Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 6:22-23

"The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 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 the darkness!" — Matthew 6:22-23 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: Having spoken of bringing the understanding into captivity—a concept not easily understood by many—He shifts to a tangible example, saying, The light of your body is your eye. It is as if He said, "If you do not know what is meant by the loss of the understanding, learn from a parable about the body's members; for what the eye is to the body, the understanding is to the soul." Just as through the loss of our eyes we lose much of the use of our other limbs, so when the understanding is corrupted, your life is filled with many evils.

St. Jerome: This is an illustration drawn from the senses. Just as the whole body is in darkness when the eye is not single, so if the soul has lost its original brightness, every sense—or that whole part of the soul to which sensation belongs—will remain in darkness.

Therefore He says, If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! That is, if the senses, which are the soul's light, are darkened by vice, in what great darkness do you suppose the darkness itself will be wrapped?

Pseudo-Chrysostom: It seems that He is not speaking here of the physical eye or of the visible, outward body, otherwise He would have said, "If your eye is sound, or weak." Instead, He says "single" and "evil." But if someone has a benign yet diseased eye, is his body therefore in light? Or if he has an evil yet sound eye, is his body therefore in darkness?

St. Jerome: Those who have poor eyesight see lights as multiplied, but the single and clear eye sees them as single and clear.

St. John Chrysostom: Alternatively, the eye He speaks of is not the external but the internal eye. The light is the understanding, through which the soul sees God. The one whose heart is turned to God has an eye full of light; that is, his understanding is pure, not distorted by the influence of worldly lusts. The darkness in us is our bodily senses, which always desire the things that belong to darkness.

Whoever, then, has a pure eye—that is, a spiritual understanding—preserves his body in light, meaning, without sin. For though the flesh desires evil, the soul resists it by the power of divine fear. But whoever has an eye—that is, an understanding—that is either darkened by the influence of malignant passions or defiled by evil lusts, keeps his body in darkness. He does not resist the flesh when it lusts after evil things, because he has no hope in Heaven, which is the only hope that gives us the strength to resist desire.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Alternatively, drawing from the function of the eye's light, He calls it the light of the heart. If this light remains single and brilliant, it will bestow upon the body the brightness of eternal light and pour back into the corrupted flesh the splendor of its origin—that is, in the resurrection. But if it is obscured by sin and evil in its will, the physical body will still remain subject to all the evils of the understanding.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Alternatively, we may understand the eye here to mean our intention. If that intention is pure and right, all our works, which we perform according to it, are good. He calls these works the "body," just as the Apostle speaks of certain works as members: Mortify your members, fornication and uncleanness (Colossians 3:5).

We should look, then, not to what a person does, but with what intention he does it. For this is the light within us, because by this we see that we do what we do with a good intention, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light (Ephesians 5:13). But the deeds themselves, which go out into human society, have an uncertain result for us, and therefore He calls them "darkness." For example, when I give money to someone in need, I do not know what he will do with it.

If, then, the intention of your heart, which you can know, is defiled with the lust for temporal things, how much more is the act itself—of which the outcome is uncertain—defiled. For even if someone should reap good from what you do with an intention that is not good, it will be imputed to you according to how you did it, not according to how it turned out for him. If, however, our works are done with a single intention—that is, with the aim of charity—then they are pure and pleasing in God's sight.

However, acts that are known to be sins in themselves must not be done with a supposedly good intention. This principle applies only to works that are either good or bad depending on their motives, not to works that are sins in themselves. For example, giving food to the poor is good if done from merciful motives, but evil if done for show. But as for works that are sins in themselves, who would say they should be done with good motives, or that they are not sins? Who would say, "Let us rob the rich so that we may have something to give to the poor"?¹

St. Gregory the Great: Alternatively, if the light that is in you—that is, if what we have begun to do well—we then obscure with an evil purpose, how great is the darkness when we do things we know to be evil in themselves!²

Remigius of Auxerre: Alternatively, faith is compared to a light, because by it the ways of the inner person—that is, one's actions—are illuminated so that one does not stumble, according to the verse, Your word is a light to my feet (Psalm 119:105). If that faith, then, is pure and single, the whole body is light; but if it is defiled, the whole body will be dark.

In yet another sense, the "light" may be understood as the ruler of the Church, who may rightly be called the "eye," since he is the one who ought to ensure that wholesome things are provided for the people under him, who are represented by the "body." If, then, the ruler of the Church errs, how much more will the people subject to him err?³

1. cont. Mendac., 7
2. Mor., xxviii, 11
3. ap. ord.