Where Is Your Focus?

As we read the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7, we find a number of interesting, and sometimes confusing, statements that are made.  One that has been puzzling to many is found in Matthew 6:22-23 – “The lamp of the body is the eye.  If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  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!”  There is no doubt contrasts are being made:  good and bad; light and darkness.  To more fully understand what these contrasts refer to, we just need to look at the verses before and after verses twenty- two and twenty-three for assistance.

When we look to verses 19-21 we read, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Here we see Jesus presenting a contrast between earthly versus heavenly treasure, and getting His listeners look at themselves as to where their “treasure” lies.

In a similar fashion, in verse twenty-four of Matthew 6 Jesus tells his disciples “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon.”  Once again we are presented with contrast:  the inability to serve two masters – hate one, love the other; loyal to one, despise the other.  Then the point is driven home; you can’t serve God and mammon.  

How does all of this tie back to verses 22-23?  It all comes down to our focus.  Where are our “eyes” directed?  Are they upon the worldly or the heavenly?  For the Christian, the answer should be a simple one – on the Lord and doing His will.  May we, therefore, as the apostle Paul tells the faithful in Colosse “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.  For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3).