The “Bad Eye”
What Did Jesus
Mean by the “Bad Eye”?
John Piper
What does the bad eye refer to in
Matthew 20:15?
It refers to an eye that cannot see
the beauty of grace.
It cannot see the brightness of
generosity.
It cannot see unexpected blessing to
others as a precious treasure.
It is an eye that is blind to what is
truly beautiful and bright and precious and God-like.
It is a worldly eye. It sees money and
material reward as more to be desired than a beautiful display of free,
gracious, God-like generosity.
That is exactly what the bad eye means
in chapter six of the Sermon on the Mount.
And that meaning gives Matthew 6:22-23 a perfect fitness between a saying on
true treasure (Matthew 6:19-21) and the
necessity of choosing between the mastery of God and the mastery of money (Matthew 6:24).
So the flow of thought would go like
this: Don't lay up treasures on earth, but lay up treasures in heaven.
Show that your heart is fixed on the
value that God is for you in Christ.
Make sure that your eye is good not
bad. That is, make sure that you see heavenly treasure as infinitely more
precious than earthly material treasure.
When your eye sees things this way,
you are full of light.
And if you don't see things this way,
even the light you think you see (the glitz and flash and skin and muscle of
this world) is all darkness.
You are sleepwalking through life. You
are serving money as a slave without even knowing it, because it has lulled you
to sleep.
Far better is to be swayed by the
truth—the infinite value of God.
So if you are emotionally drawn more
by material things than by Christ, pray that God would give you a good eye and
awaken you from the blindness of "the bad eye."
Would you want God
to change your life?
God has made it possible for you to know Him and experience
an amazing change in your own life through a relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ, and
have eternal life.
Say the following
prayer:
“Father God, I confess I am a sinner and my sins have separated me
from You.
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Excerpted from "What is the 'Bad
Eye' in Matthew 6:23?" by John Piper. © Desiring God.
Website:www.desiringGod.org.
http://www.jesus.org/life-of-jesus/teaching-and-messages/the-bad-eye.html
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