“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore the eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.> 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!” Matthew 6:22-23
These parabolic words of the Lord Jesus Christ stand as a caveat (teaching/warning) to us, against sabotaging our own deliverance.The symbol of the “eye” here represents the spiritual power of understanding within the psychological parameters of the human mind. The symbol of the “whole body” here represents the spiritual essential state (what the term ontological/spirit being implies) in which the human mind lives. Our understanding,( which is a spiritual power of our minds) can be essentially affected by two external spiritual powers which are completely antithetical of each other. One of these spiritual powers is the spirit of Christ (light) and the other, is the spirit of antichrist (darkness) (cf. 1 John 4:1-6). Both of these spiritual powers have the ability to influence (suggestion unto holiness/ temptation unto unholiness) and also to possess (to be “Spirit filled” over and against to be “demonically possessed”) and are always in dialectical tension to one another. When the human mind (through human freedom and choice) wavers between these two dialectical powers for a short period of time, a partial break (what the term neurosis suggests) occurs in the spiritual essential state in which the human mind lives. When the mind wavers for a long period of time a full break (what the term psychosis suggests) occurs (cf. James 1: 5-8). It is this wavering (or what could be termed as a “self eclipsing of the light”) that becomes the centric topic of Jesus’ words in this text. Mankind, globally as a whole, must receive in the spiritual power of our understanding that the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ (Divine Light) has set out to deliver us from the spirit of antichrist (spiritual forces of darkness). We must freely receive this “Divine Deliverance of Light” (what the term salvation implies) into the spiritual power of our minds (what the term believing implies) or risk self eclipsing this Divine Deliverance into the “Light of Christ” and plunging our souls (spiritual essential state) into the depths of eternal darkness. We must stop self eclipsing the Light of Christ in our lives and sabotaging our own deliverance. Jesus stated in the final analysis of this text, “how great is that darkness!” because He wanted us to understand that self eclipsing of His “Light” will plunge our souls into a darkness so great, that it will be eternal; and there will be no exiting from it. The choice is clearly ours. We must repent of our sins (what it means to turn to a new way of living) and receive the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ in the spirit of our minds/hearts (salvation) and be baptized (immersed) in the Holy Spirit in order to obtain “True Deliverance”! (Another Oil Point from Theology Nation)
-Bishop Dr. Guy A. Cox