Matthew 6:22-24 | ''The Good Eye and Evil Eye''

The King James Version (KJV) is mostly used in these lessons. Click here to access the KJV online.

Whenever you hear a preacher preach on having a good eye, or a single eye (KJV) you will hear them say something about having a single purpose in life. "Be focused; don't wander," they'll say. That may be pretty good advice, but it's not what YAhushua was talking about when he mentioned each of these two eyes. What is the meaning? To understand it we have to understand the concept of idioms, and we have to reach back into the Older Testament and read some key Scriptures.

This is The Tree of Life version:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal for where your treasure is there will your heart be also. Verse 22 The eye is the lamp of the body, therefore if your eye is good your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness how great is the darkness. No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will stick by one and look down on the other. You cannot serve Yahuwah and money. (Matthew 6:19-24)

Verse 22 is not talking about your physical eyesight. It is an idiom.

Yahushua talks about collecting treasures on the earth and then collecting treasures in heaven then he says we're not supposed to be a slave to both Yahuwah and mammon or money, then He talks about our eye or our eyes. being either good or bad.

Sometimes when we read the bible we misinterpret something because we're not familiar with the lingo or the speech of ancient times. In language and culture there exists something called idioms. An idiom is a figure of speech that is not literal but it's a way of saying one thing that stands for something else. For instance – someone makes a statement and says it as a fact but it is really false, so, we use the idiom ‘ he doesn't have a leg to stand on”. Physically, he has two legs but that means he doesn't have any truth behind him - there's no substance to what he's saying. The idioms that we use are particular to the culture that we live in.

In Matthew 6:22, Yahushua is speaking a Hebrew idiom, a Hebrew figure of speech. It has nothing to do with your physical eye being good or healthy or single as some translations say. This is a figure of speech that the Hebrews used - somebody who was generous with their wealth – had the good eye. Or on the flip side a bad eye or an evil eye describes somebody who is stingy or holds on to their money tightly. So a good eye is somebody that gives away things or is generous. A bad eye is somebody that's stingy.