Eye, eyes. ὀφθαλμός, עַיִן. The ISBE (Orr) comments that the eye is “the eye of the heart or mind, the organ of spiritual perception.” Also “an index of the mind and disposition of man.” The eye is the device through which the scriptures are read, through which the spirit is illuminated by its truths, taking in objective truths and transferring them to the spirit. If the scriptural truths are most importantly the mysteries, the prophecies, then the eye denotes the way to see prophetic truth in the scriptures.
Plucked out/single (see feet). “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell” (Mt 5:29). Here, the subject of the Sermon the Mount is a contrast between law and grace, with the opinion of the Pharisees representing a refusal for that whole concept so that only part will be predicating religion. But our question must go beyond this to “What kind of discernment were the Pharisees lacking, of what scriptural material?”
Since the Pharisees examined the righteousness of the Messiah before them, and the Messiah is the oracular revelation, then their error was about that scriptural revelation and their insistence that Jesus of Nazareth was not Messiah by the scriptures. The eye is then an exegetically offending eye. Their eyes were darkened to see the fact of Jesus from OT scripture.
The fetish for the law is preventing the Pharisees from seeing Messiah and placing him first in their religious affections. The Law is the old symbol, Christ is the new righteous symbol. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Mt 5:17–18). No symbol that God ordained is “destroyed,” only superseded after it has fulfilled its purpose, which is prophetic “fulfillment.” An exegete has two eyes in which to see these truths in the scriptures. If one eye is bad and the other good, it is better to cripple, or simplify, the full range of your god-given spiritual vision by removing the proclivity to regard religion over Messiah. One should separate oneself from it instead of facing the wrath of God by choosing intact religious traditions over Christ. The result is personal loss (Mat 10:34–36), but life is preserved (1 Co 3:15).
The same figure is used in Matthew 6:22–23 and Luke 11:34: “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.” “Darkness” is not “sin” in the general sense, but in a particular, exegetical sense. The Pharisees darkened exegetical template by which Messiah is denied as leading their faith was a subscription to a darkness of vision put as holy illumination, leading to an inevitable death (2 Co 3:6).
Further, we have: “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Mt 7:5). That, if one has sin don’t judge another for the same sin is obvious. But it is the species of this sin that is in view. That is, no one can see the truth or teach it without removing any cultural, traditional, religious, theological obstructions in one spirit that prevents one from seeing the fulfilled Christ of the Prophet’s clearly and putting Him first. This is the primary sin.
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