Followed By Mercy

The Battle Between Two Masters: Heaven's Treasures vs. Worldly Desires

• W. Austin Gardner

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Jesus’ words about the eye being “the lamp of the body” in Matthew 6 have left many people puzzled. In this heartfelt conversation, Austin Gardner and Robert Canfield dive into one of Christ’s most often misunderstood teachings and show how it speaks directly to our spiritual priorities.

Jesus was not changing subjects when He spoke about eyes and light. He was deepening His call to treasure God above all else. The hosts explain how Jewish listeners would have understood the “evil eye” as greed, envy, and spiritual darkness. In contrast, the “single eye” pointed to generosity, simplicity, and undivided devotion to God.

Through Scripture and real-life stories, Gardner and Canfield show how our focus shapes who we are. Austin recalls a powerful encounter with a Chinese pastor who endured twenty years in prison camps. His warning still echoes: “Persecution strengthens faith. Prosperity weakens it.” His words challenge us to think honestly about how wealth and comfort affect our walk with Christ.

From Matthew 6 to Psalm 23, from Colossians 3 to the parable of the sower, the conversation paints a clear picture: whatever we fix our eyes on will shape our desires and ultimately our lives. As Robert puts it, “The master who promises worldly riches always leaves us empty. But Christ gives us Himself, and He is enough.”

This episode invites you to stop and ask: Where are your eyes fixed today? And what does that say about the condition of your heart?

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Austin Gardner:

Well, I want to welcome you back to, Followed by Mercy, our podcast. I'm joined today by Robert Canfield, my good friend. You know that he's been here with us many times before, and Robert is the director of Taking the Light Ministries. And so, Robert, do you want to give a greeting there? Hello everyone.

Robert Canfield:

It's an honor to be on here. I love talking with you, Willie Gardner. I've always enjoyed the conversations. I've always learned a lot from listening to you and it's just one of my greatest honors to be able to talk to you and discuss scripture. You helped form me in my way of being able to interpret the Bible and helping me, I would say, you just not only helped that, but you challenged me to figure out what the Bible said and everything that I would say. You just not only helped that, but you challenged me to figure out what the Bible said and everything that I would say. You would always say well, what's the Bible say about that? What belief I'd come. So I really do appreciate being able to talk with you on things like these.

Austin Gardner:

I am very happy that we have been blessed by the Lord to know each other and work together, and I'm excited about what I thought we could talk about today. The Bible says in Matthew 6, 22, I already told you this before we were getting started. It's talking about where you lay up your treasures. In verse 20, it says lay up your treasures in heaven. And in verse 21, where your treasure is there, your heart will be also the verse that, I think, confuses people more than any in that chapter.

Austin Gardner:

Often I'm talking about regular people like me, not theologians. It says the light of the body is the eye. If, therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that's in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? No man can serve two masters. So it's like, all of a sudden, we swap from laying up treasures in heaven to masters and we've got a paragraph in there or a sentence or two in there that were kind of crazy. Till you understand it. But the light of the body is the eye, and where your eye is single, you're full of light. So I thought we could just chew the fat about that, yeah Well.

Robert Canfield:

I remember going back and reading that several years ago and that made no sense to me. That passage I was trying to figure out. Like what in the world does that mean? And it seems like it almost seems like that Jesus changes topics. He's talking about treasure and then he's talking about my eyes. I have no clue what he's talking about.

Robert Canfield:

So I'm like why do we go from like stop laying up treasure in heaven, or stop laying up treasure here on earth and start laying up treasure in heaven, or stop laying up treasure here on earth and start laying up treasure in heaven? And then he talks about the light in the eye. And I was totally lost until I tried to start studying that out, because he doesn't change topics. It's one topic there and he's got a point that Jesus is teaching us, and I think it's clear in those first two verses you did verse 20 and verse 19. He tells us to not lay up, and then he tells us to lay up, and so that's our command. But then he goes in a little more depth in giving an illustration about where people's focus or their eyes are, and I think that's a real, real interesting thing.

Austin Gardner:

I think that's the key is what are you focused on? And that's really what. That's the center of what's happening in this passage of scripture. Basically, you either focus on heaven or you focus on treasures, right.

Robert Canfield:

That's right. I mean he says you can't serve two masters and that's, that's the. That's the thing. So if, if my eye is single, if I have a a focus on things above right Things, on things on heaven, jesus, then that changes my total, changes everything about my life. It changes everything that that comes in and how I view people and how I treat people and how I treat myself, and it just it puts a lot of. I mean, when I have a single focus, it redirects my affections and things that I savor and I long after. So a single eye here.

Austin Gardner:

If an eye be single. A single eye is an undivided heart. It's like an undivided focus. It's like if you, you look, if you learn where to look and you look in the right place and you look in at the lord, then you're going to end up having his light flood your body. That's right, your life right yeah, and that's where.

Robert Canfield:

that's where the true treasure is laying up. I remember, I think it's. I think illustrations are real easy to help make things clear, right? And so I remember when you were talking and you discussed on, I came when I moved down here and I was learning underneath you. I was a single man and I was listening to things. You said that was a long time ago. It was a long time ago you had grown daughters. Then, yeah, thanks for reminding me about that. But anyways, I remember you talking about when you were a young man. It was a long time ago. You had grown daughters. Then, yeah, thanks for reminding me about that.

Robert Canfield:

But anyways, I remember you talking about when you were a young man, going into college, the university or the college that you were at, and how you finally got fed up and you're like God, I'm not running after a girl, I don't care, I'm just going to follow you and I'm not going to tell them anything. I'm just going to follow you and I'm not going to tell them anything, I'm just going to focus on you. And I think in that same time, when you were teaching, you were saying that my life verse I adopted was I'm going to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and I'm going to run every decision I make, every major decision in my life. I'm going to focus in on that. Am I seeking first the kingdom of God? And when you were saying that, I realized that what you were doing was you were redirecting your attention and the way that you made decisions based on whether it was going to be my putting God first. Am I seeking after the Lord, am I seeking Jesus or am I seeking things?

Austin Gardner:

here and there. I certainly don't think I've done as good as I ought to have done about that.

Robert Canfield:

Well, no one bats a thousand, so you don't have to worry about that. But I was just using that as an illustration.

Austin Gardner:

I definitely knew that I focused on me and I have always focused on me too much. I think that's a problem and we focus on ourselves. Now, what's interesting? In the Jewish language, the Hebrew language and among their people, they had an idiom the evil eye. Now, in Peru, we had an evil eye. In Peru, if you looked at a baby, for example, a mother would put milk in its eyes or on its forehead. They'd wear red bracelets on the baby's arms because somebody could look at it and maybe put an evil eye. Not that kind of evil eye.

Austin Gardner:

For the Jewish person, the evil eye was stinginess and envy and spiritual corruption, corruption. And so Jesus is saying there if your eye is diseased, if your eye is stingy, if your eye is into envy and spiritual corruption. So the single eye was the opposite of that generosity. It meant that I am looking at the right thing and seeking the right thing. And, honestly, the idiom fits the context here, because if you have an evil eye, if you're thinking stingy, you don't want to lay up treasures in heaven, you want to lay up treasures for yourself. Is that not what's going on there? I think so.

Robert Canfield:

You said evil eye and you sent me a topic that you wanted to discuss and I thought that was awesome, appreciate that. And you talked about the eye, and so I was studying. I flipped through a verse in Mark, chapter seven. Jesus talks about the evil eye. I thought that was interesting because I didn't see your notes. I didn't go over everything, but he talked about an evil eye and that's exactly what he was talking about. I was like, what in the world is an evil eye? And he talked about a person that was looking at something that wasn't theirs and how they can get it. But when Jesus was talking about the evil eye, you know where the evil eye comes from.

Robert Canfield:

It comes from a heart. A heart, yeah, and that's what I think. That's the real issue. I mean, it comes from a heart that's not set on. The right things are our new heart. And when you think about what people focus is on, that's it usually is is is caused by a wrong desire. And when you think about generosity like, why do people give? Well, most people give because they're hoping for someone else is going to give them back in return, right?

Austin Gardner:

Well, definitely, I think a lot of giving is based on the idea that maybe God will reward me. I'm only doing it for what I can get. I'm not doing it because I'm in love with Jesus. I'm not doing it for the heaven, I'm doing it for me and I get in those moments too I think we all do.

Robert Canfield:

I'd drive him down the road and I was just like God, I've done this, this, this and this and this. And then when I start saying it out loud, then I get convicted and I'm like, well, you gave me a whole bunch more.

Austin Gardner:

I can't even compare it to the gift you gave me. The language of the Christian is gratitude, but too often I'm not feeling gratitude. I'm feeling feeling gratitude. I'm feeling greedy. I'm like forget what you've given me. I want more. I think that's what that evil eye is. It's like I gotta think about me and it's you.

Robert Canfield:

It comes from the mindset of like I gotta get mine right now, like I preach chapel. They asked me to preach chapel, uh, wednesday, and the, the guy over the chapel says we're going through first peter and I had a message on the first peter and and it's easy to be focused in on things of jesus when, when you, when things are starting to be taken away from your life well, it helped me a whole bunch, Is it not?

Austin Gardner:

You know, the truth is that what was coming some of the worst that could ever happen turns out to be the best, because you're right. As I lost things, I realized, you know Jesus is all you need when he's all you got.

Robert Canfield:

Well, and so I was. We're going through Peter and he's talking about suffering and he's talking to those that are scattered throughout all these different places and he reminds them. In that he reminds them, it's really awesome Verse 1 and 2, he calls them two things, he calls them strangers and he calls them elect. And I was telling the kids that if they could just adopt this mindset that this isn't the end game. And so a lot of times in my life I'm like God, I want this, I want this to happen, I want this to happen, and it's like it's my own plan that I'm setting out, but in reality it's just me consuming on my own wants and my own lust and my own desires.

Robert Canfield:

But when we aren't living in a time of affluence and we're living without stuff and it's not so much comfortable you know what I mean it's easy to say Jesus, you're all I need. It's easy to think about that, but unfortunately, a good bit of us hear ships. We live in America and we have so much stuff. It's like we need a little bit more. We need to have this, we need to have that, and it's just like we forgot, we have forgotten that we are pilgrims and we are chosen of God and our affection shouldn't be here on earth. Our eyes should be. We sing songs about it, don't we Turn our eyes on?

Austin Gardner:

Jesus. That reminds me I think I've told you more than once probably, but when I was in China years ago, I was visiting a man that spent 20 years in the concentration camps and he was a pastor and he had gotten out. He was an older man. I was still, I don't know, middle-aged, I guess 40, 50. And I was talking to him about how sorry I was that he had suffered and that I would pray that God would give them peace and would bless him, and he said oh, please don't.

Austin Gardner:

He said the last thing we want to do is be like America. He said persecution is good for the faith. Prosperity is bad for the faith. That's a pretty rough, he told me. He said please don't, pray for us to get out of this. I mean, I don't know, I was listening through a translator. I do know that it was a second, but the point being, the more prosperity is about me, and that's what our I think that is. The issue of this passage of Scripture is that it's. Do I want to focus on the Lord or I want to focus on me? You can only have one master, that's right, but we tend to want two.

Robert Canfield:

We tend to want one master and we want Jesus the master to make sure what we want comes to true. So it's almost like a genie, Yep, and you said that stuff. You know what? Jesus stated this when he was here. Right, he talked about that. There was a parable of the sower and the seed and there was four grounds right, and we know that the seed was God's word. Right, that he was sowing and what choked out? God's word.

Austin Gardner:

Yep, the success, it was all the riches that the world has to offer. And we have that in America, we have that.

Robert Canfield:

And I think people have that all around the world, and it's a tug. Our hearts are prone to wonder, is it not? And we feel it, we know it, and it's prone to leave the God that we love right and we just in our minds, I think, every ever so often for me, maybe like once an hour, I'm just joking, it's, it's not, it's no duty, but it's just a. It's a, it's a reminder in my own mind and my heart, like I can't put my focus and my desire on things here. I'm just a sojourner, I'm a pilgrim and we get to spend eternity with the one that chose us, that wants to be with us, that loves us, that gave his only begotten son and that put his Holy Spirit to indwell us, to help us, to sanctify us, to encourage us, to build us up under good works. He put that in him, so he wants to spend time with us, he wants us to be with us.

Robert Canfield:

That's why Paul was in him straight betwixt two, was he not? There's one that's far better, but I know it's really needful for you guys for me to be here right now, and so there's always going to be that pull and it's hard, it's really hard to have that single eye, that single eye, because whenever I have that, you will call it an evil eye, right? That eye that focuses in on the stuff. It only brings more heartache and distraught and it's not what God has intended for my life. It's not that abundant life. Well, you know, I think the key here.

Austin Gardner:

I mean that just made me think about what I'm going to preach One of the last messages, Shady Grove on Psalm 23,. And David said I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever and I'm going to be preaching that. David said I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever and I'm going to be preaching that. And you know David's focus. He's at the bottom, he's in a pit, he's about to be killed and he's been focused on the Lord and being grateful for what the Lord has done. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. And now he says you know what? I'm finally back where I'm supposed to be. It's all about the Lord. That's where it should be at.

Austin Gardner:

I started this psalm with the Lord. I'm ending this psalm with the Lord and I want to be with Him. And I think the key for all of this about the single eye and everything else and we'll repeat it some more in another podcast but it was the Lord that wanted to be with us. It's never been about us seeking Him. It's always been about Him seeking us. And all he's saying is I love you and I died for you and I saved you and I rejoice over you and I take pleasure in you and I delight over you and I think you're wonderful. Could you just look at me? Isn't that what's going on? Jesus said you've got to pick a master, but y'all are picking what you can do. That's what Adam and Eve did in the garden. And that master always leaves us for wanting more. That master, yeah, the bad master, the evil master, and he's looking and saying in the garden I gave you everything, but you wanted more.

Robert Canfield:

You made me think. Holy Spirit pops up, verses right. He brings the remembrance. He says let your conversation be without covetousness. Be content with what you have, for he hath said I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Isn't that beautiful?

Robert Canfield:

That one master always leads me to want more, and it's just a. When I get that eye and I go down that road, it's hard. I get in places where I'm like how did I get here? Because it always leads to I want a little bit more, I want a little bit more. I want a little bit more, I want a little bit more. I want a little bit more, I want a little bit more. But when that eye is letting in the good light, the light of the world right, there's a peace that passes all understanding. There's a realization in my heart that, like that water, doesn't make me want to thirst for more. It doesn't want to make me go after for other stuff. I don't need the praise of man, I don't need the things this world has to offer, I don't need the fame, I don't need the fortunes, I don't need the stuff, I just need Him. And that's where true contentment comes from. That's where true contentment comes from, amen.

Austin Gardner:

Well, what's in your eyes will determine what shapes you. What you look at is what affects you. What's on the inside determines what you focus on on the outside, and so you know what I'm looking at is influencing everything. And I'll be honest, I've lived many of my years focused on the wrong thing. I was focused on the Lord but how he could use me, and it was all it. I look at it now and I realize so much of it was about me and he wants us focusing on Him. That's what he did in Psalm 23. I know I keep going back to that, but that's been my life for months Now it's, but it's. The Lord is my shepherd.

Austin Gardner:

So we want to continue this conversation and share more of that with you here. In the next podcast We'll talk about where we're looking and what's going on with our eyes. In the Bible, the Lord spends a lot of time talking about our eye and it may seem kind of strange, so maybe you've got a little bit of understanding. So, robert, kind of sum up today with an explanation of that passage there of Matthew 6 and the eye.

Robert Canfield:

Well, what Jesus was talking. It's one of the greatest sermons ever. It was the greatest sermon ever preached here on this earth. And he was talking and he was telling us that our treasure is in heaven and we need to lay it up in heaven, because you can't serve two masters, and if your eye is focused in on one, then it's not focused in on the other. There is no middle ground here, and so it's either Jesus or the world, and you can't have it both ways. And he wants your attention and he wants your affection, because he's given you His all.

Austin Gardner:

And we can set our affection because in Colossians 3, after he had told two chapters of what he did for us, he simply said would y'all look at me? He said I've spent two chapters telling you how good I've been to you, so now I ask you to set your affection on me.

Robert Canfield:

That's all he wants. Everything else falls into play after that, right.

Austin Gardner:

He just wants us to look at him and love him, because he's loved us and looked at us. That fulfills all the law, amen. Well, I am so grateful for the opportunity to talk with you today. Robert Canfield and myself We've been just sharing with you a conversation we're having here in my office. I hope it has been a blessing to you and, if it has, share it with somebody and invite others to listen and we'll be back with more. God bless you.

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