What Does Your Eye Look Like?
Matthew 6:22–23
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.” — Matthew 6:22
At first glance, this passage can feel like a strange detour. Jesus has been talking about treasure and money, and suddenly He’s talking about eyes and darkness. What’s going on?
The answer lies in a Hebrew idiom that Jesus’ first-century audience would have understood immediately. In the ancient Jewish world, a good eye (ayin tovah) was a way of describing a generous person: someone with open hands toward those in need. A bad eye (ayin ra’ah) described someone stingy and greedy, blind to the needs of those around them. You can find it in Proverbs 22:9: “A generous man will be blessed” — the Hebrew literally reads “good eye.” (see also Proverbs 28:22)
So Jesus isn’t talking about your vision prescription. He’s asking: what is your posture toward others, and what does it say about your view of God?
Scholar Lois Tverberg puts it beautifully: having a good eye flows from a deep trust that God is generous, that everything you have comes from His hand, and that you are only a steward of it. When you genuinely believe that, generosity becomes natural. You can hold things loosely because you know you are held by a generous Father.
But when you live with a ‘bad eye’ and are tight-fisted, hoarding, always looking out for number one, it reveals something: you don’t actually trust that God will provide. And Jesus says that kind of life becomes dark. Cut off from God. Cut off from others.
The good news? The light comes back the moment you open your hands.
Consider: When you hear of an opportunity to give, what is your gut instinct? Is it openness, or a slight clenching? What might that reveal about your view of God?