Hello John,
I’ve been in Matthew lately and wanted to share something and get your thoughts on it. I went back and read through the Sermon on the Mount again tonight. I felt a strong urge to read it again even though I had just read it last night, and this time I got stuck on Matthew 6:22: “If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”
At first, I got stuck on the word “single” and started looking into why Jesus used that word. I read the sections before and after again for context. Right before it, He says, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” and right after it He says, “No man can serve two masters.” The word single made more sense to me then.
But the part that really got me was the next verse: “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”
I struggled to understand this in the context of what I thought Jesus was teaching about divided allegiance. But then I started thinking about something much bigger. What am I actually using as light to guide me through certain events, even small ones? And how do I make sure that what I believe is light – really is light and isn’t actually darkness, something coming from my own desires, fears, reasoning or something else that is leading me towards darkness?
I searched for other verses about light and found Psalm 119:105: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path,” and then verse 130: “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple”.
Is that part of what Jesus is teaching here? That our eye has to be single toward God because anything we allow to guide us apart from Him can actually distort how we see everything else, and that the way we examine what is guiding us is by bringing it back to His Word and seeing whether it is moving us toward obedience to Him with a pure and undivided heart?
It just seems like this went really well with an overarching theme I’ve been learning lately. It can be so easy to think we’re seeing something clearly when we’re actually being guided by something other than the Lord. That makes “how great is that darkness” feel a lot more significant and dangerous to me.
It makes Jesus’ words about building on the rock instead of the sand land differently with me too. It’s easy to unknowingly build on sand if we are not careful. But we just have to let His Word be the light that guides us, and then actually do what He says. Sounds simple, until it’s not.
The more I think about all of this, the more overwhelming it feels to imagine trying to stay on this path all alone. How impossible that feels. It makes me appreciate and understand the necessity of fellowship so much more. We need God’s people around us whose light is shining, too, who can help us see when we’re getting off the path and point us back toward the Lord and His Word. I’m truly thankful for that.
Hope you all doing well over there. I’ll be glad when you all are home.
Ronnie E.
==========
Thank you, Ronnie, for sending this. The part about the benefits of fellowship is so good!
I also thought this part of your email was excellent: “It can be so easy to think we’re seeing something clearly when we’re actually being guided by something other than the Lord.” That is the pitfall into which so many have fallen, and a pitfall into which we will also fall if God’s Word does not guide us.
The most important thing to remember is that God’s Word is a person. It is the Son of God, and he “is alive and sharper than any two edged sword.” That living Word “was in the beginning with God” and “came and dwelt among us.” He is the Word that Paul wanted to “dwell richly” within us. And in Revelation, John saw that mighty Word of God returning to earth on a white horse, followed by all the saints of God.
The Bible is precious and profitable, as Paul said to Timothy, but the Bible can never replace being led by the Word of God. Without the Word of God in us, leading us in understanding as we read the Bible, it is impossible to understand what we are reading.
Thank you again for writing. Take care until we see you again.
Pastor John