THE EYE AND LIGHT

In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, we read “that the light of the body is the eye” (6:22), and if your eye ‘is single’ or clear and healthy, good or sound, then “the whole body will be full of light” (6:22). But if your eye ‘is evil’ or bad, unclear or divided and unhealthy “your body will be full of darkness” (6:23). As the Amplified Bible says: “The eye is the lamp of the body; so if your eye is clear [spiritually perceptive], your whole body will be full of light [benefiting from God’s precepts]. But if your eye is bad [spiritually blind], your whole body will be full of darkness [devoid of God’s precepts]. So if the [very] light inside you [your inner self, your heart, your conscience] is darkness, how great and terrible is that darkness!”

The last phrase is one that always jumps out at me. “If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Or, as Luke 11:35 reads, “Take care, then, that the light in you is not darkness.” The obvious question that comes to mind is: How can the light that is in us …be darkness? The Amplified again, “So if the [very] light inside you [your inner self, your heart, your conscience] is darkness, how great and terrible is that darkness!”

I think this is speaking of a deception that can overtake individuals by allowing and assuming that there is light in them by their own definition and yet by the Lord’s standard and scripture itself, they are evil, deceived, corrupt and living in darkness. As the terms are used above, ‘they are spiritually blind and devoid of God’s concepts.’

Light becomes dark and the eye is evil when we do not realize that we turned the switch off. Light is bright and the eye is single when the switch is on and stays on. It is an encouragement to not be messing with the switch.

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.” Jesus