The Evil Eye

Matthew 6 22-24

Jesus continues His teaching on treasure. In the previous three verses He warned us not to lay up our treasures on earth. Verse twenty-four warns that we cannot serve both God and money. Verses 22-23 warn us about the spiritual blindness that the love of money can cause. These verses are not always taken to refer to the love of money. However, their position in the Sermon on the Mount suggests they are. As we look at the meaning of these verses we will see clearly how they relate to our perception of material possessions.

The Evil Eye

Jesus explains that if our eye is evil then it will affect our whole body. Just what does Jesus mean when He says this? To understand this we need to go to the Old Testament.

Deut. 15:9 says, “ Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year the year of release is at hand and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him naught..” It warns us not to eat the bread of a greedy person in Proverbs 23:6 ,“Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats.” Proverbs 28:22 says, “He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye..”

Jesus explains that the light of the body is the eye. In other words, the light we possess must first enter into us through our eyes. If the light is unable to pass through our eyes then our entire body will be full of darkness. To illustrate this we can consider our eyes like windows. If the windows are dirty then the light is hindered from giving us illumination. Without God’s light we can not see clearly to make the proper spiritual decisions. Jesus is teaching us that greed keeps us from seeing spiritual things clearly.

Let’s consider three applications from this text.

* Our society is spiritually blind. We are not an ignorant culture by any means. We have more information at our finger tips every day than we could ever process. We know how to put satellites in space, build skyscrapers, and transplant organs. We can do about anything we set our mind to. The problem is that we only set our mind to do that which will benefit us financially. By and large we are not interested in knowing God’s will. We want to have the pleasures of this world. This mindset has blinded us to God’s truth. We are blind because we are not interested in the things of God.

*Our society is in spiritual darkness. Jesus says in verse 23 “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness”. I believe that Jesus is speaking of self deception. If we believe the darkness in us is actually light we will only fall into greater darkness. In other words, if we think that it is proper to make self priority we will only become more sinful. It is an improper love of self that causes us to love money. Speaking of the last days Paul told Timothy in 2 Tim. 3:4 that people would become, “Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God”. Our culture cheats, lies, steals, oppresses and even kills for the almighty dollar. All the while they justify themselves in doing it. A good example of this is abortion. Abortions are performed on people who think they cannot afford children. They are performed by doctors who think that they cannot afford not to abort babies. How can a person who claims the title “doctor” kill unborn children? It is very simple, money. Abortion makes a lot of doctors a lot of money. The love of money has plunged them into spiritual darkness. They cannot even see how terrible their sin really is.

Our churches have clouded vision. The church is not unaffected by the love of money. Greed has greatly hindered the work of The Holy Spirit in the life of the church and the individual believer. Most church kids can find their way around the internet or the mall but they would struggle to find the book of Matthew in a Bible. Many fathers in our churches can explain how to change the oil in a car or lead a board meeting at work. Yet they cannot explain the basics of the Christian religion to their children.

The love of pleasure in our American churches is keeping us from being the salt and light we could be. In many cases we are physically full but spiritual starving. Our bank accounts are full but our spiritual life has been overdrawn for some time. We have time for vacations, hobbies, sports and rest but very little time for the work of the ministry. This has led to clouded vision. We cannot see God’s will for our life. We cannot hear His voice like we once could. We are no longer doing His work with the passion we once had. We do not see God in all His glory, sinners in all their ruin, or ourselves in all our potential because our windows have been fogged by love of self.

The Single Eye

Jesus gives us the promise that our entire body can be full of light. Therefore, we have the opportunity to see the things of God clearly. If we want to see with 20/20 spiritual vision we must look with a single eye. The word “single” describes wholehearted devotion to a particular thing or person. If we want to see clearly we must be fully devoted to God. He must be first in our life. What a blessing it would be to have our whole body flooded with God’s light!

*Renew your mind. Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2 to offer ourselves up as a living sacrifice, to be transformed by the renewing of our mind and then we “may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. The world is constantly trying to conform us into its image. The Holy Spirit is constantly urging us to be transformed into the image of Christ. As we submit to the Spirit our mind is renewed. This is an ongoing process. The moment we stop allowing the Spirit to transform us we begin falling into the mindest of the world. We will never see spiritual things clearly if we are not being transformed by the Spirit. We will never be transformed by the Spirit if we do not offer ourselves up as a living sacrifice. We must give our selves to God completely if we want to be flooded with God’s light.

*Remove some things. Paul said in Gal. 2:20 , “I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Paul’s new life was completely surrendered to Christ. He had removed self from his life. If we want to see clearly there will be things we need to remove from our life. It could be sinful habits, wrong mindsets or a host of other things. We should simply look at our life and ask ,”Am I doing this or is Christ”. If Christ is not operating through you in any particular thing, that thing may need to be removed from your life. That “thing” may be dirt on your window that is keeping God’s light from entering into your life.

*Review your life. It is important that we take a sincere spiritual inventory periodically. A good question to start with is “Am I seeing the will of God clearly right now?” If we are not it could be that our vision has become clouded through an improper focus on self. Our jobs our hobbies and our families are just a few things that will preoccupy us from time to time. If we are not careful much time has passed and we have not even noticed that we have not clearly heard God’s direction for a while. We should be honest with ourselves. Are we spending more time seeking our own will than we are God’s will? If we are we will know because our vision of Him will be clouded. Have we seen His hand in our life lately? Have we heard His voice lately? Have we experienced the blessing of obeying His command lately? Review your life and see if the windows need cleaning.

One Master

In verse 24 Jesus makes a very clear statement. He assures us that we cannot serve both God and mammon. “Mammon” is simply riches. It is money or the physical treasures that money buys. Let’s consider some truths from Jesus statement.

* We are all servants. We are in bondage to our master. There is not one “free” person in the world. We are either a slave to righteousness or a slave to unrighteousness (Rom. 6:15-18). We have only one master as well. We either belong to the world or to God. If we are saved we have been bought by His precious blood. Therefore, we belong to Him. He is our Master.

* We reveal who our Master is by our actions. If God is our Master we will love Him. If money is our master we will love Him. The phrase “hold to” implies obedience. If God is our master we will obey Him. If money is our master we will obey it. There are many people who love money. They get excited talking about it. They dream of possessing it. They obey it by organizing their lives around it. It dictates what they do and how they do it. If we love money and it dictates the way we live our life it is our master. On the other hand if we love Christ and He dictates what we do, He is our Master.

* It is impossible to serve both God and money. Often times the things we must do to get more money lead us away from God. As well, sometimes obeying God leads us away from money. It is important that we surrender fully to God and allow Him to determine the amount of prosperity we achieve in this world. This attitude of surrender will allow us to have the spiritual vision God desires for us.

Who is our master? Is it God? Are we full of His illuminating light? Or is it money? Have the things of this world clouded out the things of God? Let us take a sober look and either give Him thanks or make the adjustments necessary to experience His best.