Matthew 6:22-23

The body finds its way through life with the aid of the eye. In that sense the eye is the lamp of the body (cf. Luke 11:34-36). A clear or good eye admits light into the body, but a bad eye leaves the body in darkness. Evidently Jesus meant the eye is similar to the heart (Matthew 6:21). The heart fixed on God (Psalms 108:1-2) is similar to the eye fixed on God’s law (Psalms 119:18; Psalms 119:148).

"Eyes are the expression of the soul, not its intake, although certainly the two ideas are related. What Jesus stresses in this saying is that a good eye acts in a healthy way. It is the sign of a healthy soul." [Note: Bock, Jesus according . . ., p. 143.]

A bad eye is a miserly eye (Proverbs 28:22). Jesus was speaking metaphorically. He probably meant that the person who is stingy and selfish cannot really see where he is going but is morally and spiritually blind (cf. Matthew 6:19-21). [Note: Carson, "Matthew," p. 178.] However, He may have meant that the person who is double-minded, dividing his loyalties between God and money, will have no clear vision but will lack direction (cf. Matthew 6:24). [Note: Floyd V. Filson, A Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Matthew, p. 100.] Metaphorically the body represents the whole person. The light within is the vision that the eye with divided loyalties, a selfish attitude, provides.