“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light." (Matthew 6:22 NLT)
I always used to view this passage with a lot of ambiguity. Whether I read it on my own, or in the context of a bible study with other believers I'd always be left saying, "Ok Jesus, so you're telling me to make sure my eyes are good? Thanks that's really descriptive and helpful...(sarcastic tone)." But apparently it was a miscommunication (I've been learning a lot about these as I've been on the road to marriage, but that's another post). It looks like God had an intention that was clearly explained and everything I wanted and needed to know from the passage was always there. I just didn't take the time to find it.
I never knew this, did you?:
In the conditional phrase "when your eye is good," the word for "good" in the King James Version is "single." I looked it up and the original Greek word is haplous which apparently means simple, single, whole, good fulfilling it's office, or sound.
So how does this affect the application of the passage? Well, we could retranslate it to say something like, "Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is simple and whole (focused on one thing, the thing that it was designed to focus on, which fulfills its office), your whole body is filled with light. (Matthew 6:22 NLT)
So what do we focus on? If you've been indoctrinated, in any sense of the word, to Christian culture, the answer might have blurted out of your mouth already, "Well, Jesus of course!" And to that I respond with a resounding, "Yes! You're right!" Here's another question? What is the context and how does it affect our understanding and application?
“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be."(Matthew 6:19-21 NLT)
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“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?" (Matthew 6:24-25 NLT)
So the in the context, Jesus is preaching about money, and more generally possessions and the idols of this world. The good news is that it appears that Jesus' call to us is not so much about picking up some new command (spending time worrying about whether our eyes are good), but rather it's about letting go and living singlemindedly on the kingdom. Simply, in the Freedom of Simplicity....
How about that?
