" The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"
I believe this is where He opens up a grand topic about focus and attention that does not end until Matthew 8. It's one of the most important and foundational principles of The Kingdom. Your eye is considered your primary sense. All information gathered by you comes through your eye. This is true both in the physical and the spiritual. The eye is the gateway to the soul. Our body, or our very being, is flooded by what comes through our eye gate. The vast majority of The Sermon on the Mount is about how and what we choose to see.
If you don't understand that where you point your eye determines your experience of things, you will miss The Kingdom. He makes this plain in Matthew 7:13-14 where He says:
13 " Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
I believe He's pointing out here that we have the freedom to choose where we put our focus. Our focus determines our existence, as He already pointed out in Mat 6:22-23. But our focus must be singular. We live in 2 realms. There's a LOT to look at in both realms. Jesus would have us keep our focus on Him and The Father as revealed in the life of Jesus. As Jesus said, focusing on an invisible God when you are used to focusing on things that are visible is "difficult". Our focus must be narrowed specifically on Him and Him alone. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
So, what does this have to do with joy? And what is causality? Let me first explain causality. It is defined as "The relationship between cause and effect". It's my belief that joy is an expression of Him through us as we keep our focus narrowly upon Him. Our joy comes from Him. He never changes, therefore our joy shouldn't either. Jesus put it like this:
John 15:9 " As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. 11 " These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
This is perhaps the most specific statement Jesus makes during His earthly ministry about His goal for our lives: "that your joy may be full". He came to save us, to heal us, to reveal The Father to us, but rarely do we comment on what He wanted for us. He even goes so far as to explain in the simplest terms how we can remain within His joy and have our joy be full: to abide in His love. How do we do that? He answers that one too: love each other like He loved us.
So, He wants us to be full of joy because we love one another. That seems hard. I'm not sure I can do that. In fact, my life experience pretty much makes it clear that I can't. Good thing He foresaw that issue and spoke about how we can do it: keep your eye single.
This is why Jesus came to reveal The Father. God knew that unless we had Him revealed in an obvious way, we could never see fit to trust Him. Without trusting Him, we certainly couldn't keep our eye upon Him. So Jesus walks us through the biggest problems humans have with their focus:
- Don't focus on acquiring. You cannot serve God and money. Matt 6:24
- Don't focus on lack. Your Father in Heaven loves you above all creation and yet look how well He cares for creation! He must really really love you guys. So don't worry about anything. Matt 6:25-34
- Don't focus on other people's behavior. You are not equipped to judge anyone. Matt 7:1-6
- Don't focus on wants. Just ask Him and leave it at that. He's your Father, you should be able to ask. Matt 7:7-12
- Don't focus on more than one thing. The only way is a narrow and singular way. Matt 7:13-14
- Don't focus on finding bad guys. Jesus reveals the way in which you will know who is good and who is not. There is no guess work and therefore no reason to be always on the look out. Don't focus on finding wolves in sheep's clothing. They will be obviously betrayed by their fruit. Matt 7:15-20
- Do focus on Jesus. You can do a billion things in Jesus' name but He will only receive those who kept their focus on Him in order to know Him. Matt 7:21-27
He systematically refutes the biggest motivations for being double minded. Every reason to take your eyes off of Him is therein. He not only lists each motivation but also provides the Kingdom antidote for each: the love of The Father. That's the wisdom of it. We are able to keep our focus on Him because of how He loves us. The narrow gate, when seen for what it truly is, is not only the one way to life but it is also the most appealing of ways. God provides so lovingly and with such abundance that we cannot help but WANT Him.
That's the cause, at least at first. When we encounter Him and His love, we are caused to be drawn toward Him and away from everything else. Our eye becomes single as a response to amazing romance and tender care. Every single thing we can come up with that seems to excuse our wandering eye Jesus easily swats down by saying, "Look at how much Our Father loves you."
John explains this cause and effect quite simply in 1 John 4:19 when he says, "We love Him because He first loved us."
God goes first. He always goes first. He has been described in times past as one demanding of sacrifice and perfection. But it's He who sacrifices of Himself and is alone perfect. What He wants from us is to see this about Him. He is the cause and love is our response. It could be no other way. He is love and we were made in His image. When we focus on perfect love, sacrificial love, unconditional love, Jesus Himself, we find ourselves like an echo of His voice. We find ourselves suddenly able to fulfill Jesus' great command to love each other as He loves us. As we keep our focus on the myriad ways in which He loves us, we echo that love all around. John explains it like this:
1 John 5:12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
The question is, where is your eye? If you believe it's on Him and yet you cannot love as you believe you should, maybe do not see God clearly. I believe that's what John was talking about here:
1 John 4:20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him:that he who loves God must love his brother also.
Please also be aware that "his brother" also refers to ones self. If you hate yourself, you are experiencing a lack of love.
And it's not that God doesn't love you. It's that maybe you don't see it. Maybe it's harder to find that narrow gate than you first realized. Maybe God has more mercy for you than you expect. Maybe you have paid attention to things other than Jesus. Maybe you were afraid to hear His voice and settled for rules when He offered you a relationship. Maybe religion is easier than relationship.
Don't worry. You can taste, then see. His terms are not difficult. He just loves you. Just be honest with Him about everything, out loud. He sees your heart and it does not shock Him. Trust that He will nurture you into what you thought He wanted you to be in the first place. Stop measuring and making lists and just look at Him. Do the one thing Jesus asked of you: focus.
What amazing freedom there is in The Kingdom. If all I have to do is believe Him and then just respond to His love, I find that life is amazing. Rejoice isn't the word for it. I can't even come up with a word for this kind of awe. I need worry for nothing and can ask for anything. I'm not defined by the judgements of others, have no need to acquire, and only need strive to be present with God! I get to know the creator of the universe in an intimate way! I'm completely free from fear! He has excluded all possibilities but joy. He has caused, through love, this joyous effect upon my life! All I have to do is continue to seek this amazing Kingdom that I can't help but seek anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment