The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 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! (Matthew 6:22-23)
I used to have this cool flashlight. It had several modes to it. It could throw red light, it could throw green light, it could strobe, it could even flash SOS signals. You know, the only thing it didn’t do well was throw normal, clear, steady light.
Which, of course, was the only thing I really needed it to do.
Yeah…I got rid of that flashlight.
In the last several verses, Jesus has been telling his people to be the real deal. He calls us to forgive truly, to serve honestly, and to spend our strength on real treasure. In order to do that, we need to see things for what they are. We need the pure light of Christ pouring into us, filling us and showing us what is right and good and true and godly.
If our eyes are good–if we are seeing things as God sees them–the Light of the World will shine in us and through us and from us. If our eyes are bad–if we are seeing things as the World sees them–well, our Enemy masquerades as an angel of light, does he not?
But his light is not light at all. It is darkness.
I wonder, if Jesus were speaking this lesson today, if he might have used the analogy of a window instead of a lamp. His audience did not have glass windows to let in light, but we do. If the glass is clean and clear, the light can shine in full and bright. If the glass is covered with dirt and grime, the light is diminished and the view is distorted. Just a thought.
Light your lamp. Clean your windows. Let the Light in today.
Happy Thursday, Beloved.