Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 6:23
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great [is] that darkness!
23. the light that is in thee ] Here the Greek word is correctly rendered “light.” If the light admitted to the body be distorted and obscured by the diseased medium, how great will be the darkness!
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
23. But if thine eye beevildistempered, or, as we should say, If we have got a badeye.
thy whole body shall be fullof darknessdarkened. As a vitiated eye, or an eye that looksnot straight and full at its object, sees nothing as it is, so a mindand heart divided between heaven and earth is all dark.
If therefore the light thatis in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!As theconscience is the regulative faculty, and a man’s inward purpose,scope, aim in life, determines his characterif these be not simpleand heavenward, but distorted and double, what must all the otherfaculties and principles of our nature be which take their directionand character from these, and what must the whole man and the wholelife be but a mass of darkness? In Luke (Lu11:36) the converse of this statement very strikingly expresseswhat pure, beautiful, broad perceptions the clarity of the inwardeye imparts: “If thy whole body therefore be full of light,having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when thebright shining of a candle doth give thee light.” But now forthe application of this.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But if thine eye be evil,…. If thou art of a sordid disposition, of an avaricious temper, if the sin of covetousness prevails over thee,
thy whole body will be full of darkness: thy judgment will be so influenced by that sordid principle, that thou wilt not be able to discern what is agreeable to the law of God, or human reason; what is fitting to be done for thyself, for God, or for thy fellow creatures; all the powers and faculties of thy soul will be enslaved by it, and all be intent upon, and employed in the gratification of it: thy mind will be always sad and sorrowful, harassed and distressed; and thy estate, and condition, will be most miserable and uncomfortable:
if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! as it is in the body, so it is with the mind; as when the eye, the light of the body, is put out by any means, all the members of the body are in entire darkness; so when the light of reason in the mind is so far extinguished by any prevailing iniquity, particularly the sin of covetousness, so that it is wholly influenced and governed by it, what irregular actions is it led into! What deeds of darkness does it perform! and what will be the consequence of it, but utter and eternal darkness, if grace prevent not!
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In thee – darkness. Seneca, in one of his letters, tells of an idiot slave in his house, who had suddenly become blind. “Now, incredible as the story seems, it is really true that she is unconscious of her blindness, and consequently begs her attendant to go elsewhere because the house is dark. But you may be sure that this, at which we laugh in her, happens to us all; no one understands that he is a avaricious or covetous. The blind seek for a guide; we wander about without a guide.”
“Seeing falsely is worse than blindness. A man who is too dim – sighted to discern the road from the ditch, may feel which is which; but if the ditch appears manifestly to him to be the road, and the road to be the ditch, what shall become of him? False seeing is unseeing, on the negative side of blindness” (Ruskin, ” Modern Painters “).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “But if thine eye be evil,” (ean de ho ophtalmos sou poneros he) “Then if your eye or personal vision be, come to be, or come to a state of evil, a degenerated condition, “If the motives of what the eye signifies (the heart or center of affections) is wicked, degenerate, or evil, as that of the Laodicean church had become; Blinded by an attitude of self-sufficiency, she was called to repent, Rev 3:14-19.
2) “Thy whole body shall be full of darkness.” (holon to soma aou skoteinon estai) “All your body will be dark,” in darkness as it relates to light, sight, or vision. In like manner if it, the motives, affections, or center of the will (the heart) exists in a selfish, covetous, self-serving attitude, the whole body will be in a state of spiritual darkness, unfruitful, unproductive. When one’s spiritual eye is astigmatized, blinded, and he can not see afar off, he becomes unfruitful, 2Pe 1:4-11.
3) “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, (ei oun to phos to en soi skotos estin) “Therefore if the light that (is) in you is (exists as) darkness,” or comes to be displaced by darkness, unfruitfulness, unproductive, as either an individual or as a church. If an individual or a church loses sight (a vision) of a lost world, and the need of bearing the gospel to it, darkness falls there! Pro 29:18.
4) “How great is that darkness (to skotos poson) “0 how great that darkness does exist!” Read Amo 8:11-13.
The Lord counseled the lukewarm Laodicean church, “Anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see,” Rev 3:18. This simply indicates that one may contract the “sore eyes”, restricted vision, in spiritual things, that leads to blindness regarding spiritual matters., because of being rich in this world’s goods, saying, “I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art blind?” etc. Rev 3:17. Failure to add certain Christian virtues to ones life in Christ leads to a loss, or near loss, of eye sight or vision, 2Pe 1:9; 1Jn 2:9-11. The pious Pharisees were pointed examples of darkness, where no vision was, Mat 6:2; Mat 6:7; Mat 6:16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
23. If the light which is in thee be darkness Light signifies that small portion of reason, which continues to exist in men since the fall of Adam: and darkness signifies gross and brutal affections. The meaning is, we ought not to wonder, if men wallow so disgracefully, like beasts, in the filth of vices, for they have no reason which might restrain the blind and dark lusts of the flesh. The light is said to be turned into darkness, not only when men permit the wicked lusts of the flesh to overwhelm the judgment of their reason, but also when they give up their minds to wicked thoughts, and thus degenerate into beasts. For we see how wickedly men change into craft any measure of wisdom which had been given them, how they “dig deep (as the prophet says) to hide their counsel from the Lords” (Isa 29:15,) how they trust to their own resources, and openly dishonor God; in a word, how desirous they are to show their ingenuity, in innumerable ways, for their own destruction. Christ has good grounds for declaring, that thick and appalling darkness must of necessity reign in the life of men, when they choose to be blind.
This is also the meaning of the words which are found in the Gospel of Luke, with this difference, that Christ there connects the present statement with one which was formerly explained, that men do not light a candle, and put it under a bushel, (Mat 5:15) and again, instead of this clause, if the light which is in thee be darkness, gives the exhortation, see that the light which is in thee be not darkness The meaning is, “See that thy mind, which ought to have shone, like a candle, to guide all thy actions, do not darken and mislead thy whole life.” He afterwards adds, that, when the body is enlightened by the eye, the greatest regularity is found in all its members, as the light of a candle spreads and penetrates into every part of the room.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(23) If thine eye be evil.If the spiritual faculty, whose proper work it is to give light, be itself diseasedif it discerns not singly but doubly, and therefore dimlythen the whole life also is shrouded in gloom. If that is the case with the higher life, what will be the state of the lower! If the light is darkened, what will be the state of the region of life which is in itself naturally darkthe region of appetites and passions, which needs the presence of the light to keep them at all in check! If the light that is in thee be darkness, the darkness how great will it be!
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
23. If thine eye be evil If the eye is evil by corrupting disease or foreign substance. Darkness Of course a blind eye makes a dark body and soul. And morally, where the spiritual eye is disturbed and blinded by unholy motives and worldly self-interest, the soul is filled with darkness.
But the Jews were often inclined to struggle against this heathen world-worship; and so a rivalry and a compromise arose in their hearts between the world-god and the true God. Our Lord now meets this case.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
Ver. 23. But if thine eye be evil, &c. If the light that is in thee be darkness, &c. ] An evil eye is here opposed to a single eye, that looks on God singly abstracted from all other things, and affects the heart with pure love to him for himself, more than for his love tokens. These we may lawfully have, but they may not have us. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” 1Jn 2:16 , that is, pleasure, profit, and preferment, -these three, like those three troops of the Chaldeans, Job 1:17 , fall upon the faculties of the soul, and carry them away from God the right owner. The mind is filled with greater darkness than can be expressed. How great is that darkness! “The prince that lacketh understanding is a great oppressor: but he that hateth covetousness,” that hath not his eyes bleared and blinded with the dust of earthly mindedness,”shall prolong his days,” Pro 28:16 ; “His watchmen are blind:” and why? “they are greedy dogs, which can never have enough, and they are shepherds which cannot understand; they all look to their own way, every one for his gain from his quarter,” Isa 56:10-11 . a Of this sort were those covetous Pharisees, that devoured widows’ houses; therefore blind, because covetous, Luk 16:14 ; Luk 20:47 , the property of which sin is to besot and infatuate, as it did Judas, who, though he wanted for nothing in our Saviour’s retinue, but was sufficiently provided for, yet for filthy lucre basely sold his Master, and that for thirty silverlings (the known and pitched price of the vilest slave), and had the face, after all, to ask, “Master, is it I?” when he knew Christ to be the true God, and to know all things. Blazing comets (though but comets) as long as they keep aloft, shine bright, but when they decline from their pitch, they fall to the earth. So, when men forsake the Lord and mind earthly things, they lose that light they had, and are dissipated, destroyed, and come to nothing. Good, therefore, is the counsel of Solomon, “Labour not to be rich: wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?” Or as Mercerus otherwise reads that text, “Wilt thou darken thine eyes upon them?” b As those that walk long in the snow, or that sit in a smoky corner, can see little at length. “Whoredom and wine take away the heart,” saith Hosea, Hos 4:11 as they did Solomen’s; they drew out his spirits, and dissolved his reason; so doth covetousness. It makes a man that he cannot see the net that is spread before him, which every bird can do, Pro 1:17 : c but while he coveteth the bait, loseth his life, as Shimei did by looking for his servants; as Lot, who had like to have run the same hazard, by choosing the plain of Jordan; as Jonas, that suffered himself to be cast into the sea, that the ship with her lading might come safe to shore. How many carnal minds, like Noah’s raven, fly out of the ark of God’s Church, and embrace this present world: and like the mariners, when they found out Jonas, yet fain they would have saved him. So many will rather venture their own casting away, than cast their worldly lusts overboard. How much better Joseph, who let go his garment to save himself, as Elijah did his mantle to go to heaven, and Bartimeus his cloak to come to Christ! How much better Moses, who by faith seeing him that is invisible, and having an eye to the reward, when he was come to years, as the text noteth, and therefore well knew what he did, for he was no baby, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and the world’s darling; and choosing rather the afflictions of God’s poor people than the pleasures of sin for a season, he esteemed the reproach of Christ (the worst part of him) greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. And why all this? “for he had respect to the recompence of reward,” Heb 11:24-26 . He set his foot, as it were, upon the battlements of heaven, and there hence looked upon these earthly happinesses as base and abject, slight and slender, waterish and worthless. The great cities of Campania seem but small cottages to them that stand on the top of the Alps: d the moon covereth herself with a pale veil and shines not at all in the presence of the sun: no more doth the beauty and bravery of the world (wherewith carnal minds are so bedazzled and bewitched) to a man that hath been in Paradise with Paul, that hath already laid hold on eternal life. The moles of the earth, that are blind and cannot see far off, that have animam triticiam, a wheaten soul, with that fool in the Gospel, and know no other happiness than to have and to hold; these have their eyes blinded by the god of this world, as Isaac had his wells stopped up with earth by the Philistines. And as a small dish being held near the eyes hideth from our sight a great mountain; and a little hill or cloud, the great body of the sun, though it be far bigger than the whole earth; so these earthly trifles being placed near men’s sight, do so shadow and cloud out those great and glorious excellencies that are above, that they can neither truly behold them, nor rightly judge of them. e When men travel so far into the south that the sight of the north pole is at length intercepted by the earth, it is a sign they are far from it: so is it, that men are far from heaven when the love of the earth comes in between their souls and the sight thereof. Earth damps quench the spirit’s lamp. Much water of affliction cannot quench that love, that yet a little earth may soon do.
a Avidus a non videndo dicitur; et Midas secundum Etymologiam Graecam caecus est.
b Pro 23:4-5 . Num facies obtenebrescere oculos tuos in eas? Job 11:17 ; Amo 4:13 .
c Aves quae vident rete suspensum non capiuntur, sed videntes periculum cavent. Bayn.
d Postquam in montium verticem ascenderimus parva nobis et urbes et moenia etiam videntur: sit parva videbuntur otium gloria divitiae cum coelum respicias.
e 2Pe 1:9 , . Muris oculos habentes, subterranei scilicet muris, hoc est, talpae. Gen 26:15 . The poets feigned Plutus, the god of riches, to be blind. Divites facultatibus suis alligati magis aurum suspiciunt, quam coelum. Minut. Octan.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
If. Assuming it as a fact.
be = is.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mat 6:23. , evil) sc. shifting, double, inconsistent, imbued with self-love.- , the light) which the lamp should give.- , the darkness) How great darkness must be the darkness of the whole body![277]-, how great) As great as the body.
[277] In the original the passage runs thus-
Tenebr totius corporis, quant erunt tenebr! and then proceeds,
Singularis tenebra, veteribus non ignotus, a multis Theologis in loco adhibitus, spius conveniret simplicitati hermeneutic.-(I. B.)
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
thine: Mat 20:15, Isa 44:18-20, Mar 7:22, Eph 4:18, Eph 5:8, 1Jo 2:11
If: Mat 23:16-28, Pro 26:12, Isa 5:20, Isa 5:21, Isa 8:20, Jer 4:22, Jer 8:8, Jer 8:9, Luk 8:10, Joh 9:39-41, Rom 1:22, Rom 2:17-23, 1Co 1:18-20, 1Co 2:14, 1Co 3:18, 1Co 3:19, Rev 3:17, Rev 3:18
Reciprocal: Gen 3:5 – your Lev 13:29 – General Lev 13:44 – utterly unclean Pro 14:6 – scorner Ecc 2:13 – light Luk 6:42 – see Luk 11:34 – light of Joh 1:9 – the true Act 26:18 – and to Rom 2:19 – art confident 2Co 3:14 – their Heb 5:14 – their
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
6:23
Evil is defined in the lexicon to be “in a bad condition.” If the light that is in thee be darkness. If the only means that one has for receiving light be darkness (which it would be if it became in bad condition), then the darkness would be great because one has no other means of seeing. The lesson in this illustration is that a man has only one means of receiving spiritual light which is his intellect or mind. It is that part of his being by which he either accepts or rejects spiritual light. (See Joh 3:19-21.) Therefore if that mind is rendered “unsound” by the love of darkness or evil deeds, “how great is that darkness.”
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 6:23. If thine eye be evil. This means, according to the contrast, double distorted in vision.
Full of darkness, or, in darkness (The word is not the same as that in the next clause, but derived from it.) The evil result of a divided state of heart, where what God designed to be the means of showing Himself to us as the supreme object of love, fails to perform its office. The rest of the clause carries out the same thought.
If therefore, since so much depends on the singleness of vision, the light that if in thee, what God has placed in us to be the means of conveying light, referring it to the conscience. Man can lose the proper use of what God designed to be the organ of spiritual light, even this may be darkness. In such a case, how great is that darkness. A fearful picture of a confirmed sinful condition; and it is implied that a heart without single and supreme dedication reaches such a condition.Another view: If then the light which is in thee is darkness, how dark must the darkness be! i.e., if the conscience, the eye and light of the soul, be darkened, In how much grosser darkness will all the passions and faculties be, which are of themselves naturally dark! No blindness is so terrible as blindness of conscience, when what was made to enlighten us but increases our darkness.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 23
Evil; defective or diseased.–If therefore, the light, &c. The meaning of the whole passage is this: As the whole body is in darkness if the light of the eye be extinguished, so, if the perception of divine truth is lost, the whole soul is involved in the deepest spiritual ignorance and danger.