Many portions of the Bible explicitly speak of light. In Matthew 6:22 the Lord Jesus spoke on the light of the heart, saying, “The lamp of the body is the eye.” The Lord did not say that the eye is the light of the body. Rather, He said that the eye is the lamp of the body. Light relates to God, while the lamp relates to us. Light is in God’s word, whereas the lamp relates to us. The lamp is the place where light is retained. In other words, the lamp is the place where God deposits His light. It is also the place where we retain and release the light. In order for God’s word to shine in us, we must have a lamp within us. This lamp is our eye. “If therefore your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body will be dark” (vv. 22-23). In order for our whole body to be full of light, the Lord specified one condition-our eye must be single.
What does it mean to have a single eye? Although we have two eyes, there is only one focus; they only see one thing at one time. Our eyes are sick if they have two foci and see two objects at one time; neither have a clear view. They are not single. In order for the eyes to see clearly, they must have only one point of focus; they cannot have two foci. In receiving the shining there is the matter of light, and there is also the matter of the seeing of the eyes. If we have never experienced any grace and mercy, we have never experienced any light upon us. But now that we have received grace and mercy, light is upon us. The next problem is not with the light, but with our eye. If our eye is not single, we cannot perceive the light. Many people’s eye is not single; they see not just one thing but two things at the same time. Sometimes they see one thing as if it were two things. Light is not clear to them. In fact, they may be in total darkness.
The Lord said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (6:24). Many people do not have light because their eye is not single. The reason their eye is not single is that they are short of consecration before the Lord. What is consecration? It is serving Jehovah alone. A man cannot serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other; he cannot serve both well. He cannot maintain such a balance. No one can serve the Lord on the one hand and serve mammon on the other hand. All those who try to serve two masters find out sooner or later that they love one and hate the other. We must either consecrate ourselves to the Lord absolutely, or we will serve mammon completely. The Lord said that the eye has to be single. This means that our service and our consecration must be single. Singleness of the eye signifies singleness of consecration.
May the Lord show us this basic principle. If we want to read the Bible, understand its teachings, and receive its revelations, we have to bear one responsibility before the Lord: We have to consecrate ourselves absolutely to Him. Only this will give us light through the Bible. Once we have a problem with our consecration, we have a problem with our seeing. When we have a problem with our seeing, it means that we first have a problem with our consecration. We must be fully convinced that no man can serve two masters.
The other master has a name-mammon. Mammon signifies money and wealth. Much light from the Bible has been veiled because of money. Many people have been veiled from the light of the Bible because of mammon. Many people fail to see the truth in the Bible because they have a problem with money. In addition to God, they have money, and they are not willing to drop their pursuit of money. There is a conflict between the truth and their personal interest. If they could lay aside their personal interest and pursue the truth at all costs, the Bible would be crystal clear to them. Many people sacrifice the teachings of the Bible because they have a problem with mammon. If all the Christians were settled in the matter of mammon, there would be a big increase in the number of obedient ones. We have to heed this warning from God. Whenever we are careless and turn a little to our private interest, God’s light will be cut off. In order to see light, we cannot serve mammon. We cannot have two interests. We cannot maintain God’s interest as well as our own interest. We can only consider one interest-God’s interest. Once our personal interest is taken into consideration, we have two masters, and our eye is no longer single. A double-minded person cannot study the Bible; neither can one who has reservations from private interests. Only those with a single eye can study the Bible.
How can the eye be single? The Lord said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (6:21). The amazing thing is that when mammon is under our direction, it will not become a harm but a help to us. When our heart is for mammon, we love money, and it is difficult for our heart to be inclined to God. But if we are able to direct our treasure, we will be able to direct our heart. This is the reason we have to learn to give our treasures away. The Lord said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” When a man stores up his treasure on the Lord’s side, spontaneously his heart will go to the Lord’s side. If a man stores up his treasure in heaven, his heart will be in heaven. Where our treasure is, there will our heart be also. If everything we have is with God, our heart will spontaneously be with God, and our eye will be single.
In order to understand the Bible, we need an absolute consecration. Without consecration, our heart will not go to God. One special characteristic of consecration is that it brings our heart to God. When we offer up everything to God, our heart will follow us because our treasure has moved on. There are two kinds of consecration. With one kind, the heart goes first. With the other kind, the heart follows afterward. Some people consecrate their treasure after their heart is touched. Others find their heart following, after they have consecrated their treasure. Whether or not we think our heart will follow us, we only need to take care of our consecration. Whatever we hold on to most dearly should go first. We should give it away in the name of the Lord to needy ones. When our things are given away, our heart goes to the Lord. When all our things are with the Lord, our eye will be single.
Once our eye becomes single, it becomes clear, and light will shine through. The Lord said, “Your whole body will be full of light” (v. 22). What does it mean to have the whole body full of light? It means to have enough light for our feet to walk, for our hands to work, and for our minds to think. In other words, we have light in all areas. Light fills our emotion, will, mind, love, walk, and pathway. We see everything, for our eye is single.
Previously, we have said that only spiritual men can understand the Bible. Now we have to add one more thing: Only consecrated ones can understand the Bible. If a man is not consecrated, he can never read the Bible well. As soon as he opens the Bible, he will come across places that he has held back in consecration, and darkness will be with him. As he reads on, he will come across further unconsecrated areas, and darkness will be with him again. Once darkness is with a man, he cannot hope to receive anything from God. A man must be absolute for God. He cannot serve the Lord on the one hand, and expect to take his own way on the other hand. Some people have argued that they are sincere in seeking God’s will, yet they do not know what the Bible teaches. They say they do not know where their problem lies. But this is an excuse; it is not a fact. A man does not know because he does not want to take God’s way. If he is truly serious about taking the Lord’s way, he will find the way clear and obvious before him. The only kind of person who is never clear is one whose eye is not single.
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