“Then it happened, as He was coming near Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the road begging.” (Luk 18:35)
A blind man cannot move freely to do work or activity. Therefore, he will spend most of his time just to sit. Nevertheless, he needs food to survive, so he will be forced to beg. A spiritually blind person cannot move freely with God to do His work. So, he will become spiritually passive and poor. He will be like a beggar, always asking or begging from God.
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?” (Mat 23:16-17)
Scribes and Pharisees were not people without knowledge. They studied the law so they had knowledge. However, the Lord Jesus called them blinds guides. Why? Because the knowledge that they had are not according to the truth. So they were in fact blinds and fools. People who are spiritually blind can study the Bible and have knowledge of the Bible, and even teach it. But, their knowledge will not be according to God’s truth. They will interpret the Bible according to their own understanding. The wisdom that they will have comes from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, not from the tree of life.
“Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Rev 3:17)
The Laodicean church did not realize that they were spiritually wretched, miserable and poor. They thought they were spiritually rich because they were materially rich had become wealthy. They measured spiritual riches by material riches. Why? Because they were spiritually blind. Likewise, people who are spiritually blind will not realize that they are spiritually poor. They think they are spiritually rich, especially if they are materially rich and have become wealthy.
Sinners are people who are spiritually blind, while believers are people whose eyes are spiritually open. Nevertheless, a believer can become spiritually blind again if he does not take care of his spiritual life. He may not become spiritually blind immediately, but become short sighted first. This condition is the result of the intensity of God’s light diminishing in his life. When a believer is not full of the Holy Spirit, the light of God in his life will diminish (Mat 25:8).
The Lord Jesus said, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
(Mat 6:22-24) Pursuing and serving money will make our eyes bad and eventually we will be blind to spiritial things. Pursuing and serving God will make our eyes good and eventually our eyes will be open to spiritual things.
Acquiring knowledge for the mind, including knowledge from the Bible, without continuously being filled with the Holy Spirit will make the eyes of a believer become short sighted. The word of God that he hears or reads will not produce light because it will not be revealed. Even though his knowledge increases, he will still be a fool spiritually, like the Scribes and Pharisees (Psa 119:130)