The Eye Covenant By Kevin Bullard

Let's face it men, no matter how much you love you wife and find her attractive, you're always going to see another woman who grabs your attention.

You know how it works: You're out somewhere, minding your own business when all the sudden ...there she is. She's sensual, beautiful, and lightly fragranced. She's wearing a nice outfit that shows off her curvaceous body. You want to look away, but you just can't take your eyes off her.

The longer you look at her, the more you feel like you should look away. However, your body has already begun to like the sensation it's feeling as you stare at her. Before you know it, you have begun to desire her in your heart, and you are imagining how she would look wearing something a bit looser and transparent - or perhaps, nothing at all.

Matthew 5:28 tells us that any man who looks at a woman with the intention of lusting after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. That means, if you look a woman solely to gratify your flesh, you have sinned.

While the act of staring another woman down may seem like a harmless act, it can become destructive if left unchecked and reproved. As a matter of fact, this is how many men have moved into deep addiction to pornography, marital duress, job loss, spoiled relationships with others, and ultimately divorce from their wife, and loss of relationship with their kids.

There is a very revealing scripture that explains how all of this happens. Matthew 6:22-23:

The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good (clear or healthy), your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad (evil or unhealthy), your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

On your body, your eyes are located where? Correct, on your face, which is on your head. What you see through your eyes makes an imprint on your heart - for better or worse.

According to 1 Corinthians 11:3, man (husband) is the head of woman (wife). If the husband has been viewing all types of things he shouldn't, and dwelling on other women's beauty and sensuality, he is opening up his wife (his body) and marriage to darkness. Darkness is the power that Satan uses to inflict evil. That is why Colossians 1:13 says that we have been translated from the power of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son in love.

If a husband is seeing problems in his wife or marriage - relationally, communicatively, sexually, even financially, it could be because he has invited darkness into his body through his actions. [Pause now to take a quick inventory of your wife and marriage. Have you been inviting evil by your actions?].
Fortunately, God has not left us as victims regarding how to overcome temptation that enters though the eyes. He has given us practical and foolproof counsel in the wisdom books. Let's first look at Job 31:1. Job says here, "I have made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look [intently or gaze] lustfully upon a young woman?"

Covenants are very strong and binding agreements. Covenants go beyond the regular "I promise" pledge, and even our traditional contracts. Pledges and contracts can both be breached if one party does not live up to its end of the bargain. Covenants, however, such as ours with God, are meant to last forever. They are binding and will be executed even if one party does not hold up its end. This is what Job made with his eyes.
For Job's covenant with his eyes to hold up, he had to make some changes to his daily routine. If you want to make a covenant with your eyes, you, too, will need to make changes to your daily routine. Here are a few suggestions: