Holy Boldness

interests. An evil eye is jealous of others. It is covetous. It looks at others to manipulate and take advantage of them. An evil eye tries to make its mark in the world through personal advancement often at the expense of others. Therefore, Jesus calls this kind of eye “evil” because it is conflicted with many purposes of God and it results in confusion or darkness and clouded judgment. The following quote is from Adam Clark, a methodist preacher who lived in the time of John Wesley (1700s). He uses some old lan guage but it is worth the effort to try to understand what he is saying. “ An evil eye was a phrase in use, among the ancient Jews, to denote an envious, covetous man or disposition; a man who chaffed at his neighbor’s prosperity, loved his own money, and would do nothing in the way of charity for God’s sake. Jesus uses the sound eye as a metaphor to point out that sim plicity of intention, and purity of affection with which men should pursue the supreme good. We aim at happiness: it is found only in one thing, the indivis ible and eternal God. If the line of simple intention be drawn straight to him, and the soul walk by it, with purity of affection, the whole man shall be filled with light in the Lord; the rays of that excellent glory shall irradiate the mind, and through the whole spirit shall the Divine nature be transfused.” 18 What is so tragic today is that it seems that an “evil eye” is just par for the course in our modern culture. The envy, jealousy, and greed of the culture lead to confusion and disorientation, competition, cutthroat tactics, and bad blood. When these things dominate an environment then there becomes a loss of perspective, greed and lust for power taint everyone’s vision, and people begin to use others for their gain and then justify their actions in their own mind. This is what Jesus meant by the phrase “if your eye is evil”. The end result is that the whole body will be filled with darkness which means that evil will be so common that many will cease to be shocked and misery will become the norm. Then Jesus adds one more comment that reveals the mystery of iniquity , “If the light in you is darkness, how deep is the darkness?” Many people call their confused ideas “light” when in fact they are darkness. When a person’s motivations are self-centered, moral issues become harder to discern and what was once thought “unthinkable” becomes commonplace. The Apostle Paul described this state of affairs in the first

18

Ibid. p. 91

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