How Whole is Your Eye?

HOW WHOLE IS YOUR EYE?

Matt.6: ²² The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

²³ But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
²⁴ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

This is a post about compromise. All of us have been compromised at one time or another. Even if it isn’t one of the “major” sins we still have been subtly drawn into compromise concerning the purity of God’s will and Jesus’ teachings. None of us can stand and proclaim complete purity as it pertains to obeying all of Jesus’ teachings from the heart, but this post is about understanding His teachings through a singular eye or understanding.

Almost every true believer will know and agree with the teaching about being unequally yoked with unbelievers. You will get little argument about that. But they make a startling exception in application. Most see this teaching as heavily weighted toward dating and marriage. But when it comes to politics the deception and compromise is breathtaking in its depth and scope. And there are two primary and overarching reasons why a true believer can be allured into such an obvious cesspool.

One reason continues to be nationalism which is a love and allegiance to an earthly country. This phenomenon is worldwide but perhaps much more intense in America. Why is it more intense in America? Well we are taught that America is a product of divine providence and even Christians believe the hand of God orchestrated its inception. You see the freedom to worship scenario has been used to capture the hearts and minds of many millions of believers. The Pilgrims were fleeing English persecution and came to America to be free to worship God without governmental direction or interference.

But we remember Daniel as he flung open the window and prayed anyway knowing he might be persecuted. You see if we can only worship God under the protection of earthly freedom how committed is our worship? Our worship must be sacrificial and unmoved despite any governmental system. The teachings of Jesus are replete with admonitions to endure and even rejoice when we are persecuted. Nowhere does He advise us to find an easier path and a more comfortable environment. And let us pull back the curtain even further to reveal a shocking aspect of this manmade teaching. When we say America was a divine creation and that God was leading His people away from persecution we also are saying that God’s will is to kill those who will not let you worship openly. It is commonly called the Revolutionary War.

We know that war was primarily over money, but if we connect the dots it suggests that God wants war to create a better worship atmosphere. The absurdity and even the blasphemous nature of such a suggestion is breathtaking. But somehow it has been force fed into an unbiblical narrative, taught to pew dwellers, and is now embraced as truth. I submit to you that if a sinner was born again on an island where he was never exposed to such a teaching, and if after becoming a passionate disciple and student of the Word, if you then informed him of that scenario he would be shocked and offended. Does that not clearly indicate that much of our belief system has been taught by culture and tradition and not by God’s Word?

Another reason why the deception is so very strong is due to a misguided elevation of moral issues. Once we lose a gospel perspective we are prone to all sorts of moral crusades which have gospel implications that we normally would be against but because of the moral issue we cannot see the connection and the compromise. It should be clear to any sincere student of the Word that abortion is a sin and a serious sin. But our calling as disciples has never been to crusade against sin. We are to teach each other about sin and its poison and among the fellowship of disciples we are to acknowledge and teach about sin so that our walk can be pure. However when we cull out a certain sin and make it a ministry we inadvertently compromise the gospel and we can be led to be unequally yoked with unbelievers and even cultists.

It is commendable to be against abortion and be a part of center which helps unwed mothers bring their babies to term. And many of those place share the gospel to those precious mothers. That is the hands of Jesus in action. But when we believe that we can legislate morality we veer off the gospel course. It leads many to spend time and energy on political causes and even to try and elect unbelievers to places of authority simply because they claim to be pro-life. That is compromise. There is no other way to look at it. We have placed our faith in a fallen and wicked system, and even though our motives may be pure, our position is unbiblical.

In effect we have allowed a moral issue to override our commandment not to get entangled with the affairs of this world. And we have made democracy an idol and we have left even the example of the early believers who did not voice any concern for Roman politics at all. Many people are blinded by the “civic duty” principle and they cannot see the great compromise to their spiritual lives. In fact many take great solace in their moral activism and political energy, but they are standing shoulder to shoulder with the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Latter Day Saints and many other cults. Yes, it is subtle and has been reinforced over many, many decades.

But our spiritual eye must be whole or focused on Christ and His kingdom. Do you think God is interested in purifying an earthly culture or nation? Do you really believe God’s favor would rest upon a nation that outlawed abortion but rejected His Son? We have created some kind of parsed view of the gospel, have we not? Did the early believers gather together and petition Rome to quit crucifying people, which they did unmercilessly?

Again, it is so tempting to get angry over some sin and even cultivate compassion for the unborn and then allow that to cloud our view of discipleship and the gospel commission. This is not a fringe issue at all. This is another trick of the evil one who is so cunning he can even use Biblical morality to detour us from the saving message of Jesus Christ. And in time we have grown to love a fallen nation and to place some faith in an antichrist political system. And we now believe that God will bless us if we vote according to God’s will on a moral issue even if that candidate is not a believer or who gives money to a false cult. When the Spirit awakens us to that perspective we look back and shake our heads because we were likewise as deceived.

I will tell you this and I believe I speak for other brothers and sisters in Christ. When the Spirit penetrates your heart and you see the greater picture concerning the gospel kingdom and the worthlessness of earthly crusades and causes, you are ushered into an uncommon freedom. It does not mean we are perfect or even sit in a higher place than anyone else. In fact it means we now sit in a lower place we never knew existed, but it is filled with a spiritual freedom we never knew before we were brought low. And our eye has become a little more whole than before.