Matthew 6:22-23 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
Of all the wonderfully useful features of the human body, the eye stands as the crown jewel of the Creator. Its attributes and uses are endless, giving humanity the means to navigate both the body and the soul. The Hebrew mind taught what we still recognize today. The eye is far more than the optical organ. It is the gateway to the soul.
In leadership circles, we look for those who will look you in the eye, a person with a good eye for a deal, one with the vision to see around corners and catch what others miss. We treat the way a man sees as both a detection system and a predictor. Scripture treats it the same way. Psalm 119:37 says, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.” Proverbs 22:9 reads, “Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.” The bountiful eye in Hebrew is literally the good eye, the foundational idiom for generosity in the wisdom literature.
The Greek word Jesus chose in verse 22 is haplous. It means single, undivided, without folds, and carries two meanings at once. Single-minded loyalty in one direction, and generous open-handedness as the financial expression of that loyalty. The healthy gaze is both. And it makes sense in the context of the fuller view of the Sermon on the Mount. When we have fully come to appreciate that our daily bread comes from a loving Father and He will always provide for us, that healthy gaze will naturally produce a generous giving spirit. The inverse is also true. A view not on the Father but on our own ability to provide will naturally allow distraction, hoarding, and a stingy view of our resources.
Tucked between the warning about treasures and the warning about the two masters, we have this caution of where it all starts: the eye. See where a person points their gaze. Their feet will soon follow. You see it, you desire it, your heart moves, you chase it. That is the James 1:13-15 progression. It has been the human story since the garden.
In motorcycling and car racing circles, it is called target fixation. Your hands will always follow what your eyes are fixated on. Even right into a ditch. Years ago, I was on a motorcycle trip with some friends, riding the twisties between West Virginia and Ohio. The rider following me was newer, so we put him in the middle of the pack to help him see the lines of the more experienced guys. We approached a technically difficult downhill blind switchback. The kind of corner where your head has to turn almost 180 degrees to your left to see the exit. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him cross behind me, heard him crash, and then saw his body in the air. Fortunately, he walked away with only a small fracture in his leg. The bike was toast. As we stopped to help him, his first words hit for all of us. “I took my eye off the road and watched the ditch.”
Our eyes are our navigation tools, and Jesus names only two ways of using them. When the gaze is healthy and fixed on Jesus, the body is full of light. When it is bad and fixed on something else, the body is full of darkness. The eye does not choose what to absorb. It absorbs whatever it has been fixed upon.
Verse 23 provides the if-then example we see throughout Scripture. “If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Spurgeon would have called this one of the most fearful sentences in all of Scripture. The man in the dark who knows he is in the dark can still cry out for help. The man whose lamp has gone out and does not know it has no idea he needs anything at all. That is the horror.
Yesterday’s challenge was to look at what your bank account and calendar say about your desires. Today’s cold hard challenge is to ask yourself, where are you setting your gaze? The gateway to the soul can be trained to guide as easily as it can be distracted.
What will you willingly turn from today?
Where will you fix your gaze?
Stay on Mission
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