Myopic Horses With Blinders? Two Perspectives In discussing the two treasures (Matthew 6:19-24), Jesus speaks of two perspectives: "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" (Matthew 6:22-23). Jesus makes it clear that our vision is faulty. We need his help to see our life through different eyes - eyes focused on the eternal. Physical vision is used here as a metaphor for spiritual vision, or perspective - the way we look at life. Unbelievers view life as a brief interval that begins at birth and ends at death. In considering the future, they look no further than their own life span, if even that. Their vision is pitifully short and narrow, restricted to the horizons of this world. Like a myopic horse with blinders on, the person without Christ can see neither far nor wide. Bereft of eternal perspective, unbelievers are bound to take wrong turns and come to wrong conclusions, thinking, If this life is all there is, why deny myself any pleasure or possession? Given this premise, why would they come to any other conclusion? People only live for a higher purpose when they see a higher purpose. As believers in Christ, our theology gives us perspective. It tells us that this life is the preface - not the book. It's the preliminaries - not the main event. It's the tune up - not the concert. When you're on a long airplane flight, your naturally socialize, eat, read, pray, sleep, and maybe talk about where you're going. But what would you think if a passenger in the window seat hung curtains over the window, taped photographs to the seat in front of him, and put up wall hangings? You'd think, Hey it's not that long of a trip. Once we get to the destination, none of this will matter. I think of our lives in terms of a dot and a line, signifying two phases. Our present life on earth is the dot. It begins. It ends. It's brief. However, from the dot, a line extends that goes one forever. That line is eternity, which Christians will spend in heaven. Right now we are living on the dot. The person with perspective lives for the line. Like evangelism and Bible study and moral purity, giving is living for the line. It's all about perspective. The believer's view of reality should be radically different than non-believer's. We should live differently because we see differently. We witness the same current events but interpret them differently. We eat the same food and exchange the same currency but live according to two different purposes. These purposes are based squarely on two different perspectives - on that looks at life in the short run and the other that looks at life in the long run. When our eyes are set on eternity, the news that someone has come to know the Savior means a great deal more than the news of a salary raise or the prospect of getting the latest high-tech gadget. Of course, the salary raise, and perhaps the gadget, can be used for the kingdom of God. But the point is that neither one in itself is ultimately important, whereas new birth, which affects the eternal destiny of a precious human being, is vitally important. So important that the inhabitants of heaven rejoice over it the moment it happens (Luke 15:7,10). The one with the good eyes, the one with an eternal perspective, is accurate in his appraisal of what's important. With vision corrected by God's Word, this person sees life through the eyes of eternity. Unlike others, the believer stares through the haze and peers beyond the horizons of this world to another.
8:44:11 PM 
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