The lamp of the body

In Matthew 6:22-23 Jesus made the following statements:

“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

This passage at first glance may not seem too relevant to our day-to-day life, but the fact is it is very applicable to all of us. The eyes are unique among the members of our body as the organs designed specifically to receive and process light. Because of this, our eyes are responsible for the faculty of sight, allowing us to see the world around us by means of the light that is either given off or reflected by all things.

Just as our eyes are designed to receive and process physical light, our spirit is designed to receive and process spiritual light. 1 John 1:3 tells us that God is light – His presence brings light and life to all things. (See April 22 article “The light of the world”). And because of his oneness with the father, Jesus referred to Himself as “The Light of the world.” (John 8:12, 9:5) We are also told in John 1:9 that Jesus is the “True light” that “enlightens every man.” Through Jesus the light of God “shines” into the darkness of the human heart, bringing light and life. (John 1:5, 2 Corinthians 4:6)

In Revelation 5:6 John relates a vision in which he saw Jesus on the throne as a Lamb, having “…Seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God.” And in Proverbs 20:27 we are told that, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the innermost parts of his being.” These passages reinforce that there is a direct correlation between the eye and the spirit. They also reveal a powerful truth about the way God designed us, and give us more insight into Jesus’ statement: “The eye is the lamp of our body.”

After saying that the eye is the lamp or the body, Jesus went on to say, “If your eyes is clear, your whole body will be full of light.” The word “clear” in this verse is a Greek word that literally means, “without folds” and refers to something like a blanket or sheet that has no folds in which shadow or darkness can hide. For our eyes and our hearts to be “clear” then, means there cannot be any place in them where darkness can hide. When this is true, the light of God will fill our entire being, and we will be entirely sanctified – spirit, soul and body. (1 Thessalonians 5:23) This is the destiny of every Christian, and it is referred to in Romans 8:23 as “Our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”

But there is another aspect to this passage that has a more immediate bearing on all of us. In Ephesians 1:18 Paul told the Ephesians that he prayed that “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling.” The idea of our eyes being “enlightened” is conveyed by the picture often used in comics and cartoons of a light bulb coming on over someone’s head when they suddenly have an idea or understand something. Every time understanding enters our hearts in the form of a new revelation of truth, we may accurately say that a spiritual “light comes on.”

Once we see how spiritual understanding acts as light in our hearts, we can understand what Jesus meant when he said, “If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.” If our understanding of something is wrong, then we are deceived, and the “light” that is in us is actually darkness. And when the “light” in us is actually deception, we are indeed in “great darkness” because we believe we have the truth, and will even fight to protect our beliefs – even though they are wrong. For this reason, we must be ever diligent to keep our eyes turned toward the Light that is in Jesus – the word of God. We must be diligent to “examine the scriptures daily” (Acts 17:11) and “pray at all times in the spirit” (Ephesians 6:18) so that we might always “accurately handle the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)