An interesting comparison is given in Matthew 6:22-24, if we take it literally one may think blind people are being dismissed. Clearly, this is not what Jesus is saying. So let’s look at it from a figurative point of view. Specifically how it relates to our focus.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. In the dark, we can only see as far as the lamp illuminates. Just as we can only see as far as we give our attention to. In many cases, people have their eyes pointed at what they are truly focused on. In other words, what catches our eye is essentially illuminated to us.
If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. If our focus is righteous, then the life we live will also be righteous. Or full of light as he puts it.
But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. It goes both ways, if our focuses are unrighteous, the life we live will become unrighteous, or full of darkness.
If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! I looked up what is meant by "great" in this context to be certain. “How great” in the original Greek, as I suspected refers to quantity not quality. How much darkness does it take to completely blot out the spark of life that is our soul? A great amount indeed.
“No one can serve two masters. This sentence is so associated with the following two that we often forget the broader implications of serving light versus serving darkness. God in his goodness cannot abide with us if we dwell in darkness. So focusing on darkness can by default make us a servant of darkness If we let it flow through our hearts, rather than simply trying to better understand what we are up against. Therein lies the caveat. Some take this to such an extreme we are clueless about who we are helping, and what we are helping them from. Making our outreach ineffective.
Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. Our love and devotion cannot be split or watered down in any way. It is essentially spiritual adultery to think otherwise.
You cannot serve both God and money.” Jesus qualifies this idea with a very specific example, not that it only applies to this example. But it must have been a very common one back then, and let’s face it, it still is.
What you focus on you effectively worship.
What you worship you eventually become.
One does not have to engage in a formal ritual to worship something. One merely has to look to it as a source of hope, wholeness, and fulfillment.
If you look to the world or some specific aspect of it for that hope you will become more like it. We observe this with the worldly all the time.
While it’s easy to say that is why we need to worship and focus on God. But are we worshipping what we truly know fully? (John 4:22) Or only the parts of God we find favorable. For example, some worship only the hand of obedience and discipline. This is how they rationalize their judgmental arrogance, pride, and lack of humility. Some only worship the hand of love and forgiveness. This is how they rationalize their lack of righteousness and spiritual immaturity. Perhaps this is why scripture says to seek his face, not his hand. A poetic way of saying to seek who he is truly is as a living sentient being. Instead of just what we can get out of him. Holiness is modeled after his very character after all. (1st Peter 1:16) Hence by worshiping him completely, we become more like him. That is why we need to seek to understand him deliberately and with focus. Otherwise, we may end up worshipping a distorted picture in our head that isn’t truly God-like at all.
“Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.” -Psalms 105:4
See also 1st Chronicles 16:11, 2nd Chronicles 7:14, Psalm 24:6, 27:8, Hosea 5:15
The spirit realm is a multiplier, what we focus on is ultimately what we are multiplying?
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” -Ephesians 3:20-21
It’s really easy to read the above verse and just dismiss it as flowery and poetic words and never really consider the implications. It says he can act in our lives. according to his power that works in us. Yet the language is not simply stating an X amount of effort, yields an X amount of result. The exact words are "immeasurably more." Is this what Jesus meant by “. . . Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” In Matthew 17:20b. Or “. . . The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” In Matthew 13:33b
It’s so easy to get fixated on the mountain before us. It can seem so daunting that we forget about the power we have behind us, what he really expects of us, and how little that really is in comparison to the actual mountain, and the God who multiplies our sincere actions.
So I close by asking you this, what are you truly focused on in this life full of distractions? What do you truly worship in a world full of virtual idols? What are those things ultimately multiplying for you?
The Visual PARABLEist
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| “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” -Psalms 119:105 |
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