Lesson 13. The Eye Is the Lamp of the Body. The “Foundations of the Teachings of Christ” School. A series of foundational teachings that Jesus Christ taught His disciples on the mountain.
Matthew 6:22–23 The eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore, if your eye is pure, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. Therefore, if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
- pure [haplous] – simple, single, sincere, pure, healthy;
- bad [ponēros] – bad, evil, wicked, worthless, corrupt, deceitful;
- full of light [photeinos] – light, bright, radiant, shining;
- full of darkness [skoteinos] – dark, covered with darkness, filled with darkness, lying in darkness;
Two different people can look at the same situation and see different things. As a result, one person will fill himself with light, while another will fill himself with darkness. If you see things positively, your whole body is filled with light. If you see things negatively, your whole body is filled with darkness. When people say that everything is bad, it is simply evidence of how they look at things. A person himself determines what he fills himself with.
Example
An African king had a close friend with whom he had grown up. Whenever this friend considered any positive or negative situation that had ever occurred in his life, he had a habit of saying, “This is good!”
Once, a king was out hunting. His friend would prepare and load the king’s guns. Apparently, he did something wrong while preparing one of the guns. When the king took the gun and fired, the shot blew off his thumb. Examining the situation, his friend, as usual, declared, “This is good!” To this the king replied, “No, this is not good!” — and ordered his friend to be sent to prison.
About a year later, the king was hunting in an area where he believed he could be completely safe. But cannibals captured him and brought him to their village along with everyone else. They tied his hands, gathered a pile of wood, erected a post, and tied the king to it. When they came closer to light the fire, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Because of their superstition, they never ate anyone who had a bodily deformity. They untied the king and released him.
When he returned home, he remembered the hunting accident in which he had lost his thumb and felt remorse for the way he had treated his friend. He immediately went to the prison to speak with him.
— You were right, he said.
— It was good that I lost my thumb.
And he told him everything that had happened.
— I am very sorry that I had you put in prison; it was wrong of me.
— No, said his friend.
— This is good!
— What are you talking about? Is it good that I put my friend in prison for an entire year?
— If I had not been in prison, I would have been there with you.
Conclusion. We must pay attention to how we look and what we see. If our eyes notice more good, there will be more light within us. If our eyes, notice more evil, there will be more darkness within us.
End of lesson.
Source: Father’s Blessing Church
Teacher: Dmitriy Leo
