You might be familiar with this old hymn we taught to children “Be careful little eyes what you see, Be careful little ears what you hear …”. It highlights that our Father up above is watching so be careful what you attend to.
We are familiar that Proverbs admonishes us to attend to the word of God. King David wrote a Psalm saying he would not set any wicked thing before his eyes. Jesus did say in Matthews gospel, if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
The reality is that we see, what we look at and consider long enough, does give influence to our lives. So beyond the brief glance I am really focusing on the things we give ourselves liberty to continually look at. Some things are better left unseen all together but like Paul wrote, we would then need to go out of the world.
Jesus, from his sermon on the mount in Matthews’ gospel chapter six tells us,
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, [*good, single, clear, sound] 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 in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.“ Verses 21-22
With the analogy on the eye, Jesus from Matthew 6:19, begins his teaching with the treasure of the heart. Treasure’s shaped by what our eyes see and our heart’s value. Proverbs tells us the eye of man is never satisfied and thus we are to guard what we give our attention to. Where our treasure is, there we find our heart. James wrote the lust of the eyes is a temptation in this world. All that glitters is not gold. Jesus reminded his church in Laodicea, though they said they were rich and had need of nothing, they were really wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. His counsel was to anoint their eyes so that they might see their true condition.
The eye is the entrance to this earthly temple. We see, we think, we feel, we believe. It’s a natural process God created. What and how we see, ultimately moves through these God designed channels and drops into our hearts. Then out of the abundance of our heart come the issues of life and the words that we sow unto life and or death; it all begins with what we were looking at.
Never allow yourself to be deceived into thinking you do not have the ability to choose what you give your attention to. For the normal individual ‘I can’t help it’ is a deception. For the Christian it is a blinding lie. Short of an extreme forced upon us, we all live with the power of choice.
The story from Numbers 21 about the bronze serpent set on a pole for healing tells us that those who had a fixed stare lived. It wasn’t enough to just run to the pole and glance at it but they had to intently look at it and consider. We find the same condition when Eve considered the fruit of the tree. How long did she have to look at the fruit to change her mind about it being good, right to eat?
The ‘not to bad’ we allow in our lives do carry a power to change us.
The cares of this world work to demand our attention. We try to find a way of escape without actually coming to the one who can provide the confidence and rest we really seek. We are invited to lift up our eyes, to behold the Lamb, to consider Jesus, and to come up higher. All invites we are familiar with. Ones we must heed.
Matthew wrote, ‘if our eye is healthy our whole body will be full of light’. It is the light that dispels darkness. Jesus is the light that illuminates.
The entrance of his word gives light.
He sends his word and heals us and delivers us from all destruction.
If our eye is bad the whole body will be full of darkness.
If our eye is good our whole body will be full of light.
Let us consider those things that do not lead us into life. Let us consider the foxes that spoil the vine and choose to lay aside all that does not profit us nor build up His body.