Morning Devotion

In my morning devotion this morning, I was reading in Proverbs and came across this verse in 28:22:

A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him. (ESV)

It the footnote it says the word translated "stingy man" means literally in Hebrew "a man whose eye is evil." This immediately made me think about how Jesus said that if your eye is evil, you will be full of darkness and vaguely remembered Him saying that in the context of talking about money, so I made a mental note to look it up. Right afterwards, I was reading for school in the Harmony of the Gospels (HCSB) and in Mark 7:18-23, Jesus says,

Don't you realize that nothing going into a man from the outside can defile him? For it doesn't go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated...What comes out of a person—that defiles him. For from within, out of people's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, lewdness, stinginess, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.

Again, the word translated "stinginess" literally means "evil eye." Interesting. I followed up on my earlier mental note and found the passage in Matthew that had come to my mind. Here it is in context:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (6:19-23 ESV)

Now before I read about the literal translations of the first two passages that led me to this one, I had trouble making sense of Jesus' sandwiching His statement about the eye between those talking about possessions and money. It makes perfect sense to me now though! The Lord Jesus is concerned with the single-hearted devotion of His followers. Therefore He tells us not to labor for what perishes but to strive to lay up treasures in heaven. Then He tells us that we cannot serve both Him and money/possessions. If we are stingy (our eye is evil) then money is what we will serve and what will control us. It will be what we labor and strive for. We will not be generous as the Lord commands and we will not have the joy that accompanies giving (Acts 20:35). Instead, we will cling to money (which we perceive to be our strength and security) instead of the Light (Jesus Christ, John 8:12). When we know Him and serve Him, He makes our eye "healthy" and feels our body with light, but if we strive for riches or worldly things, we may think we are doing what is good and right, but we are actually fully of darkness (and poverty will come upon us according to the proverb above). Only Christ can fill us with light! (2 Corinthians 4:6)

From the sermon I heard this morning, I also made a connection between the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus constantly and continually intercedes for His people (Hebrews 7:25) and the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we are unable to or don't know how to pray (Romans 8:26). How gracious is God in the way He helps us live for and serve Him and have access to Him! Also, Jesus is our guarantor (Hebrews 7:22) and the Holy Spirit is our guarantee (Ephesians 1:13-14). Not only does God graciously save us and graciously grow us in the faith, He also gives us the assurance that He will keep us to the end. Even though I have to respond willingly to God's offer of salvation presented in Jesus Christ and cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He makes me more like Christ, no part of God's election of me, saving me or keeping me to the end is dependent on me. It is all by His grace and good pleasure. In this I find great comfort and joy.