Nearsighted Christians Series

F. W. Boreham, the famous Australian preacher, had an

instructive experience in St. Paul's Cathedral. He and a friend were

looking at Holman Hunt's well known painting, "The Light Of The

World." The Savior stands before a closed door with a lantern in

His hand, and He is knocking. Boreham said to his friend, "I have

never been able to understand why Holman Hunt thought it

necessary to put a lantern in the Savior's hand on such a brilliant

moonlight night. The whole landscape stands out as vividly as at

noonday."

Just then a stranger interpreted. "You must forgive me," he said,

"But it happens that I knew Holman Hunt well, and I was with him

a good deal when he was working on the painting before you. If you

pardon my saying so, you have completely missed one of the main

ideas he had in mind. He intended you to gather from the tangle of

undergrowth on the ground around the door, that the house is

standing on the fringe of the wilderness. The Savior is about to

leave the open country, bathed in moonlight, and plunge into the

shadowed gloom of the thickly wooded wilds. It is in preparation

for His gloomy journey through the darksome recesses of the

wilderness that He has lighted His lantern. He is knocking at the

door not merely with the hope of being admitted, and supping with

the members of the household, but in order to unite them to

cooperate with Him in His mission by accompanying Him on His

otherwise lonely journey."

It is fascinating to have this commentary on that painting, for it

reveals the artist was aware of something that Christians tend to

forget. He was aware of the fact that Jesus wants to enter the

heart's door of the individual, not to love them and leave them, but

to love them, save them, and recruit them for the great task of

pushing back the darkness with the Gospel of light.

You would think that a Christian could never forget the purpose

of Christ and His commands to take up the cross and follow Him.

You would think that a Christian could never forget the cross, and

the great commission to take the good news of it into all the world.

But Peter says in verse 9 that Christians can even go to the point of

being forgetful concerning their own cleansing from sin. Jesus

implied the same when He instituted the Lord's Supper to be

observed in remembrance of Him, and to show forth His death until

He comes. The implication is that Christians would forget His

sacrifice for their sin without a constant reminder. In this passage

Peter's main concern is with the need to keep Christians reminded

of what they already know.

In verse 12 he says will not be negligent to keep them in

remembrance. In verse 13 he writes of stirring up their

remembrance as long as he lives, and in verse 15 he says he is

putting these things in writing that they might have them in

remembrance after he is gone. Peter is fighting a major disease of

the spiritual life. It is the disease of spiritual amnesia. The person

with amnesia has forgotten his identity. He is normal in every other

way, but he does not know who he is. Israel fell victim to this

disease time and time again. She forgot that she was the bride of

Jehovah, and the elect people of God.

Moses cried out in Deut. 32:18, "You were unmindful of the Rock

that begat you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth."

In Judges 3:7 we read, "And the people of Israel did what is evil in

the sight of the Lord, forgetting the Lord their God..."

Isaiah gave this as the reason for the sorrows of Israel in Isa. 17:10,

"For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not

remembered the Rock of your refuge."

God speaks in Jer. 2:32, "..My people have forgotten me days

without number."

This is the common lament of the prophets. Israel has forgotten the

Lord her God. It is no wonder then that she bore no fruit.

Forgetfulness and fruitfulness are opposites. Peter says that if you

have all of these virtues, and cultivate them, you will bear fruit, but

if you lack them you will be like Israel of old, blind, nearsighted, and

forgetful of God's will and deliverance.

It is important for Christians, not only to recognize the great

potential they have to be fruitful, but also to be aware of the great

danger they face in being forgetful. Forgetfulness is the cause of so

much sorrow and folly. Why do people who have lived together for

years, and who have gone through joys and sorrows together, decide