Matthew 6 – the Lamp of the Body

Let’s read Matthew 6:22-23: The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

What was Jesus trying to teach here?

At first glance these two verses may seem a little incongruous in between verses 19-21 which we looked at last week, which are concerned with valuing treasure in heaven, and verse 24 which (God willing) we’ll look at next week, which is concerned with the impossibility of serving both God and money.

Those two passages both seem to have a monetary flavour and contain Jesus’ advice on how to put God ahead of the things we might value or even need in this world.

But what about today’s passage? It’s not immediately obvious how it connects with the other two.

Let’s begin

Let’s start with what Jesus was NOT saying. He was not describing the physical operation of the human body. Even in the time in which he lived, long before any kind of scientific understanding of how the body worked, people did not think that the inside of the human body needed to be illuminated from outside – via healthy eyes – in order to function properly.

So what did he mean?

As I said, the context of the previous verses is that of making a choice between putting God first or putting things in this world first. It’s likely Jesus was trying to make a similar contrast here and expand upon his previous point.

In the NIV and NRSV, which I’m using for these studies, the English word “healthy” is used to describe the eye in the positive sense. Other translations have “good” or “clear“. Some translate it as “single“, which is one possible transliteration of the original Greek word. This could suggest that Jesus was recommending a sense of the eye looking single-mindedly at the object of one’s desire – in other words, keeping one’s focus on that treasure in heaven – and not being distracted by other things.

However, it’s not clear how the word “unhealthy“, used to describe the eye in the negative sense in verse 23, could act as a contrast to this. That word in the original Greek can’t be translated as anything along the lines of “multiple-minded” or “unfocussed” or any other possible antonym of “single“.

Most commentators agree that it’s more likely the word translated “healthy” or “single” implies something more along the lines of “generous”, and that the word translated as “unhealthy” implies something like “miserly” or “stingy”.

What is his point?

The suggestion therefore is that for eyes to be “generous” or “stingy” is a reflection of one’s attitude towards other people – specifically one’s willingness to share one’s perhaps treasured possessions with those in need.

This also fits in perfectly with the context of verses 19-21, namely the valuing of treasure in heaven. If the thing that you truly value above all else is in heaven – i.e. God – then you should not feel so attached to your worldly possession that you feel unable to share them with others.

A person whose treasure is in heaven should have an attitude of generosity, freely giving to those in need. A person whose treasure is still here on earth is far less likely to do that, and far more likely to hang on to those things.

Why? Because deep down they still think, even if only subconsciously, that those things – money, job, status, whatever – are what will save them. And if you are relying on those things to save you, how can you ever possibly give them up?

A yardstick

I suggest, then, that this is a good way to measure where your treasure truly lies. Are you generous with your money or time or possessions, ready to share them with the less well off? Or do you tend to be miserly and hang on to them just in case you might need them yourself someday?

Is there anything in your life which you know deep down you’d never be able to let go of for any reason whatsoever?

Do you trust in God above all else, believing that even if you give away things you genuinely need, he’ll ensure you always have enough?

It’s not easy to do that. Our natural instincts are for self-preservation, to look after number one and only give away things we don’t have any use for. As always, it takes conscious effort to do the opposite of that.

But what about…?

There’s one sentence from these verses we haven’t considered yet. What did Jesus mean by “If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness?”

Again, he’s not speaking literally of light and darkness inside a person’s body.

If the suggestion I mentioned earlier is correct, he’s referring to the difference between an attitude of generosity and an attitude of selfishness.

Here’s how three commentators sum up this saying of Jesus.

Michael J Wilkins in the NIV Application Commentary:
If a disciple’s eyes are fixed on earthly treasure as her or his value, personal significance, and earthly security, then the heart will likewise be full of darkness. When we focus on something evil, the eye becomes the conduit by which evil fills the inner person.

D. A. Carson in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary:
The “light within you” is therefore the vision that the eye with divided loyalties provides, or the attitude characterized by selfishness, in both cases it is darkness indeed.

John Stott in the Message of the Sermon on the Mount:
But if our vision becomes clouded by the false gods of materialism, and we lose our sense of values, then our whole life is in darkness and we cannot see where we are going

This is where it gets really serious. An attitude of selfishness, of valuing the things you possess here on earth, of refusing to share them with others because you think you need them too much to ever give away…that’s a sign that everything in your life is shrouded in darkness.

It’s a way to measure not just where your treasure lies, but the direction of your entire life as a Christian. If you are still attached to the things of this world – to the extent that they take priority over God and you can’t ever share them with anyone else – you are not walking in faith. You are not walking towards the Kingdom of God.

Just as your eye is what enables you to see and make decisions about where to go and what to do, your sense of ultimate priority in life is what acts as the guiding principle for all of the decisions you make. If your ultimate priority in found in this life and the pleasures it contains, all of your decisions will be made on that basis. If you’re a Christian, that means all of your decisions and actions will be compromised and likely to be self-serving even if done in God’s name.

Think of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. Their decision to sell their property and give some of the money to the poor was, on the surface of it, one made in a spirit of generosity, in God’s name. But their ultimate priority wasn’t in God or in helping the poor; it was in the social capital they would gain among their fellow Christians for making this apparently great sacrifice. That’s why they lied and said they were giving all the money when in fact they were only giving part of it.

That’s why they died. That shows you and me just how serious this is.

On the other hand, if your ultimate priority is in heaven, if you are truly motivated by love and gratitude for the sacrifice that was made to offer you eternal life, then all of your decisions can be made with that shining light guiding your way.

You can give generously, not constrained by any attachment to worldly wealth or success. You can put the needs of others ahead of your own. You can prioritise the hope of the Kingdom, and sharing it with others, over anything that you might own or achieve now.

That is what Jesus did every single day of his life.