Tuesday, 27 December 2022

Matthew 6:22-23 Be Full Of Light

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Matthew 6:22-23 The eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore if your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

What does it mean to have a good eye or a bad eye? Yeshua is quoted mentioning the eye later in Matthew ... Matthew 18:9 If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. It's better for you to enter into life with one eye than, having two eyes, to be thrown into fiery Gehenna. The point here is that we must be sensitive regarding what we see.

It's hard to enter a movie theater or even sit in front of the TV during prime time (or just simply sit through the nightly news for that matter) without observing our society violating God's principles. Take a moment to be impressed by Yeshua's brilliant use of words. (I'm paraphrasing) If the light in you is darkness, how great is your darkness? We need light, not darkness.

Yeshua prophesied over those of us who follow Him ... John 8:12 Yeshua spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. The one who follows Me will no longer walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." If your eye is good, it lets the light in. Isaiah prophesied similarly ... Isaiah 42:16 I will bring the blind by a way they do not know. in paths they have not known, I will guide them. I will turn darkness before them to light and the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them.

God is making promises to lead us to Himself. But we must do our part and repent. I want to close with this from 1 Peter. It is a quote from Psalm 34:12-16 which is also part of the concluding prayer of the Amidah (devotional prayer) for both weekdays and Shabbats ... 1 Peter 3:10-12 For, "The one who loves life, wanting to see good days, must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. He must turn away from evil and do good. He must seek shalom and pursue it. For the eyes of Adonai are on the righteous and His ears open to their prayer, but the face of Adonai is against those who do evil."

This seems like a beneficial arrangement. We keep our eyes on what is good, and God keeps His eyes on us.