Clear, Single Eyes

"The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 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!"

Matthew 6:22-23

The eye is the physical organ of sight, it enables us to see our way, but it must be "clear" to fulfill this function. Jews considered the eye to be the window of one's soul. What we allow into our mind and thought-life produces desires, which in turn produce action and it is our actions (or conduct) that reveal who we truly are. C.H. Spurgeon said, "The motive is the eye of the soul, and if it be clear, the whole character will be right; but if it be polluted, our whole being will become defiled."

Jesus refers to the eye as a lamp of the body, a channel through which light (and darkness) enters the body. If your eye is clear, it is single, healthy, sincere, and uncomplicated. It pertains to being motivated by singleness of purpose, not characterized by double vision. "Spiritual double vision" is "bad eyes". Such an eye focuses on worldly possessions and on God at the same time. It's difficult to make progress when we are looking in two different directions, you are at a standstill, no spiritual growth. We can only be a slave to one master, if we are giving our attention to something other than God, then our loyalty is not to Him, our mind and our heart is to something else...an idol. Jesus' main point is that believers must maintain a clear, single eye, giving God our sole attention.

C.H. Spurgeon wrote the following:

-A heart professedly set upon heaven but held in bondage to earth is like an eye blinded by the intrusion of a foreign substance, involving the unfortunate owner of it in darkness. There is no such thing as seeing spiritual things while the soul's windows are fastened up with shutters of worldliness.

-If thy motive be single--if thou hast only one motive, and that a right one--the master one of glorifying God--if thy eye be single. When a man's highest motive is himself, what a dark and selfish nature he has; but when his highest motive is his God, what brightness of light will shine upon all.

-Two leading principles cannot rule in one heart; they cannot both be master. Either sin or grace will engross the whole heart; neither will submit to compromise.

Exploring the clear, single eye for God brings new meaning and understanding to Matthew 5:8 when Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Single-minded focus. Piling up earthly treasures "blurs" our spiritual vision and directly affects our spiritual condition.