Skip to main content

Tragedy of the eyes

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life —is not from the Father but is from the world.
I  recent came across the story of a British woman who died during cosmetic surgery at a clinic in Thailand. The 24-year-old was said to have been undergoing a procedure by an allegedly uncertified surgeon in Bangkok before her death. The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons said, “This tragic case highlights how, if lured by the prospect of what is essentially ‘cheap surgery’, patients can be left vulnerable.”

Sadly it is not the first time this has happened. In 2011 another British woman Claudia Aderotimi died in the United States. Ms Aderotimi worked as a dancer. She had come to believe that a 'bigger bottom' would make her famous enough to appear in hip hop videos. So she went to the USA trying to get an illegal 'butt enhancement' operation. One person who met her during one of the dance sessions described her as a "victim of the social pressure to be perfect".

This lure and desire to be "perfect" in people eyes is what Apostle John calls the "desires of the eyes". The original word for "desires" literally means deep cravings. Those things that assault our eyes and controls them. John says the world is full of these things which are not from God. The Lord Jesus said that the eye is the lamp of the body, "when your eye is healthy, your whole body is full  of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness" [Luke 11:34]. In other words our eyes are the windows to the world. Whoever controls your eyes controls you.

The power of the eyes to control us has always been there.  Yet it is clear that world is now more enslaved to what is seen and not what is thought than at any time in history the world. We live in the age of Instagram and YouTube where self promotion and gratification of the eyes means everything! We see what other people have and we want that. 

Our eyes increasingly push us to pursue God given desires to the extreme. Desiring to look presentable is okay, but the world now says you can have any body you want!  The result is the tragic consequences we see in the lives of these two British women. Seeing beauty in the opposite sex is a gift from God, which when abused leads to pornography. That in turn feeds the monster of sex trafficking and other vices.

Followers of Jesus are not immune to the tragedy of the eyes. Everywhere we look we are spiritually assaulted. The world beckons us to worship it in one way or another. It is not just through the many billboards! Many of us spend more time watching TV than reading our Bibles and praying to God. We must constantly ask ourselves – where in my life have I become enslaved to the eyes? How well am I looking after my eyes?

Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2013

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I am what I am by Gloria Gaynor

Beverly Knight closed the opening ceremony of the Paralympics with what has been dubbed the signature tune of the Paralympics. I had no idea Ms Knight is still in the singing business. And clearly going by the raving reviews she will continue to be around. One media source says her performance was so electric that "there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen as she sang the lyrics to the song and people even watching at home felt the passion in her words" . The song was Gloria Gaynor's I am what I am . Clearly not written by Gloria Gaynor but certainly musically owned and popularized by her. It opens triumphantly: I am what I am / I am my own special creation / So come take a look / Give me the hook or the ovation / It's my world that I want to have a little pride in / My world and it's not a place I have to hide in / Life's not worth a damn till you can say I am what I am The words “I am what I am” echo over ten times in the song. A bold declaration that she

The Shame of Worldly Joy

Only a Christian can be joyful and wise at the same time, because all other people either rejoice about things that they should be ashamed of (Philippians 3:19) or things that will disappear. A Christian is not ashamed of his joy, because he is not joyful about something shameful. That is why the Apostle Paul in [2 Corinthians 1:12] defends his joy. He says, I don’t care if everyone knows what makes me happy, because it is the ‘testimony of my conscience.’ He means, let other people can be happy about base pleasures that they are afraid to admit; let other people rejoice in riches, fame, or popularity; they can be happy about whatever they want, but my joy is different. ‘I rejoice because of my conscience.’ A Christian has a happiness that he can stand by and prove. No one else can do that. They will feel embarrassed and guilty if their happiness is found in something that is outside of themselves. They cannot say, ‘this is what makes me happy’. But a Christian has the approval of his

Preaching to the Conscience

Preaching to the conscience means something concrete. It means explaining the listeners’  obligations to God, their failure to meet those obligations, their impotence to make up for that failure, the eternal consequences of that failure, and God’s astounding grace offered to all who will humble themselves, repent, and believe the good news.  In other words, preaching to the conscience is provocative. It seeks to disturb the comfortable and to comfort the disturbed…. The great obstacle to this kind of preaching is when  the conscience is awakened, people react. The humble repent, rejoice, and enter God’s kingdom. The proud become angry: “Who are you to tell me I am a sinner?” or “This is not the God I learned about in Sunday school.”  Men dominated by the fear of man will not preach to the conscience. If you’re seeking a reward from men as you preach the gospel, you may get it, but that’s all—you won’t get anything from God.  The world needs pastors who fear God, love sinners, and under