Lesson Eight • Laying up Treasures in Heaven
Devotion 4: Earthly Vision
Pastor John Carter
“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!” Matthew 6:22-23
As Jesus continues to disrupt our comfortable, temporary state of mind when it comes to our finances, He seems to shift the subject to the way we see things. Ironically, they are both related. Yesterday, we walked through the eternal versus the temporary. Jesus is going to address a very similar aspect of life only in a different metaphor, light versus darkness. Maybe a better way to say it is what we allow to be seen through our eyes. Jesus starts off by making a very direct and factual statement. “The eye is the lamp of the body.” Yesterday, we were seriously disrupted by the way our hearts clearly miss priorities by choosing temporary things over eternal things. Jesus is continuing His teaching on the heart. It is the motive, if you will, of how we view others in this world. It is how we view sin and how we view God. This whole week, Jesus is challenging our view on finances and how oftentimes we allow the temporary comfort of money to lead us away from the things of God. We allow it to lead us into sin.
Jesus is teaching us to examine the way we see things. This is not a new concept in Scripture. In Deuteronomy 15:7-9, Moses writes, “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin.”
This passage in Deuteronomy fits perfectly with what Jesus is teaching in Matthew chapter 6. You see it mentioned twice as the aspect of the heart. He says, not to “harden your heart” against the poor and needy.” He then adds, do not have “an unworthy thought in your heart” against your poor or needy brother. This is fitting for the previous three days of devotions. Now, I want to focus on the part that talks about the eye, “Your eye look[s] grudgingly on your poor brother.” This is talking about the way we allow our hearts to be influenced by the way we look at or see others. If you know someone will not be required to repay you, do not choose to look down on that person and refuse to offer the finances to help them with their needs. This is a sin according to the Bible. In 1 John 3:16-18, we see it said another way, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
John is teaching us to mimic the behavior of Jesus and the Father. They are One. The challenge today is to not let only what we can see be the determining factor in how we help others. We have already talked about the reliance on money for our own security, now we are challenged to examine how we can help others in the family of God. John, like Deuteronomy, is challenging us to not close our hearts against our fellow brothers or sister in Christ. John actually takes it a step further. Just like Jesus gave His life for us, John tells us to be willing to give our life for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Do you feel uncomfortable yet? John goes the extra mile to say that we are not doing this with just our words or talk, but with our actions. This can feel very uncomfortable.
Ephesians 4:17-19 says, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”
The biblical message to not walk in darkness (sin) is pretty evident. We see over and over again the connection to all of this is our heart. This is a serious message that we, the church, need to examine on all levels. Do we make temporary things more important than eternal things? Are we allowing the darkness of sin to cloud our vision of the heavenly things?
Jesus, in Matthew chapter 6, continues to show us the sin that we allow to cloud our vision, “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!” The sin of partiality and greed is mentioned in James. It is actually talked about throughout all of Scripture. It is what Jesus is trying to teach us regarding how we treat the brothers and sisters that are less fortunate. It is how we sin against the Creator of humanity. We allow our earthly vision to take over and make sinful judgments against other brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul talks about this darkness in Acts 26:15-18, “And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles – to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’”
We see in Paul’s story, Jesus Himself expounds on the teaching in Matthew chapter 6. The darkness is sin. How great is that darkness in you? Recognizing that our earthly vision is clouded by sinfulness is important to understand as we allow Jesus to disrupt our earthly vision. In Acts, we see Jesus expounding on the power of God to turn us from darkness to light. We can receive the heavenly treasure of forgiveness and the sanctification that comes through faith in Jesus. We need to be willing to allow the Light of Heaven (Jesus) to open our eyes to start seeing things with heavenly eyes versus earthly eyes. It is to see things with a healthy eye that lets the full light in.
Today, consider if you need to approach someone you have made harsh judgments against. It could be for whatever reason. Maybe they dress differently than you, look different than you, or are poorer than you. Do not let a day go by where you are allowing your vision to be clouded with the darkness of the world and sin. Jesus may be opening your eyes to an area in your life you have not allowed the light of Heaven to shine on. Maybe it is greed or the desire and pursuit of money. Maybe you have neglected your family (children) and justified it with financial aspects and gains. Ask God to open your eyes to see with full 20/20 vision the things He has called you to change. Correct the unhealthy eye and be moved to see with the full light. I am going to go deal with my own disruption that God is causing. Be blessed!