Communion service/The good and bad eye

I read a book on Drawing, when I was younger when I was interested in drawing.

The book was called, “Drawing from the right side of the brain,” by Bette Davis.

She made a statement in the book I believe that went something like this.

“drawing is not a mechanical skill but a skill of seeing.”

And that is the spiritual Life. The spiritual life is a life in response to what the eye of the heart sees. Our thoughts our motives our actions are all governed by what goes into the eye gate and into the ear gate, the eye and the ear are paths to the heart where understanding and decisions are made.

Today I was going to go back to the disciple’s prayer in the light of where we are in the world today but decided to continue with the morning worship call message from Friday.

Jesus is giving his sermon on the mount. This entire section after the beatitudes began with

Matthew 5:20 (NASB95) — 20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

There were none so pious and at the same time so corrupt as the Pharisees and the Scribes. The Pharisees were hyper legalist. A legalist is like a Lawyer who seeks to find loop holes to get their client’s acquitted from being prosecuted.

The Pharisees were so good at it, that they themselves may have had no guilt issues, thinking that they were so right God.

In the sermon on the mount the Lord warns his listeners that their righteousness will have to surpass the pseudo righteous of the Pharisees to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

By practice the Pharisee Possessed earthly wealth. Ill-gotten gain. We won’t go through the practices of the pharisees at this time of how they would extort monies.

They were in the practice of sexual impropriety. Divorcing their wives so that they could freely take another of their choice, again manipulating the Law to remain in good graces with God and the people.

The Pharisees had one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom. But in reality, they were all in the world. The Eye of their Body did not lead them into the kingdom but into eternal Judgment.

Jesus in his sermon who says to the people.

Matthew 6:23 (NASB95) — 23 “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

The Eye ὀφθαλμός [ophthalmos /of·thal·mos/] n m.

It is used both in the literal sense which is the organ that allows one through that gate to observe the physical world around him

It is also used in a spiritual sense in perception or understanding. It deals with knowledge or wisdom.

Paul speaks of the Eyes of the Heart.

Ephesians 1:18 (NASB95) — 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

When it comes to spiritual matters it is the eye that must be permitted to see by God and forms a blessing to extent that God has invited the eyes of that which one had been blinded to be opened and to see God’s glory.

Thus, the spiritual life is not a mechanical skill. It is about seeing. It is about perceiving the glory God and then responding to His glorious nature.

As with the stranger on the road to Emmaus. These men did not know this man who walked with them was the resurrected Christ until this man opened the eyes of his heart.

Luke 24:30–31 (NASB95) — 30 When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.

John the Baptist was given a sight of the heaven’s opening up and Stephen who was being stoned looked into heaven to see the son of man standing next to the father’s throne.

Matthew 6:22 (NASB95) — 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body;

6.104 λαμπάςb, άδος f; λύχνος, ου m: a light made by burning a wick saturated with oil contained in a relatively small vessel—‘lamp.’

A lamp to the body.

σῶμαa, τος n: the physical body of persons, animals, or plants, either dead or alive[1]

The body is the housing of the two immaterial parts that make up a person the soul and the spirit. Where the natural man is dictated by the vision with regard to his body and his functioning within the world. At regeneration however, one now has a spirit that is alive and with a vision that sees the body as a vessel of honor to do God’s will.

It is the revelation of God which then is given to the one whose eyes have been made to see that now develops that seeing in order to direct the course of one’s life.

Psalm 119:105 (NASB95) — 105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

Jesus begins with IF which is a first class condition

If the eye is Clear

ἁπλοῦς, ῆ, οῦν (Att. contr.; Aeschyl., Thu.+)

pert. to being motivated by singleness of purpose so as to be open and aboveboard, single, without guile, sincere, straightforward i.e. without a hidden agenda

the eye being the eye of the heart or the mind if you will, becomes that which is guided by the reality of the revelation within one’s thinking. It Is the believer who is inculcated with the word of truth in the empowerment of the spirit to see not only the world around him but in perspective of the spiritual reality. This believer is not guided by the dictates of the world around him but by the word which opens the eyes of his heart.

The clear-eyed believer sees all from the prism of the spiritual reality which guides his life.

Such a man or woman becomes odd to others. I say odd in the fact that while those in his or her periphery are dictated by that which they only see with their secular eyes viewing that which is around them it is the odd one who sees clearly and whose life is following what the eyes of the heart sees.

I was just asked by a man the question

“If I am truly saved, why am I so miserable.”

I replied, “apart from being clinically depressed, that assuming that you are sound mind, the problem is the ability to see. You see the world with your physical eyes, you see your own personal condition and in that perspective. God has given your eyes to see him and to look perceptively as God’s plan for you and for his kingdom to come, but the eyes of your heart are only fixed upon this world and the things of this world and your current condition. These things are more reality to you than the things of God.

While the physical eye focus’ intently on one thing everything else goes out of focus. To focus on the world means that the things of God goes out of focus. To focus on the God and the things of God everything else goes out of focus.

The focal point must be on God and the things of God.

Focus on

1. God’s person

2. God’s son

3. God’s plan

4. God’s work

5. Our position in relation to who God is

6. God’s promises

7. God’s way

Jesus said later in our passage on the sermon on the mount

Matthew 7:13–14 (NASB95) — 13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Why do so few ever find it. Because with an unclear eye they cannot see the clearly the path that must be taken.

If your focal point is right on. Your eye is good, then the result will be that your direction will be firmly set and your body will be good that is under the dictates of the Sovereign lord walking in the way that is honoring to the Lord.

Matthew 6:23 (NASB95) — 23 “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

Let us take the next condition of If

If this is true

πονηρός [poneros/pon·ay·ros/] adj[2]

to being morally or socially worthless, wicked, evil, bad, base, worthless, vicious, degenerate

another point you might want to observe is a the adjective

ὅλοςb, η, ον: a totality as a complete unit—‘whole, complete, entire.’

Being holy perfect or complete is totality, there is not percentage or almost in the light.

There is no grey area to the spiritual life.

Let’s take the first case in failure in the bible and that must be Issah standing before the tree in the garden having a conversation in the garden with the serpent.

The woman may have had her heart on God knowing His sovereignty, veracity, His righteousness his goodness. When our hearts are focused upon the Lord everything else is out of focus. But what Satan does is cause the woman to change her focus.

Genesis 3:1–5 (NASB95) — 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LordGod had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Once the serpent got her to change focus taking off God was able to focus more intently on that which was right before her what her physical eyes could see.

Genesis 3:6–7 (NASB95) — 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

The physical eyes could have experienced their nakedness was that they did not know prior that they were naked?

No. their consciences were awoken and their guilt was exposed.

The two put on fig leaves in order to hide their guilt and shame. And if that satisfied them then they would have been left in their condemnation.

But God showed them something different. He showed them the terribleness of their salvation. In front of their eyes they put an innocent animal to death. At least two of them one for the man and one for the woman. The sacrifices were accompanied by the revelation of a redeemer.

The two had a choice. Will they live according to what they see in this world, tainted with sin and evil, being directed by their own sinful hearts

Or

Will they be directed by what they see in the light of God’s revelation.

Every day we make choices. The decisions we make and how we live is conditioned on our eyesight.

If our perception is bad then we make wrong decisions from a position of weakness.

Where the church has gone wrong is that they have left their first love, they have like the pharisees made a business venture out of church and the people are left with one foot in the world trying to get their spiritual footing but unable to.

It is not until we become focused completely upon the Lord and as we learn to look properly at our one true God who created the heavens and the earth and in response bow a knee to him our lives will be left in the darkness for God is light and in him there is no darkness.

This very day. Yesterday is Gone. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, but today is our day to respond to the grace of God to honor God with our best.

[1]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains(electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 92). United Bible Societies. [2]Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.