Giving Like God

Scott McFarland
02/03/19 - Sun AM Worship

Scripture Reading:  2 Corinthians 9:1-15
Sermon Series:  Money

Good Eye?

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!—Matthew 6:22-23

This passage sits immediately between two sections on money in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Immediately before it, Jesus is warning his listeners not to lay up treasures on earth, but in heaven.  Immediately after this passage, Jesus will state that no one can serve both God and money.

I’ve often wondered what this passage had to do with money, or what the passage meant at all.  What did Jesus mean by “healthy eyes”? When I was in college, I had a professor explain this. In the ancient Near East, the eye was often a synonym for what was in one’s heart.  If your eye was “healthy,” your heart and motives were pure. If your eye was “bad,” you were corrupt. Jesus is saying our eyes or hearts tell the story. In context, if we are generous people storing treasure in heaven and serving God before our finances, our lives will be full of light.  On the contrary, however, if our hearts are inclined toward materialism and idol worship of money, how dark are lives are!

So, is your eye good or bad?

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