“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you” (Luke 11:34–36).

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There is an old story about a lamb and its mother. It seems the lamb passed a pig pen each morning on the way to the pasture with its mother. Watching the pigs wallow in the mud seemed like fun, and on an especially hot day, the lamb asked the mother if he could jump the fence and wallow in the cool mud. She replied, “No.” Then the lamb asked the usual question, “Why?” The mother just said, “Sheep don’t wallow.

This did not satisfy the lamb. He felt she was not being fair, overreacting, and didn’t have the right to tell him what he could or could not do! So, as soon as the mother was out of sight, the lamb ran to the pig pen and jumped the fence. He was soon feeling the cool mud on his feet, his legs, and soon his stomach. After a few moments, he decided he had better go back to his mother, but he couldn’t. He was stuck! Mud and wool don’t mix. His pleasure had become his prison. He cried out and was rescued by the farmer. When cleaned and returned to the fold, the mother said, “Remember, sheep don’t wallow.”

The wicked entice us to join in the passing pleasures of sin, but as the writer of Proverbs said, “Keep your feet from their path” (1:10-19). Paul instructs the Ephesians to expose, not fellowship with the works of darkness (5:11). Consider Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians: “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked person from among you’” (5:9-13). And again, we see: “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’ Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame” (1 Corinthians 15:33-34). Maybe the Apostle Paul had it all wrong, or perhaps, somewhere along the way, as our age of tolerance has evolved into the present day, our light has been darkened.

I feel lead back to something Jesus said, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you” (Luke 11:34–36). I wonder if many of the problems we face today testify to a problem with our light. Then I consider something else Jesus said, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples” (John 15:8), and “Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them” (Matthew 7:20). Are we sheep heeding the Good Shepherd, or are we sheep wallowing in the mud? What does our fruit say about us?

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