Daily Bread | The Light

22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23 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!
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Matthew Chapter 5:22-24

Although this passage is rather familiar to most of us, often we have overlooked some details about what Christ was really saying.

We know we are called to be the light of the world. Yet this passage goes a bit deeper in explaining just how to go about being a light to begin with. You see you can't light a room if you're not some sort of light source. This passage tells us that we must first be sure that the light within us is bright and shining before we can fulfill the calling.

We see in verse 22 that the light of the body is the eye. If our eye is good our light will shine. If our eye is evil our light will be dimmed and darkness will rule.
What exactly are we saying here?
Very simple. The light of the body is our eyes. Yet if we allow evil to enter through our eyes and into the body it will have a negative effect in our life and the light will no longer be light but darkness.

When we allow evil things to be set before our eyes, we are contaminating our whole body and our entire life is affected by that.
If we expose our eyes to immoral images on media, magazines or television, we are letting evil enter our lives. We live in a day in age where everything is permissible. You can read your bible and then open some fashion magazine filled with half naked women and immoral topics that have nothing to do with Christ. You see it is through those very practices that we are allowing the darkness of the world inside our heart and it is eating at the light of Christ within us.

Think about it, how often do we allow darkness to influence what we watch, what we read and who we follow on social media? It's sad to see Christian women following worldly celebrities and trying to dress like them, do their makeup and hair like them and forsaking godliness. If we confess Christ we must live as he lived and not as the world lives so we may shine the light of Christ in us.

In verse 24 the word tells us we cannot serve God and mammon. We can't read the Bible and then read romance novels with illicit and immoral references. Chick-flicks and beauty blogs have taken over the modern Christian woman and have now darkened the light of Christ in us.

Yet as women we can be stronger than that. We can claim back the light in ourselves and we can be a light to this world. We can cast out any darkness ruling over us. We can throw away those books, the magazines and anything else that has contaminated our life. We can cleanse our eyes with the water of life which is the word of God. We can fight the battle on our knees. We can say no, we can have victory, we can because God is with us!

So ladies let's declare war on the world and begin restoring the light within us. Let's set our eyes on Jesus and his righteousness. Let's fill our eyes with his goodness and mercy. Let's shine our light!