Contentment Part 2: The Good Eye and The Bad Eye
Matthew: The Sermon on the Mount • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
We are warned as children not to look directly at the Sun. It’s brilliance is so great and its rays so powerful that looking at it with the naked eye will eventually cause blindness. Instead, we go through our entire lives looking at all the things that the sun lights up for us to see, but never directly at the sun for fear of the harmful consequences. There is a theological theme to be grappled with here; people go through their entire lives looking at and enjoying all the things that display the glory of God, but never at God himself. And the more we look at God, the more blind we become to the world around us. However, the difference is that it’s not that God is blinding us, but rather because the glory of God outshines the limited glory of created things and we see him more and more. We don’t lose our sight, we gain real vision of what is really light. Just as the rising sun outshines the lesser glory of the moon, a mindset that is focused on the glory of God makes everything else, everything in this world, seem insignificant.
This saying of Jesus is simple, if we look to the glory of God revealed in the risen Christ, we see things rightly, we see what really matters and all that is unimportant in an eternal perspective becomes vague and meaningless to us. But if we do not look to Christ and the glory of God revealed in his humble incarnation, his humiliating death, and his glorious resurrection, we will only see what is less because we have nothing greater to look at.
The Eye as a Lamp
The Eye as a Lamp
In what ways are our eyes, metaphorically speaking, the lamp of the body?
One of the most difficult metaphors in all the Gospels. There is a lot of debate about what the eyes, light, and darkness represent. HOwever, when we pay close attention to the context, we can discern the intent behind this saying fairly easily. I’ll give you what I am confident to be the best way of interpreting these metaphors and how it plays into the theme of contentment that we started last week.
The ‘eye’ here is metaphorical. There is a connection with verse 21 here where we are told that our heart will tend towards where we put our treasures. The eye, therefore, represents the eyes of our heart. What we look to, take interest in, where we put value, and what we look to for our hope and security as well as rest and pleasure.
This metaphor serves as a middle and transitory saying between verses 19-21 and it’s language of treasures and verse 24 with the metaphor of slavery to one of two masters, God or wealth. This means that Jesus has not stopped talking about worldly wealth and treasures, and that is the context for us here.
Riding off of the previous saying “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” Jesus is using the metaphor of a lamp for the eyes of the heart. In other words, the eye is the lamp of the body in this way: the treasures that we set our affections on will have consequences reaching into every area of life, just as the eyes inform a person and affect everything they do.
Think how differently you physically act when you are blindfolded. Tasks which were once so minimal you didn’t even think about them now become difficult. You cannot take a step with certainty and your arms flail around looking for a familiar object to guide you. This is also true of the eyes of the heart. If your heart is set on what gives light, your whole life will be enlightened. But if it is blinded by darkness, your whole life stumbles around in darkness.
So let us now take a look at these two kinds of eyes, the single eye and the evil eye.
The ‘Single’ Eye
The ‘Single’ Eye
Now unless you are reading from an older translation, verse 22 probably says “if your eye is healthy” (ESV and NIV). However, the word here literally means simple or straight. In moral and spiritual contexts, it is a metaphorical way to speak of single-mindedness or a right way of thinking. It also has the nuance of sincerity, generosity, and a total lack of jealousy or envy.
The eye is simple and singular in it’s focus. James warns us about the man who doubts the promises of God
For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
And later in chapter 4 he elaborates on this double-mindedness and how it must be cured. James 4:7-8
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
On the contrary, the single-minded eye, the healthy eye, is focused on eternal things; heavenly treasures. The things of this world simply are not valuable to them, and this goes back to the first beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Why are they poor in spirit? Because they see that in their sin, they are completely destitute. This does not only mean that they recognize their spiritual poverty, a completely unrepentant sinner can recognize that, but it is also that they consider their spiritual poverty as true poverty. They could be a beggar on the street, they could be the CEO of a wealthy company, but in their hearts they consider themselves poor. They realize that heavenly treasure is true treasure and that knowing God is true riches, and thus they put no stock in worldly gain but count it all as worthless compared to spiritual riches. Phil 3:8
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Ironically, these are the ones who are to receive the Kingdom and all its riches and glory. They trust God for their daily needs, as reflected in the Lord’s Prayer, and they consider true wealth to be that which is truly worth looking at: Christ. In him, they have an eternal, but future inheritance and reward. This is all that matters to them. They could lose all their earthly goods in a moment and be still satisfied in the promise of future glory.
This is why this eye is single-minded. Their intentions are not divided. They don’t merely put most of their hope in the future glory, but all of it. They do not pursue the Kingdom most of the time, but that is their entire goal and intention. They are, as a result, generous, they are not envious, they are not jealous of their possessions, but are free from the anxiety even of where their next meal will come from.
Think of the famous faith of George Muller, who often would have no food to feed the orphans in his care and yet was never discouraged or anxious about this, and according to his faithful prayers God never let those orphans go hungry. When your eyes are set on your heavenly Father, there is no need to keep your other eye on the goods and treasures of this world.
Full of Light
Full of Light
Christ teaches us that such a person is full of light in their entire being. Again, like we saw last week, we lead our hearts with our treasures. Does your life feel worldly? Are you frustrated by how occupied or anxious you are about worldly things? The answer in our text is to open your eyes to what is truly of value. What harm is there in loosing your earthly treasures when their value is of little consequence to you? Even to go hungry in this world is no matter, for this life is fleeting anyway.
When you have your eyes set on future things, on eternal glory, on a world where the joyful presence of Christ will always abide with you, you will find your life full of light. You cannot wait until the day when you will finally gain a taste for spiritual things, you must act in faith before that taste is developed. A child may not like a certain food the first time they try it, but if they persist in eating what is given to them by their parents with trust and perseverance, they eventually gain a taste for it. So you must, in faith, turn your heart’s gaze upon what is truly worth looking at, and over time your whole body will be filled with light; you will gain a taste for spiritual things. Notice the order of it; the eye is opened, then you can see. The treasures are stored, then your heart is there, the Master is served, then affection for him is developed. Many Christians complain of their lack of holiness while doing little to set their eyes on holy things. You will only ever find the promises of God desirable if first you set yourself to look at them. This can be done in three practices:
Prayer: ask for a healthy, straight-forward eye. Seek God earnestly until you obtain it. Don’t just pray when you feel spiritual, pray when its hard, when distractions flood your mind. Earnest prayer is prayer that actively fights the flesh for a glimpse of the holy. Prayer is a battleground for your own heart, God versus your flesh, the Spirit of Christ versus the spirit of the world. Do not expect a thriving spiritual life if you are not fighting for it before the Throne of Grace.
Scripture Meditation: One of the most overlooked ways to increase the ‘light’ in your life is, not just reading, but meditating on Scripture.
I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love,
and I will meditate on your statutes.
The Hebrew word for meditate literally means to mutter. The idea is that you read the text and mutter it over and over again to yourself, digesting it, hanging upon every word of it. What better way to cause your eyes to be a lamp to your life than to look to the light of Scripture and spend time silently reflecting on it.
Meditation is a difficult thing to practice in the world of social media and other business in which we live. It takes serious effort to put yourself in a quiet space every day to reflect on the Word of God. Puritan Thomas Watson says that this was difficult in his time as well, but that even 15 minutes of silent meditation on the Word is extremely beneficial to the soul. Don’t use an app on your phone for this. Don’t even have your phone in the same room. This is why a physical copy of the Bible is important, it eliminates all distraction. Be silent, with a copy of the Word on your lap and mutter the word, digest it, search it, reflect on it and on the great truths and promises it holds. Reflect on yourself and your response to the Word. This practice will go a long way to opening your eyes and shining the glorious heavenly light into your life.
Active obedience. It is one thing to meditate on the Scriptures, but it is useless if we do not actively and intentionally put it into practice. When we read the Word, part of our meditation should be asking “how does this apply to me?” within the proper context of course, and making tangible plans to implement obedience to the Word in our life. Again, this is not easy. Don’t expect a flood of exciting spiritual feelings to run your obedience. You must push through the resistance of your flesh to achieve this. Eventually, such obedience will become a joy if it is done in faith.
The Evil Eye
The Evil Eye
Now let us turn to the second part of this saying of Jesus. The opposite of the clear, single-minded, enlightening eye is the dark, evil eye. First we will look at how this eye is evil, then we will see how it creates darkness in our lives.
The Eye
The Eye
Because the evil eye is contrasted with the healthy, single-minded eye we can assume that it is characterized by everything that is opposite to the healthy eye.
It is blind. This eye brings “great darkness” into the body, and so it is essentially blind. The lamp is not working as intended, and so the evil heart does not set its affections on what it is meant to. Instead of the firm realities of a future world, it has its sights set on the fading material shadows of this world. Just as a blind eye sees only darkness, so their heart is set only on dark and intangible things. Things that wear out and certainly do not last past death. Things that become idols and take the place of God in our hearts blind us to eternal realities. This contributes to the discontent that thrives as a result in the hearts of a worldly person. We always want more of what cannot truly satisfy our souls. When we are discontent with what we have been given in this world, there are venomous problems in our heart that threaten to choke out our spiritual life.
We are blind to the goodness of God. Faith turns our eyes, not towards the things we would like to have, but towards the things we do have in God through Christ. Thanksgiving is the natural language of the poor in heart who, by the Spirit’s work, begins to see clearly how undeserving they are of any grace. if you truly believe you are a sinner who deserves nothing but hell and condemnation and are saved by grace alone, every good thing in this life, whether food and pleasure or even a breath of fresh air is more than we are owed and is received with gratefulness. The eye that is dark, however, considers itself worthy of more than it has.
We are blind to our duty of generosity.
You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.
Generosity with worldly goods provokes God to be generous with heavenly blessings in eternity, just as God rewarded the Israelites with blessings for their generosity. It is not a duty God leaves unrewarded, but it is a duty and one that will cost us in worldly goods. You may not get the money back which you lent freely to your brother who needed it, but you will receive the reward in heaven in it was done with generosity. You may not get that restful weekend you planned because you spent the time and energy listening to and praying with a depressed or hurting sister, but your reward is being stored up where moth and rust do not destroy.
We are blind to the glory of God. The dark eye has no clear view of the great glory which we are assigned to magnify. In the art industry, people pay millions of dollars for a painting which is ugly and really worthless, but much more joy is found often from a local artist who poured passion and talent into a beautiful work of art. Those who have beheld the glory of God see no need to pursue any other treasure or beauty. Psalm 16:11
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
God made human being in his image, to reflect his glory in all creation. When we see ourselves, and to an extent all creation, in this light, we cannot prize those mere glimpses of God’s glory over God himself and his grand glory which is to be revealed. This is why Paul could say in 2 Cor 4:17-18
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
If we view this glory as Paul did, the hymn rings true for us, “the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”
It is evil. There is a moral stand that this way of thinking and looking has. Not only is it illogical to look to the things of this world over spiritual things, but it is sinful and evil. Paul’s fellow workman for the gospel left the work because his blindness had given him a love for the things of this world 2 Tim 4:10
2 Timothy 4:10 (ESV)
For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.
John warns us in 1 John 2:15
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
And James goes so far as to say in James 4:4
James 4:4 (ESV)
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity (hostility) with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
To have a darkened eye is nothing short of apostasy and hypocrisy.
It is double-minded. This is the eye of Lot’s wife who, while running away, looked back towards Sodom, the city of destruction, and became a pillar of salt.
The Darkness
The Darkness
How should we understand the darkness in our text? Jesus adds weight to this point at the end by saying, “how great is that darkness.” It is clear in Greek that this is not a question, but rather a statement. It could be translated simply, “That darkness is great indeed!”
The darkness the consumes the soul of the dark eye is true separation from God. Having an enlightened eye is not an option for the Christian, it is necessary for salvation. If we do not have an eye of faith, we are left in the darkness of this world and of the coming judgement. 1 John 1:6
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The end of contentment is to have a healthy eye filling our souls with heavenly light. Again, contentment is not about being void of desire or ambition, but rather to content ourselves with future glory, rather than greedily pursuing and protecting earthly things. A Christian is not called to be a Stoic about gain, but is rather called to be patient and heavenly minded.
There are two directions we can look in this life, towards light or towards darkness. Whichever one you gaze upon will determine whether you are filled with the light of holy obedience and eager expectation of the Lord’s heavenly promises, or whether you will be filled with the darkness of greed, lust, covetousness, idolatry, worldly ambition, and sin. While there is a place for growth, there is no place for a Christian to stand trying to fix their eyes on both at once.
It is necessary for us to often question where our eyes are pointed. We do this, not by judging our religious activity, but judging our heart through our desires and motives. What do you truly desire? When you wake up in the morning, what are your deepest hopes? What do you consider triumph, gain, or good? Thomas Watson points out that good things in this world are as likely to be a curse as a blessing, for in them God may be giving us over to darkness. Likewise, bad things in this world are often a blessing, weaning us off of the darkness and encouraging us set our eyes on future things. Just like a child is upset when you remove their soother, our flesh will be upset when God removes worldly good, but it is for our benefit. Contentment is not merely a state of mind, it is a practice that encompasses our whole being. Are you content? Sit alone with God and think on it for an hour, half an hour, even fifteen minutes this afternoon. Put into practice things that will point your eyes heavenward and wean yourself from earthly entertainments and distractions, good as they may be. You will be filled with what you fill yourself with. That is the message of this text.
Of course, what we are filling ourselves with if we are looking to light is Christ. Seek Christ. Bind yourself to him. Look at his Divine power, his humble humanity, his bloody death for sin, and his victorious resurrection. Fill yourself with that, breath it, live with that truth running through your brain and into your heart every day and something interesting will happen. You will get to his glorious second coming, the inheritance that he bought for his people, the house of many rooms which he is now building. And all of life will tend towards that end, because that is the end that Christ leads his sheep to and its what he wants on his people’s mind. In Christ alone there is a hope beyond this world, and in Christ alone that hope becomes all we need to let go of the dark, transitory state we are in and work for a future glory.