A Personal Devotional Journal

I invite you to journey with me. Sometimes we will look at short passages of Scripture and I will give my first thoughts and impressions. Other times, I will just share my thinking about spiritual issues. Always, you are welcome to comment and add your thoughts. Together, we could learn something.

Monday, April 26, 2010

"How Great The Darkness" Matthew 6:22-23

“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!"

Jesus is on a theme here that His Jewish listeners at the time may have grasped more quickly than modern Westerners.  The last section talked about where are hearts are in relation to our treasures.  This section talks about eyes and light and darkness, but in a sense, they are talking about the same concept.


The Jewish listener would have understood that this wasn't actually talking about eyes and literal darkness and light.  This was a common metaphor.  It is talking about spiritual vision and internal realities.  Good correct clear spiritual vision brings light, and impaired or clouded vision leads to darkness. 


There is a very real sense in which our spiritual vision, our understanding of God, our intimacy and relationship with Jesus, determines the outcome and direction of our lives.  No matter what our head-knowledge of Bible stuff is, if our internal reality is spiritually confused, "How great the darkness!"

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