one sent among the churches misleading with misstatements and appeals for sympathy over financial needs, whose work must be stopped for his own sake and for the sake of the flock. It applies to watchmen who are spiritually asleep and lack a clear understanding of Scripture, whose judgment is clouded by commercial self-interest and whose untested direction has deceived and misled fellow workers. It applies to those who had management of God's work and piled buildings up in Battle Creek, crowding much into one place as a decoy while many other American cities were left unworked, tainting and corrupting God's work with selfishness until prosperity ceased from His institutions, a record testifying to unfaithful stewardship by those entrusted to give every part of the vineyard proportionate attention.
This present blindness is the same as that of the Jews and others in Christ's day who claimed to be able to see. It is found even among some who have preached the truth and some still preaching it, with many now being led astray. Both leaders and followers in this state are deluded souls separated from God by their own course of action, which is an offense to God and perilous to their souls, especially now.
Unless both leaders and followers are converted and transformed they cannot labor together with God or work together with Him. The only safeguard is for each person individually to examine closely his own position and special peril before God in the light of His Word. Each must awake out of sleep and draw nigh to God that souls may be saved, and refuse Satan's work of division.
The spiritually blind cannot rightly guide others, and blind leader with blind followers fall together into danger, ruin and destruction. The one who follows such a leader does so because he himself is blindfolded, and both come to harm and to destruction together. This is instruction from One who cannot err and applies to every follower of Christ.
Blindness here is failure to discern one's true spiritual condition and misreading and misinterpreting it. It is not knowing or following God's will, having no living personal experience of God's grace to impart, and lacking a clear understanding of Scripture. It is being spiritually asleep, blind in mind, and deaf to truth, never having the eyes opened and never hearing nor understanding.
That blindness includes cherishing a mischievous disposition and an unsanctified tongue, and indulging criticism and talebearing. It includes cherishing jealousy and hatred toward brethren, turning the weapons of warfare against them, and doing Satan's work of causing alienation and division among brethren, than which there are no sins greater in God's sight. Such a person puts himself under Satan's power and lives in darkness and blindness, and his influence spreads the darkness of his soul to others so that both he and those he leads fall together.
A minister without grace cannot convey what he does not possess, for without a living personal experience of God's grace there is nothing to impart. His teaching hardens and prejudices hearers instead of leading them to truth, and spoils fields that others must afterward work. Those who teach the truth bear grave responsibility, because their work can turn souls to Christ or turn them in the wrong direction, including by a course of action and example that fails to recognize dangers threatening souls.
The verse also describes mutual deception in which blinded people keep each other in error because they themselves are blindfolded. So a father by credulity promotes his daughter's false visions as messages from God, and she in turn confirms his erroneous views, and each keeps the other from the truth.
The warning applies to teachers who oppose the Sabbath while misleading seekers after light, for they are blind to the truth and those who trust their guidance are in danger of being led astray with them. It applies to one sent among the churches misleading with misstatements and appeals for sympathy over financial needs, whose work must be stopped for his own sake and for the sake of the flock. It applies to watchmen who are spiritually asleep and lack a clear understanding of Scripture, whose judgment is clouded by commercial self-interest and whose untested direction has deceived and misled fellow workers. It applies to those who had management of God's work and piled buildings up in Battle Creek, crowding much into one place as a decoy while many other American cities were left unworked, tainting and corrupting God's work with selfishness until prosperity ceased from His institutions, a record testifying to unfaithful stewardship by those entrusted to give every part of the vineyard proportionate attention.
This present blindness is the same as that of the Jews and others in Christ's day who claimed to be able to see. It is found even among some who have preached the truth and some still preaching it, with many now being led astray. Both leaders and followers in this state are deluded souls separated from God by their own course of action, which is an offense to God and perilous to their souls, especially now.
Unless both leaders and followers are converted and transformed they cannot labor together with God or work together with Him. The only safeguard is for each person individually to examine closely his own position and special peril before God in the light of His Word. Each must awake out of sleep and draw nigh to God that souls may be saved, and refuse Satan's work of division.