Audio Transcript
At present’s Labor Day for us within the States. We’re taking a break from our work. However we will nonetheless use the day to study new abilities, particularly to turn into higher Bible readers. After all, now we have dozens of episodes overlaying a number of very sensible recommendations on overcoming the challenges of finding out the Bible for ourselves. And I took all these episodes on Bible studying, Bible research, Bible memorization, even the wrestle with Bible neglect — all these many episodes I put collectively in a single large digest to point out you all the bottom we lined, in the APJ e-book in that first part, on pages 1–46. It’s the part I’ve heard essentially the most compliments about, too.
And this episode will add to it. So, what do you do when a Bible verse doesn’t make sense on first learn? The query is from Chris, and it’s particular: “Pastor John, hey and thanks for this podcast. You might have stated previously that you just didn’t perceive Matthew 6:22–23 for a very long time. However then you definately spent extra time trying on the context earlier than, within the treasuring focus in Matthew 6:19–21, and extra time after the textual content, within the cash focus in Matthew 6:24 — these contexts helped make sense of the whole lot in between. Additionally, what you realized in Matthew 20:13–15 you introduced into your discovery, too.
“Are you able to clarify the way you got here to grasp Jesus’s instructing on the wholesome and sick eye utilizing each the shut context, earlier than and after it, and the broader context collectively? These look like Bible interpretation rules all of us have to grasp when the textual content in entrance of us doesn’t make fast sense. Thanks!”
Effectively, that’s true. Matthew 6:22–23 simply appeared to dangle with out connections to what went earlier than, what went after. I couldn’t see it. I imply, it was my downside, not God’s downside, not Jesus’s downside. It’s my downside. I simply couldn’t see it. Then someday, as I used to be studying in Matthew 20 — that’s 14 chapters later — and the ESV footnote clarified a phrase I noticed, I stated, “Oh, that’s going to assist. That’s going to assist make sense again in chapter 6.”
Lamp of the Physique
So, listed below are the verses:
The attention is the lamp of the physique. So, in case your eye is wholesome, your complete physique can be full of sunshine, but when your eye is dangerous, your complete physique can be filled with darkness. If then the sunshine in you is darkness, how nice is the darkness! (Matthew 6:22–23)
Now, if we simply take these two verses by themselves, I believe I could make sense out of them. Should you shut your eyes, the whole lot is darkish. However when you open your eyes, there’s mild, and it fills you with mild. You possibly can stroll. You cannot run into partitions, you cannot fall off a cliff.
And so, the attention is sort of a lamp. I get that. I like that, that it’s a lamp. And when it’s lit and burning, you’ll be able to see the place to go. In case your eyes are shut or in case your eyes are sick, in case you have cataracts or one thing, then you’ll be able to’t see the place you should go. So, if the physique goes to not kill itself by operating into the incorrect factor, it wants a wholesome eye. “The attention is the lamp of the physique.” I get that. That’s a very good picture.
However what puzzled me was that it simply appeared to return out of nowhere. Why are you saying that right here, particularly within the sequence of those sayings?
Contemplating the Context
Earlier than these two verses comes the acquainted saying about not laying up treasures on earth:
Don’t lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, the place moth and rust destroy and the place thieves break in and steal, however lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, the place neither moth nor rust destroys and the place thieves don’t break in and steal. For the place your treasure is, there your coronary heart can be additionally. (Matthew 6:19–21)
“Pray for eyes that look upon the issues of this world as methods of serving God and loving individuals.”
So, earlier than the saying in regards to the good eye and the dangerous eye comes a saying about cash — laying up treasures in heaven and on earth. Don’t hoard cash right here as if your life and your safety had been in cash. Use cash right here in ways in which piles up treasure in heaven. Use it in acts of affection. Then, with no specific connecting phrase, Jesus merely says, “The attention is the lamp of the physique” (Matthew 6:22). And I simply discovered that puzzling. Why do you observe up “lay up treasures in heaven” with “the attention is the lamp of the physique”?
After which, after these puzzling verses — 22 and 23 — comes the saying, “Nobody can serve two masters, for both he’ll hate the one and love the opposite, or he can be dedicated to the one and despise the opposite. You can not serve God and cash” (Matthew 6:24). So, the sayings earlier than and after the phrases in regards to the good and dangerous eye cope with treasure or cash. That appears important to me.
So, the one within the center looks as if it ought to have one thing to do with that. However so far as I might see, the great and the dangerous eye don’t have any clear connection to cash. So, the saying appeared to only dangle there, and I didn’t get it for a very long time. And Chris, in his query, is true to note a precept of interpretation that’s driving me right here, and you may hear it’s been popping out all the best way alongside.
I actually don’t prefer it once I can’t see an creator’s intention in how his phrases are related to one another. Seeing connections in a paragraph, in a chapter, is actually necessary. I don’t assume I’ve bought a very good deal with on what the creator is speaking if I can’t see how his connections are working. So, why does Jesus hyperlink these two sayings about cash with a saying a couple of good eye and a nasty eye?
The Key That Unlocked the That means
Then I come upon the important thing in Matthew 20:15. Jesus had simply advised the parable of the employees of the winery, and a few of them, you bear in mind, had agreed to work from 6:00 within the morning until 6:00pm for one denarius, a day’s wage — a good wage, a very good wage. Others had been employed at 9:00am. Others had been employed at midday. And at last, he employed some at 5:00pm. All he needed to do was work an hour.
And when the day was executed at 6:00, he paid all the employees the identical factor, a denarius every. In different phrases, the grasp was lavishly beneficiant to those that labored just one hour, and he paid a good, agreed-upon wage to those that labored twelve hours. However those that labored all day, it says, “grumbled on the grasp of the home” (Matthew 20:11). They had been offended that those that had labored so little had been paid a lot. They didn’t just like the grasp’s generosity. They didn’t like grace.
Then the grasp used a phrase in regards to the dangerous eye, which is rather like the one in Matthew 6:23. He stated, “Am I not allowed to do what I select with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” That’s Matthew 20:15. Now, that final phrase, “Do you begrudge my generosity?” shouldn’t be a literal translation; it’s a very unfastened paraphrase. And thankfully, the ESV provides the footnote and offers you the literal translation, which is, “Or is your eye dangerous as a result of I’m good?”
Oh my goodness, that made bells go off, proper? Oh, the dangerous eye again in chapter 6. The dangerous eye right here parallels the dangerous eye in Matthew 6:23, the verse I used to be puzzled about. So, what does the dangerous eye consult with in Matthew 20:15? It refers to an eye fixed that doesn’t like generosity. It doesn’t like grace. It’s grasping. It’s a grasping eye. It’s a sort of eye that might treasure up issues on earth. It’s the sort of eye that might serve cash over God.
Pray for Good Eyes
So, if we interpret the dangerous eye in Matthew 6:23 the identical manner as in 20:15, the connection begins to make sense. The stream of thought would go like this. Matthew 6:19: “Don’t lay up treasures on earth. Lay up treasures in heaven. Present that your coronary heart is mounted on the worth that God has for you.” Now comes Matthew 6:22–23: “Ensure your eye is sweet and never dangerous. That’s, be sure that your eye shouldn’t be grasping for earthly achieve. Just be sure you see with this eye. See heavenly treasure as extra treasured than earthly, materials treasure.”
When your eye sees issues this fashion, you’re full of sunshine. You understand how to stroll with out falling off the cliff of greed. And when you don’t see issues this fashion, you’ll, as Matthew 6:24 says, serve cash as a substitute of serving God. You’ll search cash, not God, as your treasure.
So, the underside line lesson for us is that this: pray for good eyes, wholesome eyes — particularly, the eyes that don’t disapprove of generosity or disapprove of grace. Pray for eyes that don’t look upon the issues of this world with greediness, however look upon them as methods of serving God and loving individuals. Pray for eyes that see God as your supreme treasure.
