February 16

Text: Matthew 6:22-24

"The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!  No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (NASB)

The only means for admitting light into our body is the eyes.  In a real way, the eye controls the movements of a seer’s body.   For example, neither the fingers, nor the hands, the arms, the feet, or the legs question the eyes.  In an instant, the eye tells the brain its assessment of a situation and makes a recommendation.  In a millisecond the brain relays the eyes’ recommendation to arms or legs or both.  With total confidence in the eyes, the legs, feet, arms, and hands act immediately.

In Palestine of 2000 years ago, corrective procedures on eyes or corrective equipment for eyes did not exist.  Only did the body rebel against the eyes if the eyes demonstrated they were not dependable.  For the sighted, the guidance system for body movements disappeared if the eyes failed to function.  In the first century, one went from productive functionality to limited functionality as sight failed.  As sight turned to blindness, the body’s ability to function diminished.

With this illustration of the eyes’ importance to body movement, Jesus focused his listeners on the importance of a person’s guidance system for living.  He focused their attention on an impossibility they clearly understood (more so than we).  The understood fact: no one can serve two masters.  To be a successful master, the master must control his servant.  A servant cannot give true allegiance to two controlling forces.  Today we refer to those guaranteed conflicts as “conflicts of interests.”

The issue: What is the # 1 consideration in all situations?  What is the actual foundation of our lives?

Suggestion for reflection: What controls who you are and what you do?  Why?  (Read Galatians 1:10.)