IT’S A CLUE
In a mystery movie, the screenwriter spatters clues along the way, but it’s only when we watch more of the story, that we flesh out the clues and the whole story comes together to make sense—mystery solved. The Bible is like that. I’m reading the gospel of Matthew now, and there are so many passages along the way that are like those clues in a movie, and I don’t fully understand their meaning. When that happens, I go to a Concordance to start to flesh out what God is really saying. A Concordance gives me the fuller definition of the original language before it was translated into English. Here’s an example, with Matthew 6:22-24.
22 “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23 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!
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
The first word I looked up was “light” in verse 22. In the original language, it is a portable candle, one that can be lit, or it can go out. The next word I looked at was “eye.” Here it used metaphorically, of ethical qualities.
The candle guiding us is our ethical qualities – our moral standards. Our moral or ethical standards guide our whole body. The “body” is the whole man—body and soul. What we do with our body and soul is maneuvered by our moral standards.
In the second part of verse 22, what does it mean, “if thine eye be single “? The word single means simple, clear, in which there is nothing complicated or confused; without folds (not double-minded). Jesus was saying that if our eyes (ethical qualities) are clear and not jumbled, our “whole body will be full of light.” People think they can take some standards from the Bible, some from Buddhism, some from Hinduism, or Islam, or New Age, or situational ethics, but if those standards don’t jive with what the God of the Bible says, there’s going to be double standards, ethical difficulties, and a confused, jumbled mess. Granted, a person needs to understand what the Bible actually says, and not just blindly believe what’s “always” been taught. Asking questions is perfectly okay with our God, and there are plenty of verses documenting that.
The first part of Matthew 6, verse 23 goes on to say: “But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.” The word “eye” is again ethical qualities. The word “evil” is “the Evil one,” so this is saying that if a person’s ethics are inspired and motived or manipulated by the evil one, Satan, then the intent is “wicked, actively bad, actively causing sorrow or pain.” They are actively “bringing toil, hardships, annoyances, and trouble.”
If moral codes are so deranged, the whole self is going to be full of darkness. “Full of darkness” is translated from one word that means covered in darkness, like a tent. Things are opaque; vision is blinded. Actions are shady and shadowy. There is “ignorance respecting divine things and human duties.” People whose moral standards begin to deteriorate, become prey to the Evil one’s ethics, or lack thereof. They become “persons in whom darkness becomes visible and holds sway.”
And the last part of verse 23 says: “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” The word “light” in this part of the verse means the light of God. If that gets compromised, the darkness gets “great,” which means great in number, magnitude, and degree.
God has the antidote to going to the dark side. It’s in the next verse, Matthew 6:24: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
The word “hate” doesn’t mean what we think it does. In this verse, it’s a relative preference. It means a person prefers one over another. He or she cares about serving the interests of one rather than the other, for whatever reason. A straightforward analysis would be if a person has two jobs, two bosses, and both want the person to work on the same Saturday. The worker can’t do both, so he or she analyses the pros and cons, and picks one.
When Jesus says: “He will hold to the one, and despise the other,” it means he’ll “hold fast to, cleave to” one, and not really think much of the other. To “despise” means to” think less of, disdain, to look down on.”
We can’t be disciples (disciplined ones) of the Lord and get all the benefits of God if we play in the devil’s sandbox. The consequences just aren’t worth it.
Let’s come to the feet of our merciful God and learn what it means to truly surrender all to Him.
Love, Carolyn
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