22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 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 (ESV)
Seeing true treasure
Jesus has just shared about true treasure and summarized by telling us that where our treasure is is the same place our heart (our affections) is. You might even say, it’s where our focus is. Now He gives us more teaching to help us see clearly (pun intended) what He’s saying.
“When the eye is directed singly and steadily towards an object, and is in health, or is single, everything is clear and plain. If it [cannot focus on one object], or is diseased, nothing is seen clearly.” (Barnes’ commentary) So spiritually, if our spiritual eye (what I would call our faith in action) is good, we will be able to focus on the important things, the heavenly things.
Peter on the water
What comes to mind by way of a practical example is Peter walking on water. Matthew will later relate the account in Matthew 14:22-33. The disciples saw Jesus walking on water. Bold Peter challenges Jesus to prove Himself and allow Peter to walk on water. Jesus beckons Peter. Peter steps out of the boat, staring at Jesus, and walks on water in like manner. You’d say his eye is healthy or clear. But then he takes his eyes off Jesus, looks at the wind and waves and begins to sink. A cry for help later Jesus saves him.
Double vision
But what if your eye is bad, sick, or diseased? It affects our vision. Maybe it has double vision. “If the eye of thy soul be diseased, so that earthly treasurers appear to it better than heavenly, “how great is that darkness!”” (Family commentary) If our faith in action is bad or weak, our focus will be blurred or even, to Jesus’ point, look at the wrong things, the earthly things. We’ll see them as treasure, whereas heaven is where our real treasure is.
RЯeflection
- How’s your spiritual vision? Is it focused on heavenly or earthly things? You can know by where your treasure is. If it’s in earthly things, you’re focusing on the wrong thing.
