The Eyes

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

THE EYES

Matt 6:22-23

22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

NIV

Why the eye? It seems the eye refers to that which we are focused on. If we look toward heavenly things, that is keep our eyes on Jesus then there is light within our body. That is we will live in the light and we will be the light so that we fulfill the words of Jesus when he told us that we are the light of the world and we need to let our light shine so that men might see the light. In addition, keeping our eyes on Jesus means that our life is good, our body is good. We live with goodness within, a healthy condition. However, if we are looking at other things, as in things of this world, then according to Jesus our eyes have a darkness within them. Darkness refers to the world, for it lives without Jesus. When we focus our eyes on the world, all the darkness that resides there permeates our eyes and into our body or soul. Why would we ever want to keep our eyes focused on the things of the world? Why would we want darkened eyes? But, alas, there is a problem afoot. We cannot see Jesus, but we can see all the things of the world, and they are flashy. The things of the world are always being shown to us in ways that are tempting so that we will want them. In fact, many of them are the necessities of life. We need a home, clothes, cars, food, toys, and all the creature comforts we can afford. We labor diligently so we can afford all the things we have been told we have to have. The advertisements enhance the looks of all the stuff we are influenced to want up and above what we need. Jesus tells us we should not chase after the things of the world but seek first his kingdom and all these things will be added onto us. Our heavenly Father knows our needs, and He will provide for us, but we are not to focus on them, but keep our eyes upon Jesus. Although we cannot see Jesus in the physical, we see him through His word. We know in our heart that Jesus is real, and He is the focus of our life. We filter everything through the word of God, through the eyes of Jesus so that we are filled with light and it always overpowers the darkness.