No one can serve two Masters

Matthew 6:22-24

a. The eye must love the light (6:22)

b. The eye must hate the darkness (6:23-24)

1. INTRODUCTION

2. BODY

a. The eye must love the light (6:22)

i. Again, the theme throughout chapter 6 is the heart. Jesus has been speaking about the heart in how we live our lives. He outlines that all throughout the chapter and talks about the treasures on earth and we went over that. Verse 21 makes this point abundantly clear where Jesus says, for where your treasure is, your heart will be also.

ii. The purpose of Chapter 6 is Jesus speaking to our heart. With that said, Jesus speaks in verse 22. It seems odd here that Jesus is speaking about the heart but then suddenly talks about the eye. The vast majority of commentators have understood Mt 6:22–3 to mean that the eyes are like a window: light enters the body through the eye. But I don’t believe that to be correct. Jesus is not talking about the eye per se, because He’s been talking about the heart as in verse 21. So what does the eye have to do with anything? Well, Jesus explains it. He says if your eye is clear, then your body will be full of light.

1. From this explanation of what He is talking about the eye, he makes an interesting connection. He says if your eye is clear, interestingly enough, this word can also mean single. It might be good to combine both meanings. If it is clear and single, if there is a clear singular view in mind, then your whole body will be full of light.

2. We can see here that eye means a lot more than just our eyes. It’s the means in which our whole body is filled, full of light. We understand through Jesus’s statement, that eyes can refer to the main theme at hand, the heart. Jesus is using the eye to talk about our heart. We hear things like the eyes of our heart. Where do we hear this phrase, the eyes of our heart?

3. I know we hear it in a song, “Open the eyes of my heart Lord.” It was not coined by Paul Baloche, but rather, it was coined by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:18. In Ephesians 1:18, Paul prays that the church at Ephesus would have the eyes of their heart enlightened, exactly the same phrase that Jesus is saying here.

4. We want to examine what the heart and eyes have to do with one another. Jesus says in Mark 8:17 and asks an interesting question. There the context is dealing with feeding the four thousand. As He fed them, the Pharisees came to Him asking for a sign from Heaven to test Him (8:11). So Jesus responds why do you need a sign? Then He leaves them and as they leave, the disciples go to grab bread because they didn’t have any food to eat as they were embarking to the other side. So Jesus tells them, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.

a. What Jesus was referring here to the leaven of the Pharisees is talking about their influence. It’s interesting to see that Jesus had just miraculously fed the four thousand and what do the disciples do in verse 14? In verse 14, it tells us that they had forgotten to take bread. As soon as Jesus mentions in verse 15 about the leaven, the only thing they could talk about was the fact that they had no bread.

b. When Jesus tells them in verse 15, to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, He was openly rebuking them and teaching them, don’t be influenced by the Pharisees. What was the challenge they wanted to bring against Jesus? The fact that they desired to see a sign. But what had just happened? Jesus had shown them a miracle, a sign to show that He is who He says He is. But because of their blindness, they could not see and believe that He truly was the Messiah.

c. When we think about the context of what is happening here in Mark, verse 16 is the kicker. It tells us that they began to discuss with one another that they had no bread. They had just witnessed the miracle of Jesus feeding them which is why He asks them in verse 17, wait, didn’t you see that I made bread out of nothing? Notice in verse 14, it says that they did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. The disciples were talking amongst each other about how they don’t have bread, and yet Jesus had shown that with one loaf of bread, He could feed four thousand people. This is what leads Jesus to ask them, do you not yet see or understand? Then the question which is key, “Do you have a hardened heart?”

d. This is the key question. They had just seen that Jesus performed this miracle and His question to them was, Do you have a hardened heart? It’s clearly seen here that if our hearts are hardened, no matter how many miracles we see, we can’t believe. Which is why in verse 18, Jesus says, having eyes, do you not see? This is quoting Psalm 115 but it’s understood here that the eyes of the heart must be enlightened, that we could believe.

e. So who opens the eyes of the Heart? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:10, that God reveals these truths through the Spirit. The Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 2:13, that they must be taught by the Spirit and then in verse 14, says that a natural man can’t understand these things unless they are Spiritually taught.

iii. When we examine what Jesus is speaking about here, we can quickly understand that clearly Jesus is speaking about the heart. If the eyes of your heart are clear, if your heart is clear, if you have a single-minded devotion, then your whole body will be full of light.

iv. What’s interesting as well here is that the word for clear can mean generous. I think this is the best understanding of the word in light of its context. The meaning “generous” is suggested by the use of the derivative noun haplotēsfor “generosity” in e.g. Rom 12:8; 2 Cor 8:2; 9:11, 13, and the adverb haplōs in Jas 1:5 for God’s giving “generously. This makes most sense considering in 6:1-4, Jesus speaks about giving and also contextually fits the best with verse 24. Jesus makes the point that if our eyes are clear, our heart, then we will be able to give with the right heart.

b. The eye must hate the darkness (6:23-24)

i. Then in verse 23, Jesus goes and explains the contrast. Jesus says that if your eye is bad, then your whole body is full of darkness. Jesus states that if your eye is diseased or damaged, no light can enter and the whole body will be full of darkness. The word here bad is usually translated as evil, and Jewish colloquialism means grudging or stingy. I think this sheds some light into the context of what Jesus is speaking about. Proverb 23:6 speaks here as selfish and in the context of the Old Testament, it speaks of one who hastens after wealth as written in Proverbs 28:22.

ii. This sheds light into understanding verse 24. Again, if we understand Jesus is saying that a clear eye leads to generosity, then a bad eye, a damaged eye is dealing with selfish greed and jealous stinginess. In view of the recognized meaning of the “bad eye” to denote selfish greed or meanness, it seems likely that this saying is meant to indicate that one indication of a person’s spiritual health is their generosity or lack of it in the use of their material possessions.

iii. This is why in verse 23, Jesus says that if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness. What’s Jesus stating by this? Jesus is stating that if your heart is right before God, then the way in which you give to others will be open. You will not be stingy with your possessions because it is effectively seeking to build the treasures in Heaven. But if your eye is bad, if your heart is filled with greed for material possessions, then you will not give because you are too busy trying to accrue wealth for yourself here on earth.

iv. This connection bridges Jesus’s statement here in verse 24. Jesus starts with no one can serve two masters. This is in contrast to the idea of clear in verse 22, which is best understood as generous and single minded. This idea of single-mindedness is in contrast to the double mindedness here in verse 24. If our single pursuit in life is to glorify God, to build the treasures in Heaven, to treasure Christ first, then we will be generous in our giving. But in contrast, if we are single minded in the building of wealth here for ourself and our desire is to please ourselves, then our damaged eye, if it’s selfish, then we will not give generously because we have to build our own treasures here on earth.

v. It’s interesting that Jesus starts with a phrase that we understand is not universally true. When Jesus says no one can serve two masters, we know that is not true, well not completely true. We can serve two masters, in the sense of combining part time jobs or working multiple jobs. So what is Jesus meaning by two masters? Jesus is speaking about a total commitment to the demands of God’s kingship and to that of living under the kingship of mammon.

vi. Mammon here refers to as wealth. It’s interesting that in Proverbs 3:9, it says honor the Lord with your mamon which is your wealth. We can see clearly that Jesus is not saying you should not be wealthy.

vii. So then the question is, is it wrong to be rich? The obvious answer is no. The warning Jesus is speaking about here is regarding possessions which become the focus of concern and greed which competes for the disciples loyalty with God himself. Jesus is making it clear that you cannot trust or believe in God and still trust and believe in your wealth.

viii. Jesus is speaking of the truth that nobody can be totally committed to two masters. You can’t worship two Lords. You can’t live as a person who is earnestly devoted to treasuring Christ and His kingdom, and also earnestly selfish attempting to build their own kingdom.

ix. Calvin writes, “Where the riches hold the dominion of the heart, God has lost His authority.” Jesus is making it clear here that our treasure is either here on earth or it is in Heaven. The orders of having two masters is diametrically opposed because our purpose in life should be glorify God. Jesus makes it clear that giving and sharing your resources is the means in which we are building the kingdom and treasuring the kingship of Christ. On the flipside, when we hoard our wealth and live for selfish gain, we cannot build the kingdom of God because we are too busy building my own kingdom.

3. CONCLUSION