In Matthew 6:22 Jesus said, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, 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!”
To what was Jesus referring to? Allow me suggest the following.
What the eye is to the body, our primary motive is to the soul. Just as our eyes guide almost everything we do with our bodies, so the value of all we do is determined by our primary motive for doing it. And just as if our eyes are diseased or injured, all our mobility is impacted, so if our primary motive is dishonorable, all we do is off target.
Before being made a new creation by the Holy Spirit, that is, born again, our primary motive was ultimately self-regarding and self-serving. That is the human default mode on account of the Fall in the Garden of Eden.
We can stay that way, or cry out to God for a change of heart. If we honestly seek him, he will see to it that what Jesus came to do for us happens in us.
The new creation comes with a new primary motivation that seeks to be God-conscious and self-giving at all times. That is called “what the Spirit desires” or “the things of the Spirit.” However, even the new creation has the lingering influence of what used to be the primary motive of self-regard and self-service. This influence is called “what the flesh desires” or “the things of the flesh.”
As a new creation, then, we now have a choice.
If we allow our old, self-serving motive to regain the upper hand, then our eye is bad and every part of our inner life will be plunged into darkness. We will be confused and frustrated at every turn. But if we make growing our friendship with Jesus and working with him our primary motive behind all we do, our eye will be healthy and our whole inner life will be full of light, light to always make wise decisions in what’s before us.
