In Jesus’ well known, “Sermon on the Mount”, he proclaimed to his disciples: “You are the light of the world” (Mt 5:14). He then pictures how this is to work by illustrating how we put the light on a lamp stand and it gives light to all who are in the house, not under a basket so it is hidden. Now, in Mt 6:22, Jesus uses the metaphor of light again. But this time he is talking, not about the light that is to shine from us, but the light that should be shining in us:
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, 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 in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" (Mt 6:22-23)
What is it that attracts your eye? What is it that captures your attention? What is it that you have set your heart upon? This metaphor of the eye being the light of the soul is not unrelated to the verse that proceeds it which says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt 6:21).
What we set our eyes upon furnishes the soul with the light of reason and the passions of our soul. A person with a healthy eye will have clear vision and will be able to see Christ’s as the essence of the light which the soul longs for as its treasure.
On the other hand, if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. But here is the surprising thing, it is a darkness that you are comfortable with, a kind of “black light”. It is a darkness that you prefer, as a moth, a bat or a spider prefers the darkness. A person with a bad eye actually avoids the light because they enjoy the cover of darkness, because their deeds are evil (see John 3:19-21).
The Apostle John applies this to our lives as a test of authenticity: If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin (1 Jn 1:6-7).
One of my favorite quotes from C S Lewis touches on how this light which comes into our soul informs everything else:, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” This is the true “enlightenment”, and it is a miracle of sight that God works in us by the regenerating power of his Spirit by the Gospel.
This new way of seeing doesn’t end with our new birth, but it begins there and continues on as the Apostle Paul says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” 2 Cor 3:18.
