Clarity of
Vision

Truth is readily available in the post-Information Age for it is everywhere. In a “pick one” era, multiple versions of truth are excessively convenient. Pick your source: newsprint, talk radio, television, social media or anywhere else that appeals to your sense of what is true. But – always the but – is it True?

I’ve had the privilege of sitting under dozens of great teachers over my last sixty-plus years and owe much of my worldview to insights received from them. A little over forty years ago I had the privilege of being in conferences with exceptional expositors who provided me with background word studies I would have missed otherwise. While most have transitioned into the heavenly presence of God, they still touch my life through the truth deposited in my memories.

“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. If then the light that is 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 one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Matthew 6:22-24 NASB95

There is a difficulty in being an English-speaking person and reading the Bible which was originally recorded in Old Testament Aramaic and New Testament Koiné Greek as we often do not understand the use of the translated words as used in the original writings. While it almost never is misleading and seldom is doctrinally significant, the color of meaning can be lost. If the eye is the lamp of the body, the gate through which light enters into our inner being, and the eye is “clear”, we will be full of the light that is coming through that entry point. The word “clear” in this translation is “haplous” in Greek which is an adjective giving us details about the entry point, the eye. While “clear” comes a little closer than the King James “single”, the original use of haplous was a commercial term from the marketplace as in the inspecting of a piece of fabric. In the time of the writing, fabric was woven on looms by individuals and both the quality of the material going into the fabric and the weaving process varied greatly such that the fabric was frequently not uniform. Some sellers became quite skilled at presenting the fabric to a buyer in such a way as to fold any flaws inside so as to not be evident and then turning and refolding to appear to be revealing all when still actually concealing. Haplous is the term for providing clarity in presentation so nothing is hidden, the piece is as sound as it appears.

When we think of Truth, is it not too often subject to manipulation, to hiding part of the reality behind the apparent? Whatever our favorite source of information, do we really perceive the full nature of the content. Media can be quite persuasive in presenting part of a story without giving us all the content, to shaping our perception, to giving us a warped lens to view through so that we really don’t see truth. Hence follows the warning that if the light coming in is through a bad lens, you will be filled with darkness. While we like to imagine that we control how much distortion we take in, we are not built that way – if our perception is mistaken, we do not perceive the distortion. If you have corrective lenses, you probably were not aware that you weren’t seeing clearly until your vision was tested by someone else. You may have become aware that others saw things you didn’t make out but we tend not to blame ourselves for lackings in ourselves.

It is not without significance that Jesus follows this observation about clarity with the statement about the impossibility of serving two masters. While we think of master-slave relationships and quickly deny that possibility, is it not more likely He is warning against the prior statement of serving distortion, living as if Truth were compatible with darkness or distortion? That last “You cannot serve God and wealth” is not limited to money but anything we treasure enough that it would distort our perception of Truth and loyalty to God.

How is your clarity? What are the filters you are perceiving through? Is your Truth consistent with your beliefs? How can you change your filters for accuracy?