The phrase “eyes wide open” is typically used to infer you know what you are getting into. You are aware of everything that is involved in a situation. So many times, I have known people who seemingly had their eyes opened, but were still not seeing the reality of a situation. They are like the blind man that came to my home to tune my piano. When I opened the door, he stood there and appeared with his eyes open. He followed me by sound, but he was blind. Clearly, he was acutely in tune with his surroundings by his hearing, but he only saw what his mind could imagine. That is the way many faces life. Their eyes are wide open, but their vision is tainted by their imagination.
Sometimes we don’t see clearly because we don’t look hard and long enough at a situation. We are to pray and seek scripture to find the truth about everything in our lives. When we accept Jesus as our personal Savior, He comes to dwell within us, and we see things differently. We now are looking through spiritual eyes. II Corinthians 5:17 teaches us when we become a Christian, all things become new. We see things differently. We have new views, new motives, new values, and a new purpose in life. Now, we are living and viewing with an eternal perspective.
II Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
As long as we stay close to Christ, studying, praying, and seeking His guidance our eyes will be wide open and we will see things the way God intended, but when we begin to stray sin dims and distorts our vision.
A good example of that is Sampson. He had been set apart by God to deliver Israel and he was to be taught and raised in the strict manner of a Nazarite. He was to be devoted to God and an example of holiness. However, when he began to see things through the natural eye, he began to lust after a woman that God never intended for him to have. When his eyes became focused on the wrong things the results were disastrous. He was determined to marry someone that was unequally yoked with Him. The Philistines worshiped the god Dagon, not Jehovah God. Some have interpreted verse 4 to mean that God designed these actions, but God never violates His own word, nor does He tempt us to sin. What verse 4 is talking about refers back to God’s design for Samson to be a judge.
Samson suffers great consequences for his sin. However, he repents, and God uses him, but it cost him his life. His sin blinded him from following God’s perfect will for his life.
Judges 14:1-4 “And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now, therefore, get her for me to wife. Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well. But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.”
II Corinthians 6:14 “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”
Numbers 23:19 “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
II Timothy 2:13 “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.”
Can God still use us after we sin and go against what we know to be right? Yes, he can if we repent, but there will always be consequences that damage our testimony, and they may be physically painful. They may also cost us our lives as they did Samson.
Paul teaches us in I Corinthians 13:12, that even though we seek through the Spirit to see things clearly, we still will be looking at things with imperfect spiritual eyes. However, one day the sinful film that dims our view will be removed forevermore. Our eyes will be wide open as we see Jesus face to face. Everything will be viewed through perfect eyes in a perfect world.
I Corinthians 13:12 “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
Have your eyes been opened to the beauty of Christ? Do you now see things you once thought were ok as sin? If not, be honest with yourself and remove the film of this world’s view from your eyes. Take a look at Jesus afresh and anew with your eyes wide open. You will not be disappointed.
