“THE LIGHT OF THE BODY IS THE EYE”
Why do people act the way they do? Matthew
6:22-24 gives us answers to that question. But for most people, this section of
scripture remains a mystery, until one can understand the
meaning of the original words that were used. A Concordance helps with that.
Let's take a look at the passage and then I'll break it down for you.
“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine
eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil,
thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in
thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”
Verse 24: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love
the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot
serve God and mammon.”
First let’s look at the word “light”
in verse 22. In the original language, it is a portable candle or oil lamp, one
that can be lit, or it can go out. The next word I looked at was “eye.” Here it
used metaphorically, of ethical qualities.
The candle guiding us is our
ethical qualities – our moral standards. Our moral or ethical standards guide
our whole body. The “body” is the whole man—body and soul. What we do with our
body and soul is maneuvered by our moral standards. So, if we carry a lamp that
is full of good Biblical morals and ethics, it will guide us in a good
direction. But if that candle burns out, or the wick is pinched, the good standards
slip away and are replaced by other standards that are not Biblical.
In the second part of verse 22,
what does it mean, “if thine eye be single “? The word single means simple,
clear, in which there is nothing complicated or confused; without folds (not
double-minded). Jesus was saying that if our eyes (ethical qualities) are clear
and not jumbled, our “whole body will be full of light.”
People think they can take some
standards from the Bible, some from Buddhism, some from Hinduism, or Islam, or
New Age, or situational ethics, but if those standards don’t jive with what the
God of the Bible says, there’s going to be double standards, ethical
difficulties, and a confused, jumbled mess. Granted, a person needs to
understand what the Bible actually says, and not just blindly believe what’s
“always” been taught. Asking questions is perfectly okay with our God, and
there are plenty of verses documenting that.
Verse 23 goes on to say: “But if
thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.” The word “eye” is
again ethical qualities. The word “evil” is “the Evil one,” so this is saying
that if a person’s ethics are inspired and motived or manipulated by the evil
one, Satan, then the intent is “wicked, actively bad, actively causing sorrow
or pain.” They are actively “bringing toil, hardships, annoyances, and
trouble.”
If moral codes are so deranged,
the whole self is going to be full of darkness. “Full of darkness” is
translated from one word that means covered in darkness, like a tent. Things
are opaque; vision is blinded. Actions are shady and shadowy. There is “ignorance respecting divine things and human
duties.” People whose moral standards begin to deteriorate, become prey to the
Evil one’s ethics, or lack thereof. They become “persons in whom darkness
becomes visible and holds sway.”
And the last part of verse 23
says: “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that
darkness!” The word “light” in this part of the verse means the light of God.
If that gets compromised, the darkness gets “great,” which means great in
number, magnitude, and degree.
God has the antidote to going to
the dark side. It’s in the next verse, Matthew 6:24: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love
the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot
serve God and mammon.”
The word “hate”
doesn’t mean what we think it does. In this verse, it’s a relative preference.
It means a person prefers one over another. He or she cares about serving the
interests of one rather than the other, for whatever reason. A straightforward
analysis would be if a person has two jobs, two bosses, and both want the
person to work on the same Saturday. The
worker can’t do both, so he or she analyses the pros and cons, and picks one.
When Jesus says: “He will hold to
the one, and despise the other,” it means he’ll “hold fast to, cleave to” one,
and not really think much of the other. To “despise” means to” think less of,
disdain, to look down on.”
We can’t be disciples (disciplined
ones) of the Lord and get all the benefits of God if we play in the devil’s
sandbox. And the consequences just aren’t worth it. Darkness perpetuated out
from a person will eventually come back around to destroy that person.
Let’s fall to the feet of our
merciful God and learn what it means to truly surrender all to Him. Mark 8:25
says: “Then again Jesus laid His hands on his
eyes; and the man stared intently and [his sight] was [completely] restored,
and he began to see everything clearly.”
With so much confusion entering our cultures, lots of people really aren’t
totally sure of what God’s moral standards really are, so we need to get back
to studying our Bibles so we aren’t walking around in partial darkness, but
that we can once again see clearly.
Love, Carolyn
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