The eye is the seeing organ, and eye and body here must not be
interpreted physically.
The LORD is not talking about the literal, physical eye, and the literal, physical body.
He is speaking in symbols, as always in the Gospels.
The eye and body here are symbolical.
If you follow through the rest of the New Testament, you know that the heart is the spiritual eye of man, and the body is his personal presence in any location.
If it is the heart that is the seeing organ, then it is an affection.
The heart is the seat of affection, of love.
Love then becomes the great seeing organ, the thing which is the lamp of a man's presence, that makes him luminous in this world.
Love - not teaching, not what he has, but what he is: the embodiment of Divine love.
Now we are caught. All of us are brought right to the last issue by that. For is not love essentially singleness?
True love is single, has one object, one interest, one motive.
A lot of other things have got to be done, but they are done in order to get them out of the way in order that the object of love might be the occupation.
Love is singleness. Love is utterly selfless.
Oh, GOD have mercy upon us that our love is so often not that kind of love.
We think it is love, but there is a good deal of selfishness about what we call love, drawing to ourselves, making even the object of love, our professed love, serve our ends.
That is the tragedy of the world today.
It is called love, but what is it? Serving the selfish ends of man.
But true love "seeks not its own" (1 Cor. 13:5) says the apostle, but is utterly selfless, and when it is like that, we are luminous.
Men can see by our presence, they can see GOD, see Christ, see a lot, perhaps all that they need to see, by our being here or there.
We are luminaries - not by a teaching, not by what we have, but we are that.
That is singleness of eye, that is purity of heart, and again I say at the end, that is the only ground on which the LORD is free to commit Himself to us.
If we turn the light of the LORD'S glory upon every situation, every matter, and we do not say, "This is quite permissible and harmless" for that is negative.
We are positive; we say, "Is this to the glory of GOD?"
That is the positive side, that is the single eye.
The LORD grant it to us!
~T. Austin Sparks~
The LORD is not talking about the literal, physical eye, and the literal, physical body.
He is speaking in symbols, as always in the Gospels.
The eye and body here are symbolical.
If you follow through the rest of the New Testament, you know that the heart is the spiritual eye of man, and the body is his personal presence in any location.
If it is the heart that is the seeing organ, then it is an affection.
The heart is the seat of affection, of love.
Love then becomes the great seeing organ, the thing which is the lamp of a man's presence, that makes him luminous in this world.
Love - not teaching, not what he has, but what he is: the embodiment of Divine love.
Now we are caught. All of us are brought right to the last issue by that. For is not love essentially singleness?
True love is single, has one object, one interest, one motive.
A lot of other things have got to be done, but they are done in order to get them out of the way in order that the object of love might be the occupation.
Love is singleness. Love is utterly selfless.
Oh, GOD have mercy upon us that our love is so often not that kind of love.
We think it is love, but there is a good deal of selfishness about what we call love, drawing to ourselves, making even the object of love, our professed love, serve our ends.
That is the tragedy of the world today.
It is called love, but what is it? Serving the selfish ends of man.
But true love "seeks not its own" (1 Cor. 13:5) says the apostle, but is utterly selfless, and when it is like that, we are luminous.
Men can see by our presence, they can see GOD, see Christ, see a lot, perhaps all that they need to see, by our being here or there.
We are luminaries - not by a teaching, not by what we have, but we are that.
That is singleness of eye, that is purity of heart, and again I say at the end, that is the only ground on which the LORD is free to commit Himself to us.
If we turn the light of the LORD'S glory upon every situation, every matter, and we do not say, "This is quite permissible and harmless" for that is negative.
We are positive; we say, "Is this to the glory of GOD?"
That is the positive side, that is the single eye.
The LORD grant it to us!
~T. Austin Sparks~
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