Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness.
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn’t darkness.
- KJV Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.
- BSB Be careful, then, that the light within you is not 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.
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 which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
- 2 Pet 1:9For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.
- Jas 3:13–17Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom.
- 1 Cor 1:19–21For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.”
- Rom 1:22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
- 1 Cor 3:18–20Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise.
- Rev 3:17Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;
- Isa 5:20–21Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
- Rom 2:19–23and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
- 2 Pet 2:18For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
- Prov 26:12Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
- John 9:39–41Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, that those who don’t see may see; and that those who see may become blind.”
- John 7:48–49Have any of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees?
- Jer 8:8–9“‘How do you say, “We are wise, and Yahweh’s law is with us?” But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.