2006-01-22 Communion Dedication – Baldwin Christian Church
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!
How does my eye become evil? Jesus is saying that my eye should be single, or uncomplicated. This is a good parallel with His teaching in chapter 18, where He says that I will not enter into the kingdom of heaven unless I change my ways and become as a little child; simple and humble, with an eye that’s single.
In Mark chapter 7, Jesus lists the wicked things that come out of the heart of man, and “an evil eye” is on that list (verse 22), so the evil eye is not caused by the darkness around me; rather the evil eye is but a symptom of the darkness that exists within me. For me to have “an evil eye” is not simply my “having an eye for” the sins on that list; the evil eye is one of the sins on that list. Jesus said that the light within the body can be darkness, so this teaching has something to do with false light.
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
My eye becomes evil when I begin to see everything as being complicated.
2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
God made everything good; God made it simple. Just as Adam and Eve became convinced that things should be more complicated than God intended, the false light; the dark light; that old imitator, the serpent tries to convince us that we’re more important than we really are, and this attitude manifests itself in some not-so-obvious ways.
My eye becomes evil when I conclude that the world around me is so bad, so dangerous, that I begin to look at everything in a negative manner, and I feel the need to always be on guard with other people. After all, if I were to go out on a limb and be trusting or friendly toward other people, bad things might happen to me. My feelings might get hurt, someone might take advantage of me, and well, I sure can’t afford to take chances like that. I have a life, and I don’t want to allow anyone too much freedom around me.
This attitude might keep me out of trouble, and it might even keep me safe, but the problem is that I’m allowing the world to dictate whether I’ll have a positive or negative outlook, whether I’ll be an optimist or a pessimist, and as a result, the attitude I have at this moment depends on how life is treating me at this moment: in a word, that’s complicated. I’m not speaking about the “power of positive thinking”. I’m speaking about the singleness of vision that God wants for us, the eye that sees Jesus in everything; the lamp that’s not hidden under a bushel.
Whenever I allow my perceptions, my understanding to govern my attitude toward people, the flesh has become my master. Whenever I allow my attitude to be controlled by the things I see and hear, I have become a slave to my flesh. If I let my flesh win, I might as well be throwing cold water on the Spirit that Jesus died to give me. You have the freedom and the power to let your natural senses dictate your attitude today if you want it to, but what happens then?
Was Peter’s eye single when he climbed out of the boat and began walking toward Jesus (Matthew 14:29-30)? What happened to him when his eye began to wander away from Jesus?
1 John 1:5-7 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.