New Thoughts (02/03/10-02/05/10)
In this passage, Jesus speaks of the eye as the lamp of the body. It is up to the eye what information will gain entry to the body’s processing. If the eye is open, then whatever it focuses upon, the mind can consider. If the eye is closed, then the mind must operate in a vacuum, with no least perception of reality by which to form its understanding. The mind fed solely by a closed eye must settle for vain imaginations, because it has no sound data upon which to form opinions as to the truth of reality.
Granted, there are other senses. The fact that those who are blind develop their other senses in a fashion by which they can compensate is well known. But, however well developed those other senses, they cannot truly replace the data lost to the blinded eye. They cannot give the mind a clear image of what truly lies before the blinded one. That there is something there, yes, but the color? The shape and the texture? The finest details and nuances of the visual? If that one was once capable of vision, he may have a library of memories from which to draw as touch, smell and sound relay the nature of what is there, but it can at best provide a dim echo, a type. An accurate picture of the specific instance which lies there in the present cannot be formed.
The first point to be drawn from this passage, then, is that as the eye serves the body, so the spirit functions with regard to the soul. The analogy, as with any analogy, is not perfect, but the point is sufficiently plain. It is the spirit which discerns the truth of God. It is the Spirit of God which comes to reveal to us that truth. It is the spirit of man which finally and firmly distinguishes him from all else in the realm of created, living beings. A dog, however pleasant a companion and however useful, has no spirit by which to commune with God. It is given to mankind alone to have this great benefit and with it, this great responsibility of conscience.
If your eye is clear, undimmed by the diseases common to aging and not afflicted by any distortion, then the information obtained by the eye is accurate, and the mind well informed by its report. But, if there is an astigmatism? That doubling of the image does not make things doubly clear. Quite the opposite! And, of course, that which is but dimly seen remains largely imagined. It remains a thing hinted at, but not truly known. Seeing something moving in the haze, we are made aware that there is something there, and we may be able to get some sense of its size. But, we don’t know what moved. We can’t be certain our idea of its size is accurate.
The spirit, then, determines how well the soul can perceive. The spirit in fallen man is sadly afflicted by many distortions, and dimmed by the effects of sin. That is the great malady that Jesus came to heal. I tell you, if that is not healed, then all the physical healing is worth nothing. What benefits it a man if he lives ever so many long and healthy years, but still comes to the grave without the redeeming grace God gives us in the Christ? Lazarus, for all that he was recalled from the grave returned eventually to the grave just the same. The physical resurrection of the man had no benefit to him. What was of great benefit was that God implanted in him a true and saving faith. Though the body saw the grave, the spirit of Lazarus saw God and sees Him yet. Eternity awaits, and a new body, free of corruption. However injured or however sound this earthly tent, it really makes no difference. Oh, of course I would prefer a life free of disease. Of course I would like to go through the rest of my days with no major complications. Of course I would love to see those who are dealing with chronic illness released from its chains. And they will be! It may not be in this life, but this life, if we would see with a clear and single spirit, is but a spit in the ocean, less than a season in the life of a Sequoia.
Yes, Jesus comes to heal our spirits, for they are of paramount concern. The spirit that is not single in its perceptions, that distorts the message or perceives it but dimly, is a danger to itself. The simple fact of the matter is that until and unless God comes and corrects the condition of that spirit, no message from heaven will ever get through. All will be distortions and lies. All will be ignored because the spirit is blinded by the sinful nature of fallen man.
The blinded, diseased spirit of fallen man is one of the major arguments that stands in the way of those who suppose that our free will somehow negates the validity of any doctrine of predestination. The reality is that however free our will may have been in the fall (which is already a pretty suspect position to hold), it can only choose as it perceives. If the free willed spirit of man cannot see the things of heaven, in what way shall it choose them? The blinded, fallen spirit has no real conception of heaven that might cause it to choose.
This does not stand in opposition to what Paul tells us in the opening chapters of Romans. The evidence assuredly is there to see in all of nature. But, again: the spirit being blinded cannot perceive the meaning of the evidence. Our guilt is not removed, only our capacity to comprehend the message. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Ignorance of God surely is no excuse either.
Thanks be to God, though: He does come and remove the scales from our eyes, even as was done for Saul of Tarsus. The blindness is removed, and the Truth revealed. Oh, we do not know in whole. Would that we were able! But, we are given enough of a correction to our spiritual sight to see that there is a heaven and a God who abides therein. We are finally given sufficient data upon which to make a choice. Free will finally has something to do, and having been freed to make an intelligent choice, there really is only one possible outcome to the choosing. Who, seeing set before him a fine cut of roast beef on the one hand and a dish of rancid road-kill on the other, will happily go for the road-kill? Oh, we can argue that he is free to do so, and in the realm of the theoretical, we should be quite right to do so. But, in the realm of the probable, we should be just as right to insist that such a choice would never be made by a sane person.
When the decision is clearly seen to be between life and death, and where sanity is intact, there can be no question as to what will be chosen. Life wins every time. So long as the eye and the mind are clear, and can properly assess the options, the outcome is as good as predetermined, however free the will of man. One might well argue that there must be coercion of some form for the man to have chosen death, or the evils that lead unto. Thus, we have the Gospel declared as the end of our slavery to sin. Unless enslaved to sin and death, who would pursue it?
Of course, that being the case, we who have been freed have a larger question to answer: If that slavery has been removed from us, how is it we return to those things we now know lead to death? How can it be? Here, then, lies the outcome of the sad truth that even with all that has been done for us, we see but in part, but dimly. The eyes of the spirit are no longer blind, but they still need some serious corrective lenses. We are still wearing sunglasses in the gloom of night, so far as our spiritual perceptions are concerned. So, in spite of a growing awareness of heaven’s Truth, we are still found stumbling into sin’s lie.
But, we have been made aware! We are progressing. The eyes of the spirit are being corrected in slow but steady fashion. As each imperfection of our perception is made apparent, we are given to correct our ways. A new aspect of our sinfulness and of God’s purity is made evident to us, and the spirit-filled conscience, having become aware of the issue, finds itself empowered to combat the error.
How apt the analogy of physical sight! With age, we find our vision growing a bit blurrier. But, it’s been gradual, and we may not realize how far degraded our focus has become. Then we visit our ophthalmologist and are given corrective lenses. Wow! Suddenly, we see again. Suddenly, we realize that our vision has been so poor that we have been a danger to ourselves and to others. With the correction, it becomes almost unthinkable that we might, for instance, return to driving without them. Yet, we may slip on occasion and do just that. We may be willing to take that risk that the weakening of our sight is not so great as to cause us to get into an accident. Or, we may simply have no conscious thought for the matter, being preoccupied.
This, in the spiritual application, is another great danger: being preoccupied. That connects this matter of vision with the issues of anxiousness that are considered in the surrounding context. Anxiousness distracts us with preoccupation. Attempts at dual loyalties to God and mammon lead to distracted perceptions, as well as distorted. The spirit thus busied with looking at all the wrong things will fail to note the danger signs ahead. It will step back into the trap of sin all unthinking. The spirit thus preoccupied quickly forgets that God is holy and pure. How much better for us if we could but hold that one concept before the mind’s eye through the day! How many things we should do far differently if we would but remember that He is here with us, and He is perfect in purity and perfect in holiness!
He is, then, the exact opposite of that dimmed and distorted perception that is the state of fallen man. In Him, there is no distortion. In Him, there is no dimming of sight. He is pure and holy. That is what Jesus is conveying to us in speaking of they eye being clear or simple. Purity. Holiness. These are the characteristics we are to be striving for. These are, more importantly, the characteristics that the Holy Spirit of God is causing to develop in us as He repairs the damage of the Fall.
The lesson Jesus teaches in these verses is focused on the way in which the eyes allow that which is outside of us to enter in. In that sense, again, the message shares with the whole topic of anxiousness. If the eyes are focused on the stuff, we become anxious about the stuff. If the eyes are focused on the kingdom, we are kept wholly aware that the King is our provider and as He is perfect we need not fear for our provision. The eye focused on the Light of heaven is well lit.
Having said that, I feel as though I am gaining some insight into the point behind Luke 11:36, which has struck me as an odd statement. Read as it is written, I would have to say it remains an odd statement. However, if I reverse the order somewhat, then I see some sense to it. That lamp which illumines so completely with its rays is the Christ, the Light of heaven. Only where that Light is the focus of they eyes can one expect the whole body to be so light-filled as to dispel every last dark corner. Indeed, of whom else is it said that there is not so much as a shadow of darkness in Him? Only God. Only God is so perfectly illuminated in His understanding and in His being. But, then, it is this very God Who indwells the believer! That light which so defines His being is within us as well. His Light shining inside the tent of our existence is able to dispel the darkness that we were grown accustomed to.
I must grant that the text we are given seems to set the cause and effect in the opposite order. Yet, to take it so simply leaves me with nothing but empty words. If you are completely filled with light then you are completely filled with light. That says nothing. But, if I take it as I have just suggested, that the light of the lamp is the Light of Christ, then this lamp shining in and within shall indeed dispel the shadows of sin and deceit. Then there is a point to be had from this verse. The Light must shine in, and for the Light to do so, our eyes must be looking to the Light. All those other things that lead us into anxiousness have turned our eyes away from heaven’s bright Son. As we turn away, the shadows increase. Turn too far and we have set ourselves in a spiritual eclipse. We must turn back. We must allow the Light to shine in.
But, then, there is an amazing transformation to be found. He Who shone in also moves in. He takes up His abode in that very inner space of ours which was once so full of darkness. The lamp that shone in now shines from within! How much better the illumination. Take the example of a room in your home. As the lamp of the sun arcs overhead, there is light to be had within that room. But, the full brightness of that light only touches upon a restricted portion, as the angle of the sun and the dimensions of the window allow. It is fleeting, as well. The light moves, and that which was lit just a short time ago finds itself once more in shadow. But, when the lamp in the room is turned on, it’s light spreads to every region of the room. Neither does it move about. The light remains so long as power flows.
Oh! Take that thought into your spirit! The Light remains so long as His power flows. The Light has declared that He shall make His home in you. He remains. He is inside. And where He is, there is no question of a power outage! His light does not fail. You are connected to the grid of heaven, and the power of heaven flows through you. Experience will make clear to us that we don’t always feel that power or sense it. But, it is ever present. Again, the analogy of the house will fit. Even were we to turn off every light, every appliance, the power to energize them all still remains. It is wired through the walls of the house, waiting to be put to work. The difference is that the Light of heaven is not waiting to be put to work. It is ever working, ever renewing our condition, ever revealing the shadowed places in order that we may deal with those places and remove the shadows once for all.
Now, consider: When Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their concern over outward appearances to the neglect of inward condition, He made a particular point. All the sins one might consider, whether covetousness, deceitfulness, envy or lust, pride or foolishness, all the things we rightly decry: These don’t come about from some outward influence entering in. However ever well we wash our hands, it will not change these things. However loudly we sing our hymns of a Sunday, the character is unchanged by our acts. You see, Jesus makes plain that all of these evils proceed from within (Mk 7:22-23). It’s what is inside that pours out. It’s what’s inside that defiles us, however carefully we try to disguise the outward expression. It truly is the thought that counts, and almost always to our detriment.
Tie this back to the matter of eyes and light. You have heard it said that the eyes are the window of the soul. Yes, and the eyes allow what they see in. They are the data ports, if you will, by which the soul gains its information so as to form opinions and beliefs. However, the reverse is also applicable. The eyes are most revealing as to what lies within. The eyes often express our true thoughts far more clearly than we would like to believe. We may put ever so civil a face on things, but the eyes are telegraphing our anger or our lust or our disbelief or our utter lack of interest. The eyes are the hardest things to disguise, because they really are windows onto the soul. They allow others to see in, and gain a glimpse of our inner condition.
Surely, all have encountered this. All have been in that place of talking to somebody and sensing from their eyes that they have completely shut you out. They are not listening, not comprehending a word you say, even though they look at you. Or the eyes that signal a certain anger or even hatred in spite of the suave civility in every other respect. Yes, or the eyes that smolder in rebellion even though no immediate action is taken. The eyes are most expressive of our truest emotions. It can work in the opposite way as well. The twinkling eye belies the seemingly bitter word. So much is lost when we lose eye contact during conversation. Arguably, it could be said that real communication cannot happen without the input of sight.
Now, I belabor this point because we are given another admonition by our Lord. “Let your light shine in such fashion that men will see your works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Mt 5:16). That light that shines from us can only be that Light which indwells us. That which is within must proceed from within. If all within remains darkness and sin, that is what will proceed, however well we try to dress it up. If what is within is the Light, then the Light must likewise be visible in our demeanor and in our actions.
This is the big thing: whatever is within will proceed from within. We can pretend to keep it bottled up and hidden away, but we only fool ourselves. Sadly, we are particularly adept at fooling ourselves. This is the next great concern I see expressed by Jesus in the present passage. “If the only light you have is really darkness, then you have the worst darkness.” That’s the NCV translation for Matthew 6:23. He is speaking to self-deception. He is speaking to self-righteousness, which is much the same thing. He is speaking to hypocrisy, which is the first step in self-deception. We fool ourselves into thinking our deeds are good, but fail to see that we have simply lowered the standards to suit our incapacity.
We are so busy trying to convince everybody else that we are better than we are that we start believing our own lies. The light we profess is just darkness. The good we think we are doing is evil. The righteousness we think we are practicing is filthy. It’s not real. There’s no center to it. It is devoid of any foundation. It is a hollow mockery that serves no good purpose.
I am also appreciative of the NLT once again, in reading these verses, which seems to be a common occurrence of late. “Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness” (Lk 11:35). Test it. Check in. Pray the dangerous prayer!
God, reveal my heart to me. Keep me mindful of the deceitfulness of my senses. Let me not fool myself. If I have been doing so, then wake me up! Correct me! Show me where I have been lying to myself, and let it be done away with. Open my ears once more to hear the loving rebuke without resentment. Crush the pride! How needful that is for me, my Jesus! How needful! All these years You have been with me, and still that pride issue remains. What will it take, Lord? Oh, I invite You to do what it takes. I request it of You! I need to be liberated from the shadows of pride, brought more fully into Your light. Why is it so hard for me to accept error in myself? Why so hard to admit and apologize. Ever there is the excuse, the reasoning, however faulty. Lord! Enough! Reveal the shadows and cast them out! Let Your Light shine more fully in me and from me. Let there be in me that which reveals Your work, that which leads to Your being glorified by those who see me, those who know me. If You are not pleased, what reason do I have to be pleased? No, but cut through the deceptions of my heart and mind, Holy Spirit, and let Your Truth be more fully established.
Sin is ever deceptive, it is true. We are entirely too inclined to think better of ourselves than we ought. We are all to some extent that rich young ruler who came to Jesus insisting, “I’ve been doing all that. I’ve kept the Law!” We are all wrong. But, there is a darker, sadder truth to consider as well, and that is the fact that some, many even, who think themselves lit by God’s Truth are in truth wholly deceived and remain in darkness even now. “If the only light in you is darkness, now complete the darkness!” If you think yourself possessed of saving knowledge, but it is only the deceitfulness of sin, how terrible your fate.
This is the story of those who ‘went out from us, but they were not of us’ (1Jn 2:19). They looked the part. Indeed, they thought themselves advanced beyond their fellows in these matters of righteousness. But such light as they had was truly darkness, and such light as they proclaim is darkness. How many suffer this disease! How many today are chasing after false faith, even as they claim to be Christians. How many so-called Christians worship some idol whom they call Jesus, but who is not Jesus at all. They have assigned to their idol-Jesus all manner of beliefs that the Son of God never proclaimed nor ever will. They have fashioned their god-conception upon their own tastes rather than shaping their tastes to the God Who Is. They think themselves ever so enlightened, but in Truth, they sit in deep darkness. It is all the darker for being mistaken for light.
But, understand this, as well: We are not being given an excuse. If our eye is not single and clear, that is no excuse. If we are distracted and looking the wrong way, that is no excuse. We are responsible for our condition, however helpless we may be apart from the Christ. “Watch out that the light in you is not darkness!” Take care! Take charge! Be on the lookout! Seek Him over and over again, praying the dangerous prayers. Invite Him to show you where you really stand. Indeed, don’t even bother with the “if there be any wicked way in me.” That’s not in question. There is. Let us resort instead to the prayer of knowledge, “reveal the wickedness and change my heart, O God!” That’s the only way it’s going to get dealt with, is if He does the changing. Unless He replaces that stony heart of mine with a heart of flesh, unless He takes the step of deeply engraving His ways upon my heart, I shall inevitably continue in my error. Yet, never with an excuse for continuing so; it remains my own error and my own choice to continue in it.
So, watch out! Check your belief. Check your conceptions of who God is. Make sure the One you worship is He Who has revealed Himself to us in Scripture. Make sure that as you worship Him Who made you, you do not attempt to pick and choose from amongst His many attributes. Don’t play the game of loving the God of Love, but hating the Jealous God. Don’t presume to worship the God of Mercy all the while rejecting the God of Holiness. He is all that He is, and if we would worship Him in spirit and in truth, then we have no choice, really, but to worship all that He is. Make sure the light is Light.
