All of Life is narrowed down to just two things…IDENTITY AND PERCEPTION!
WHO we are and HOW we see!
The message of the Cross is meant to cut through all of the vanity (things that hold no eternal value) of life and bring these two to the forefront! Our identity is NOT in what we do, if it is, then what kind of foundation is that to build on?
And it sure isn’t in how most today view God! The trials and testing’s we try so hard to avoid are necessary if we are ever going to see the hidden mystery revealed! We have a natural tendency to see and believe life through eyes of separation and division!
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be SINGLE, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be EVIL (double), thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! (Mathew 6:22-23)
The daily Cross causes the things that really matter in life to appear! To be revealed!
And unless we SEE God Only God Now, we will never KNOW God Only God Now!
“I perceive that you have been with Jesus!”
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13)
For those who know WHO they are IN Christ it goes even deeper! “I perceive that Jesus lives IN you!”
And our perception of our being IN Christ is the only basis of our true identity, who He is and who we are IN Him!
Evil Redefined! by Rich Novek
There is a mixed counterfeit message that says we are saved by Grace alone, but kept by Grace AND… It’s what Paul calls the Different Gospel!
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine 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! 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… In this case it’s God AND mammon.(Mathew 6:22-24)
Wikepedia defines mammon in the following way: During the
Middle Ages, Mammon was commonly personified as the demon of avarice, richness and injustice.
These are the things you are to teach and insist on. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money (Mammon) is a root of all kinds of EVIL. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many grief’s. (I Timothy 6:2-10)
But this passage in Mathew is not so much about who or what it is we are serving in addition to Christ, as it is about our seeing more than God in every situation and circumstance of life. Jesus used mammon in this example because it’s one of the major strongholds of humanity.
Take another look at the story of the Rich Young Ruler! (Luke 18:18-30)
No man can serve two masters! As far as Jesus is concerned the word TWO here is synonymous with the word EVIL! Want proof? Then why doesn’t He say “if your eye is “double” in Mathew 6:22. He instead uses the word “evil!.”
So what is it He is really saying here?
He is saying the human being was specifically designed by God to see as He sees, with a “Single Eye” of faith.A Single Eye towards Christ alone as our life.
When we see more than God in any situation, we see in division, and as we know, a house (we are that house) divided against itself cannot stand!
The “not-so-good-news” of the counterfeit message which Paul speaks of, comes to us saying, YES, you can continue to serve God AND, just keep it up, it’s OK! And as we do we find what Paul found, that this other Jesus comes complete with another Spirit, all the while proclaiming a Different Gospel. (II Corinthians 11:4)
A Different Gospel that looks and sounds surprisingly like the REAL Gospel of Grace alone IN Christ alone!
But with a twist!
This other Spirit doesn’t lead us into all Truth, but a false version of truth! And when we believe the lie long enough, it becomes truth to us! Which is why it’s so hard to receive the message of TRUTH, once we are finally confronted with it!
For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.(II Corinthians 11:4)
The Different Gospel, being the popular held belief of a mixed message of Grace plus law, a false message of a God who lives separated from His body and demands we do something for Him in order to receive something from Him!
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day,
for…Darkness is as Light to you.
Did you see it! No distinction with God between light and darkness! Remember what Jesus said in Mathew, if the light that is in you is darkness, than how great is that darkness? That is the exact opposite of HOW He sees! He sees darkness and calls it Light! He sees ONLY God IN all things!
Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s One and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were EVIL! (John 3:18-19)
This is not talking about less than perfect “Christian” behavior. In fact, if we continue with the thought that Evil is defined by seeing more than God than this makes perfect sense. Light has come into the world, blazing Light! So radiant is the Light that there is no shadow or turning! But men, who love something other than the Light, namely darkness, are defined here as having Evil deeds!
These Evil deeds can only be one thing if this passage is going to make sense. The exact same thing Jesus was saying in Mathew 6!
No one can serve TWO…masters. But we see people serving more than two masters every day, don’t we?
Then what does He mean? Keep reading, because a few words later He is going to say something about darkness, do you see it?
If that Light IN you is darkness, than how great is that darkness! (Mathew 6:24)
Here is the Amplified version of the same verse!
But if your eye is unsound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the very light IN you [your conscience] is darkened, how dense is that darkness! (Mathew 6:24)
This verse defines Evil the way Jesus meant it to be defined, not according to our behavior, but something that goes much deeper!
Our Identity!
We are Light, but if we believe the darkness (sin consciousness)is in reality who we are, then we now have no other choice than to see ourselves as a mixture of Light and dark (good and evil) and the real definition of Evil!
At the heart of Jesus is the desire for a unified body, everyone having all things in common with no need! This can only happen when we SEE Christ alone as our Life! And when we believe what He and others throughout scripture say about true Evil!
Evil entered into existence when humanity looked for something in addition to God! It is no different today!
So when we believe in a divided Christ and a separated Gospel, it just reinforces what happened to us (our spiritual forefathers) in the Garden!
In seeing Only God Only Now…we are walking (in the Light) as we were created, seeing God as the author and finisher of everything, as the One who will never leave or forsake us, and the One who desires we see as He sees!
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the EVIL (double) one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be One; even as You, Father, are IN Me and I IN You, that they also may be IN us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be One, just as We are One; I IN them and You IN Me, that they may be perfected IN unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:14-24)
Now we know the truth, and it’s that same truth that sets us free! The truth that God created us IN His image, and when He sees us He sees His Son! He sees only One!
By Grace we have been made partakers of this new life IN Christ, and when we see the evil in the world, we no longer define it according to the world’s definition of Evil!
Evil is NOW rightly defined as God sees it, which is seeing more than Him in ALL things!
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