What is Matthew 6:22?

You may already know that Matthew 6:22 is a verse from Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. In this verse, Jesus says “the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.” And to really reinforce this idea, Jesus provides a contrast in the next verse when he says: and if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness.”

In the physical sense, I’ve seen this often in clinical care. When a patient who has a really high prescription but no glasses or a patient who has an eye condition that has now blurred their vision and they can’t see well, there’s a significant impact. They are physically and emotionally affected by how they see. Their posture, their attitude, their tone of voice. The bad vision has affected more than just their eyes. However, when we give patients glasses or medications to resolve their condition, the vision becomes clear again—-and you can see a dramatic improvement in their life. They become vibrant and joyful and hopeful. They can see the leaves on the trees and the faces of their loved ones. So, how we physically see the world can impact our personal state. Our eyes can be a lamp that provides light when they are good or darkness when they are bad.

Jesus is really referring to the spiritual corollary to this. How we see the world spiritually or with the eyes of our heart will impact our well-being and the state of our soul. If our hearts’ eyes are working well and we see the goodness of God in the world and we see the hurt and suffering with a desire to help those affected, then we’ll be filled with light. But, if the eyes of our heart see only through greed and opportunity for personal gain, we’ll be filled with a great darkness.

I started this organization because I believes Matthew 6:22 is both a promise and a calling. Jesus is calling us to see the world around us with good eyes—with a perspective that is grounded in the goodness of God–with eyes that are seeking out opportunities to serve the needs of others. And Jesus is also promising us the reality that our hearts and our souls will be filled with light when we view the world through these eyes that are right and true. And that light will be of great satisfaction and joy.

At The Matthew 6:22 Foundation, we believe that we can serve the needs of others by giving them the eye care and glasses they need but cannot afford….and, in doing so, we can open up the eyes of hearts to be filled with the light and goodness of Jesus Christ.

Dr. Beach.