Why is our world so broken? I believe the world is broken because of the spiritual condition of man. The Bible describes our natural condition as being in spiritual darkness. Tim Keller says spiritual darkness comes when we turn away from God as our true light and make something else as the center of our lives.
In John 8:12 Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.” In Luke 11:34-35 “The eye is the lamp of your body and when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light, but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness.” He’s warning us to watch out and make sure that the light that you think you have is not actually darkness. This was written 2000 years ago and unbelievably pertinent to our lives today.
So how do we find our way out of the darkness? Well, your eye, or perspective, is the lens through which you see life. It’s your perception of reality. Stephen Covey calls it a paradigm. We see life through various paradigms. The academic world and the political world use a word that I like. It is the word “worldview”. What Jesus is saying is, your perspective, your worldview, your perception of reality can be rooted in the truth or it can be rooted in falsehood. And He’s saying if it is rooted in the truth, your life will be full of light, and you’ll be healthy, and have vitality to your life. He says if it is rooted in falsehood, your life will be full of darkness.