Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.

LUKE 11:35KJV
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Luke 11:35 (KJV)

What does Luke 11:35 mean?

In Luke 11:35, Jesus warns that what a person takes to be inner light may actually be darkness. The verse calls for careful attention to whether one’s way of seeing and understanding is truly giving light.

Jesus is speaking to the crowds. Following his picture of the eye as the body’s lamp, he turns attention to the “light which is in thee.” The image moves from the eye’s physical role to a person’s inward perception.

The Greek behind Luke 11:35

  • “heed” — σκοπέω (skopeō): The Greek carries the sense of looking carefully or paying close attention. Here it gives Jesus’ warning an active sense: the hearer is to examine the condition of that inner light.

Why Luke 11:35 matters

  • The verse questions a person’s ability to recognize darkness. Jesus speaks of “the light which is in thee” being darkness, so the name a person gives to that inner light is not enough to establish what it is.

  • The warning belongs to Jesus’ image of the eye and the lamp. In verse 34, a healthy eye is connected with a body full of light, while a bad eye is connected with a body full of darkness. Verse 35 applies that contrast to the hearer’s inner condition.

  • Jesus follows the warning with a picture of the whole body full of light in verse 36. The wider image concerns the condition of the whole person, pictured as a body lit by a lamp.

Where else these words appear

“heed” Greek G4648 · used in 6 verses

  • Romans 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
  • 2 Corinthians 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
  • Philippians 2:4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

“darkness” Greek G4655 · used in 31 verses

  • Matthew 4:16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
  • John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
  • Ephesians 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

“light” Greek G5457 · used in 59 verses

  • Matthew 4:16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
  • John 3:21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
  • Romans 2:19 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,