6:22-23 The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
ESV But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. NIV But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
22“The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; 23but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.
Chapter Summary
Masters are warned not to be harsh: the same God who judges all will not give them preference over those they supervised. All Christians are called on to use the tools given us by God for surviving the attacks of the devil.
“The Lord will fight for you…” The Bible gives us the clear message that God not only goes to battle on our behalf, but He conquers the enemy. Sometimes He performs visible miracles, like parting the Red Sea before the Hebrews, then bringing the water down to swallow up the Egyptian army.
This verse literally reads, “You keep him in “PEACE, PEACE” whose mind is stayed on you.” The definition for “Shalom” is to be well, happy, friendly, healthy and prosperous. It means to be whole or complete. Perfect peace is complete peace and is guaranteed when we focus on Jesus.
Today's Prayer
O precious Holy Father, help me keep my sight focused on what is good. I want to focus on you, your grace, and your Kingdom. You alone have the meaning of life. Fill me with your light.
Train up a child in the way he should go; And when he is old he will not depart from it. In the families of the Reformed Churches, the Lord has granted many children. These children are God's children by covenant, and so are exceedingly rich with promises.
“He said to them, 'When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
22But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification,* and its end is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life (Romans 6:20-22).
Now consider again this description of God in his "dealings" with us: "He does NOT deal with us according to our sins" (v. 10a). Our sins do not constitute the rule or standard or plumb line according to which God makes his decisions on how to treat us.
There is no greater joy in this life than knowing Jesus and as we open up His Word we have an opportunity to deepen our joy as we get to know Him more fully. The Bible is God's revelation of Himself, which means that as we study it our joy should grow in proportion to our knowledge of our great God and Savior.
This verse states that if one places one's treasure in heaven that is where one's heart or attention will be. This is an implicit warning, which is made clear later in the chapter, that if one's treasure is on earth, one's heart and attention will also be on earthly matters, to the exclusion of God.
We can take strength in knowing that all the hard experiences in this life are temporary; even the darkest nights turn into dawn for the faithful. When all is finished and we have endured all things with faith in Jesus Christ, we have the promise that “God shall wipe away all [the] tears from [our] eyes.”
It means to lay our "ego strength" aside. Taking up our cross means, instead, picking up those weaknesses that we so often try to run away from in life. Taking up our cross means carrying around those places where we are vulnerable, places where we are maybe even exposed to embarrassment and shame.
The Lord means for us to guard our hearts by filtering our emotions, desires, thoughts, and responses through his Word. He is the watchman that protects our souls. And what's his primary means of defense? The sword of Scripture.
What does it mean to “pray in the Spirit?” Many Christians assert that “praying in the Spirit” is one and the same as praying in tongues. I thank God for the gift of tongues – it's a powerful means of connecting to God in the Spirit.
This word communicates to us that God will place a hedge of protection around his children. Overall, the first line in this blessing means that when God will “bless and keep you,” He will provide for and protect you.
Summary. Jesus taught, “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men … but when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen.”
To be kept in this perfect peace, our mind must be stayed on the Lord. If our mind is stayed on ourselves, or our problems, or the problem people in our lives, or on anything else, we can't have this perfect peace. This is the heart that says with the Apostle Paul, “that I may know Him” (Philippians 3:10).
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”