Luke 11:34-36 - Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.” - Jesus
I read this passage this morning and thought I would share my thoughts form the revelation and insight I received. So here it goes...
As we all know, lamps were used to shine light outwardly, to shine light on people, places, or objects that were in front of the one holding the lamp. Well, this passage tells us that our eyes are the lamp of our body. I have always heard this passage taught or explained in a context of how we shouldn't let our eyes look upon anything wrong because what we look at has a profound effect on us inwardly. While this is true, I realized something deeper in this passage.
Jesus tells us that the eye is the lamp of our body and then says that if our eyes are healthy, our whole body will be full of light but if our eyes are unhealthy, then our entire body will be full of darkness. Notice that Jesus didn't say "if your what you're looking at is unhealthy for your eyes" no, he said that if your eyes themselves are unhealthy then our bodies will be full of darkness.
I believe that Jesus is not trying to talk about what we view, but instead, HOW we view. No, I'm not saying that Jesus thought it was okay for us as Christians to let our eyes view anything we wanted. All Christians should have Biblical standards and personal convictions when it comes to what we let our eyes watch or see.
I believe that Jesus is talking here about our perception, how we choose to view our life, and the situations and circumstances in life. Our outlook on life.
I think this is why Jesus said that if our eyes are healthy our body will be healthy as well. Jesus knew that we all view things with our eyes so he used a physical metaphor to illustrate an inward and spiritual condition. Jesus is telling us that how we inwardly perceive what we see outwardly with our eyes is going to determine our spiritual condition.
Jesus says "see to it then, that the light within you is not darkness. How can light be darkness?? This is because Jesus is referring not to literal light but saying that because our eyes, like a lamp, shines light on all of our life, we have to make sure that our inward perception of what we see is not dark. In other words, that our perception and outlook on our life is not one of hopelessness and despair.
Jesus finishes by saying that if our body is full of light and no part of it dark, then it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you. Jesus is saying that if we have a completely healthy outlook and perception of the situations and circumstances we find ourself in, then the inward light from our bodies will be just like the outward light from a lamp if it was shining on us.
Jesus is telling us that if our inward perception of our outward circumstances is healthy, it's going to be just as profitable, joyful and good for our soul as if our outward circumstances were perfect and bringing us happiness and joy. Jesus is saying to us that how we percieve things will determine our spiritual health. If we have the right perception and outlook on our life, an outlook that is filles with faith and trusting in God's goodness regardless of how things look, then we won't have to wait for that lamp to come shine on us. We won't have to wait for things to change outwardly before we become healthy, whole and full of light inwardly.
