“
The eyes are the window to your soul.”
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Matthew 6:22, 23
“The light of the body … – The sentiment stated in the preceding verses –
the duty of fixing the affections on heavenly things – Jesus proceeds to illustrate by a reference to the “eye.”
When the eye is directed steadily toward an object, and is in health, or is single, everything is clear and plain.
If it vibrates, flies to different objects, is fixed on no one singly, or is diseased, nothing is seen clearly.
Everything is dim and confused. The man, therefore, is unsteady. The eye regulates the motion of the body. To have an object
distinctly in view is necessary in order to correct and regulate action.
Rope-dancers, that they may steady themselves, fix the eye on some object on the wall, and look steadily at that.
If they should look down on the rope or the people, they might become dizzy and fall. A man crossing a stream on a log, if he will look
across at some object steadily, will be in little danger. If he looks down on the dashing and rolling waters, he will become dizzy, and fall.
So Jesus says, in order that the conduct may be right, it is important to fix the affections on heaven.
Having the affections there – having the eye of faith single, steady, unwavering – all the conduct will be correspondent.”
Albert Barnes (1798-1870)
Barnes, Albert. “Commentary on Matthew 6:22”. “Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible”.
https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bnb/matthew-6.html. 1870.