Matthew 6:22–23: The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Of course, Jesus is not giving us a lesson on optics. He is saying that the light that comes into a man’s soul depends on the spiritual condition of the eye though which it has to pass because the eye is the window of the body. That is the basic meaning. But there is a more specific and deeper meaning depending on the two words “clear” (NASB) and “bad.” I believe that “clear” here means “generous,” and “bad” means “ungenerous.” The Greek word translated “clear” was often used to mean generous in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (for example, Proverbs 11:25: “A generous man will prosper”). The word carries the same meaning in the New Testament. 1
Your Word is Truth
Have you allowed the windows of your eyes to have a dirty film over them? How much light is coming into your life? If you’re not a very generous person with your time and treasures, maybe you need to receive more of His light. Let His word light your life.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. –James 1:5
You Alone are God
When I see Him, and not my circumstances, I see more clearly. – TWEET IT
Your Will be Done
Lord, thank You for lighting my life with Your life and love.
1. Hughes, R. K. (2001). The sermon on the mount: the message of the kingdom. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
