A single eye
Jesus on the eye and the body
The lamp of the body is the eye, Jesus says. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. It is an image about focus. A single eye — undivided, fixed on one thing — floods the whole person with light. A divided eye leaves everything dim.
Applied to leadership, it is piercing. Divided motives, split loyalties, a gaze that wants God and gain both — these do not merely weaken a leader; they darken everything he touches. Clarity of purpose is not just efficient; it is illuminating. When the aim is single, the whole enterprise can see. When it is divided, even the good parts grow shadowed.
“No one can serve two masters. You can't serve both God and Mammon.”
— Jesus, on divided loyalty — Matthew 6:24 (WEB)
A single, undivided aim fills the whole enterprise with light; divided motives darken even the good parts. Clarity of purpose is not just efficient — it is illuminating.
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light.”
Jesus traces darkness back to a divided eye. A leader formed here roots out split motives and double aims in himself, knowing they dim everything downstream. The inner work is singleness — wanting one master, not two.
Keep the team's aim single and clear, so the whole body can see. Name and resist the divided loyalties — to results and integrity both, to God and gain both — that leave an organization shadowed. Guard clarity as a source of light, not just speed.
Leaders tolerate divided motives in themselves and wonder why the whole operation feels murky. The blind spot is not seeing that a split eye at the top darkens the entire body.
Identify one place your aim has gone divided. This week, choose the single master and let the other go, and watch what clarifies.
Divided motives don't just slow a leader down; they dim everything he touches. A single eye fills the whole body with light; a split gaze leaves even the good parts in shadow.
Where is your eye divided — wanting two masters at once — and what has gone dim because of it?