Spiritual Sight
W. Clarkson Luke 11:34-36 The light of the body is the eye: therefore when your eye is single, your whole body also is full of light; but when your eye is evil… The light of the body is the eye; i.e. the eye is the organ through which light enters so that the mind perceives; and if our eye is "single," if it is sound, and does not give a double or distorted or coloured impression, then the "whole body is full of light," then the man knows exactly what is about him and how to use his hands and direct his feet; but if the eye be diseased, if it be "evil," giving false impressions, then all is confusion in the mind, and it is as if "the whole body were full of darkness," no member of the body can take its proper part - the hands do not know how to handle, nor the feet to walk. Here we have a parable, very easily understood. "The spirit of man is the candle [lamp] of the Lord." God has given truth to the mind as he has prepared light for the body; he has also given us a spiritual eye, an organ through which Divine truth enters the mind. We may call it mind, conscience, reason, the soul; it is of no consequence what we call it; it is that in us which distinguishes between right and wrong, righteousness and unrighteousness, truth and falsehood, nobility and baseness; it is that which gives us the place we occupy in God's creation. If the light we receive into us is sound, pure, healthy, then our whole soul is full of light, then we "see light in God's light." But if this inward light be confused, disordered, discoloured, our whole spirit is "full of darkness;" that is to say, if our understanding be darkened, if we are habitually judging unrighteous judgment, if our conscience be condemning what is good and be approving what is evil, if our reason be misconceiving and misinterpreting, how hopeless IS our condition! When that which should lead is misleading, when that which should be guiding us into wisdom is betraying us into deadly error, when the light that is in us is darkness, "how great is that darkness" (Matthew 6:23)! But if, on the other hand, our reason is directing us to right conclusions, and our conscience is "approving things that are excellent," then our whole soul is walking and rejoicing in the light of the Lord, our spirit is full of light, it is a house wherein the bright shining of the lamp of truth does give us light. What, then, brings about bad spiritual sight? What are the diseases of the inward eye? I. PREJUDICE. How that warps the judgment and blinds the eyes of men! Determined to recognize one object only, men can see no other, however it may stand before them in bold relief. It was prejudice that made the men of Christ's time fail to perceive that the kingdom of God had come among them. His wisdom, his worth, his power, everything was distorted and misconceived by them; their inward eye was diseased, and how great was the darkness that resulted! II. PRIDE. How many men there are walking, strutting, across the stage of life, confident, complacent, contemptuous, that have been too proud to learn! Pride has bent their judgment, has affected for evil the inward eye; the truth has become distorted; there is darkness in the soul. Well does the apostle say, "If a man think himself to be wise, let him become a fool ['in his own opinion], that he may be wise." Pride blocks the path, while humility opens the gates of the kingdom of truth. "The meek will he guide in judgment, the meek will he teach his way." III. SELFISHNESS. The worst of all diseases spoiling the spiritual sight. The man who lives under its evil dominion "sees double," is mentally confused, wanders in bewildering error. The slave-owner could not see the iniquity of slavery when his temporal interests covered the eyes of his mind with a thick film of falsity. Present prospects, worldly advantages, fleshly indulgences, - do these not form thick scales which cover the eyes of the children of men, leaving them in the darkness of error and of sin? Who can understand his errors? Who of us can be sure that he is not allowing some folly, some unworthy habit of the body or the mind, to intervene between the pure truth of Christ and his own spiritual understanding? The thought of Jesus Christ calls upon us to be humble, vigilant, prayerful, that "the thoughts of our hearts may be cleansed by the inspiration of his Spirit," so that instead of great darkness, or even an imperfect and ineffectual light within us, the whole house of the soul may be illumined with purest heavenly wisdom, "as when the bright shining of a candle dons give us light." - C. Parallel Verses KJV: The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. WEB: The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness.