Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn’t darkness.
- BSB Be careful, then, that the light within you is not darkness.
- ESV Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.
- NKJV Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness.
- NASB So watch out that the light in you is not darkness.
- NLT Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus warns each person to make sure the light within is not actually darkness. Self-deception about one's spiritual state is a real danger.
Overview
There is a sobering possibility that what one trusts as light is in fact darkness. Jesus urges honest self-examination of the heart's true condition. The warning guards against the false assurance of those who reject the true light while assuming they see.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Prov 16:25There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
- 2 Pet 1:9But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
- Jas 3:13–17Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
- 1 Cor 1:19–21For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
- Rom 1:22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
- 1 Cor 3:18–20Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
- Rev 3:17Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
- Isa 5:20–21Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
- Rom 2:19–23And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
- 2 Pet 2:18For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
- Prov 26:12Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.
- John 9:39–41And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
- John 7:48–49Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?
- Jer 8:8–9How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 11:35 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.