The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body will be light
Matthew 6:22 sits between the call to store up treasure in heaven and the warning that no one can serve two masters. Jesus makes the matter personal: everything turns on the state of one eye. So what kind of eye does He mean, and why does it decide whether a whole life is bright or dark?
Jesus begins with a picture from the body. One writer draws out what a lamp does and does not do.
The eye is the lamp of the body; not the light, but what holds and fixes the light. The light comes from elsewhere: the organ of perception does not create the light, but receives it. For us the light is in the Word alone. It is the Word that judges and makes things plain. But there must be spiritual reception, and for that, a capacity to receive. With the heart set on things above, the eye is single and clear: God is before it, and in His light we see light. Then the whole body becomes full of light: the hands and feet have plenty of it for work and walk.
So the fault never lies with the light.
The question is not about the light, which is perfect, but about "the eye." A person's spiritual condition has a great deal to do with whether the disciples see rightly. How much we take in, how well we discern, our judgment and our practice all depend on the state of our affections.
The ESV calls the eye "healthy." Older translations read "single," and the writers here work from that older wording. One writer starts with what the word means literally.
It means literally "one-foldedness" or "simplex structure." ... So the Scriptural meaning of the word is that there should be no hidden motive and no double-dealing in a Christian's actions. He should be what people call "transparently honest." The Lord Jesus Christ gave the perfect example of this, as He did of everything else. What was true in Him while He was here should now be true in the Christian.
So how does an eye become single? One writer names the one object that does it.
Christ truly the object before one gives singleness of eye; and where He is simply and exclusively the "one thing" before the soul, the whole body is light. Difficulties vanish. The will of God becomes quite clear. I am surprised and ashamed to have had doubts here and uncertainty there.
One writer ties the single eye to both the treasure and the masters.
If we really know the Father in heaven, we shall find our treasure in heaven, and there our heart will be; and we have only to have the single eye to see this, and to see all else clearly. Then too our bodies become full of light: that is, we become luminous ourselves. We shall either be dominated by God or by mammon, for we cannot serve two masters.
The promise can also be read in reverse, as a test.
The great point in verse 22 is to have the single eye. It is a testing verse. Suppose I am distracted and in uncertainty about anything. Does not this tell me my eye is not single? If I want partly to please myself, and partly to please the Lord, I have not a single eye. But if I have a single eye for a single object, it will make my path easier as I go along.
Another writer meets the case where God's will stays unclear.
In a long and active life, God in His love does not always show us His will at once. He does this so that we learn our dependence when we are inclined to do our own will. Still, "if your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light." So it is certain that when the whole body is not full of light, the eye is not single. You will say, "A poor consolation that." I reply, "A rich one to those whose only desire is to have the eye single, and to walk with God."
One writer applied the verse to a woman unsure whether taking a discount from a supplier was honest.
We should not put our hand to a single thing which would not bear the strictest scrutiny... Can she with a good conscience take the discount from the person who supplies her with the things? Should it be called "discount" or "bribe"? "If your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light."
- Lamp, not light — the eye holds and fixes light it never produced; the light comes from the Word.
- Single eye — the ESV's "healthy" eye is a single one: no hidden motive, no double-dealing, as in Christ.
- One object — when Christ alone fills the view, difficulties vanish. God's will becomes clear.
- Two masters — treasure in heaven keeps the eye single. The other master is mammon.
- Reverse the test — when the body is not full of light, the eye is not single. Start looking there.
but if thine eye be wicked, thy whole body will be dark. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great the darkness!
The Lord has just told His hearers where to store up treasure. Now He turns from the treasure to the eye that looks at it. The picture is simple: a body is either lit or dark, depending on its own eye. But it raises a hard question. What happens when the light inside a person has gone out?
The eye in this picture does not produce anything. It takes in what shines from outside, and its condition decides how much gets through.
The eye is the lamp of the body; not the light, but what holds and fixes the light. The light comes from elsewhere: the eye that sees does not create the light; it receives it. For us the light is in the Word alone. The Word judges and makes things plain. But there must be spiritual reception, and for this a capacity to receive, which the apostle places in the heart and its condition (Eph. 1:18). With the heart set on things above, the eye is single and clear: God is before it, and in His light we see light. Then the whole body becomes full of light: the hands and feet have plenty of it for work and walk.
The Lord uses the same expression in other places. Read alongside them, a bad eye points to something wrong in the heart, not to weak sight.
The Lord Jesus mentions the expression "an evil eye" in other connections also (see Matt. 20:15; Mark 7:22). There the evil eye is the visible proof of an envious, jealous heart. If envy, pride or other evil things fill our heart, then our whole life is, so to speak, clouded with darkness. We rob ourselves of every true joy in the Lord. We also lose our discernment about ourselves and about what is around us.
The verse does not describe a person who never had light. It describes light that a person has mishandled. That is why the closing words are so severe.
But if the eye is evil, perverting what light it receives, there will be no light whatever in the body. The light that comes in is cleverly turned into darkness — a darkness that is "how great!" No one may treat God's truth lightly. If someone twists it, it can plunge him into a state worse than plain ignorance.
One writer goes further. He sees God Himself at work here. God does not only let a person stumble; He turns the light itself into darkness.
What a contrast between a man with a single eye and a man who does not act on the light God has given him! The one is a light-bearer for others; the other is a stumbling-block in the way. We know nothing more solemn than God acting in judgment, turning our light into darkness, because we have refused to act on the light He was pleased to give.
Commentators differ over whom the Lord has in view. Some read the bad eye as the state of a person not yet born of God. Religious background makes no difference to it.
The Lord is not dealing here with redemption. He is dealing with the need of a new nature — or else with the moral evil found where a person is not born of God. The "eye" shows what the nature is, inside as well as outside. This is man's condition unless grace renews him. In this all-important respect the Jew, judged by the light in our Lord Jesus, was no better off than the Gentile.
Others read it as a warning aimed straight at those who already have the light and fail to use it.
But light rejected becomes darkness, and how great the darkness! Truth given, light flashed out from the Word and not used and acted upon, leads into the grossest darkness. (This is the deplorable state of thousands of believers.)
If a divided heart is the trouble, the cure is one object filling the view. The change shows up at once in everyday choices.
When Christ Himself is truly the object before a person, the eye is single. Where He alone is the "one thing" before the soul, the whole body is light. Difficulties vanish. The will of God becomes quite clear. I am surprised and ashamed to have had doubts here and uncertainty there.
- Receive — the eye holds light; it never makes it. The light comes from God's Word, and the state of the heart decides how much gets in.
- Divide — envy, pride and other evil in the heart show up in the eye. They cloud the whole life and cost us both joy and discernment.
- Pervert — refused light does not simply fade. It turns into darkness, and leaves a person worse off than plain ignorance.
- Darken — God Himself can turn our light into darkness when we will not act on what He gives. Believers are not exempt.
- Simplify — the way back is one object. When Christ alone fills the view, doubts clear and the whole body is light.