"The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, 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 that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!"  (Matthew 6:22-23)

Do you remember the old "Clear Eyes" commercial from the late 1980's with Ben Stein?  The camera would zoom in on his eye and reveal redness and irritation.  Then, he'd use "Clear Eyes" eyedrops and the camera would zoom in to show his healthy eye...perfectly clear of all redness and irritation.  Well, this passage of Scripture in Matthew 6 reminds me of that commercial.  Of course, scripturally we're not talking about itchy or irritated physical eyes made uncomfortable by allergens, dust particles, and fatigue.  We're talking about spiritual eyes.  Let us look at some of the ways in which our spiritual eyes may be clouded and that our vision may even be completely occluded.   

In Matthew 6,  Jesus says that our eye is the lamp of our body.  We as human beings, if we have healthy physical eyeballs, are able to perceive light.  If something irritates our eyes, our vision is hindered.  If something completely occludes our vision, we are unable to see at all.  Spiritually speaking, the Light we desire to perceive is Christ.  Jesus says, "I am the Light of the world;  he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." (John 8:12)  Are all of us able to perceive the Light of Christ?  Certainly not.  In fact, spiritually speaking, we are all born blind, with our vision completely occluded by the evil one.  We are unable to focus our eyes on the Light of Christ.  Until God opens our eyes to see the Light of the gospel, which is Christ, we are not capable of perceiving Him.  "...the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God...For God, who said,  'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."  (2 Corinthians 4:4, 6) 

Back to the focal passage in Matthew 6:22-23, notice that when Jesus draws a contrast to the clear eye, He does not say anything about an unclear, unfocused, clouded, irritated, itchy, or fatigued eye.  According to Jesus, if the eye is not clear, it is "bad" and will result in the "whole body" being "full of darkness".   So, we may glean from this that an eye must be clear to fully perceive the Light, which is Christ.  Personally, I would go so far as to say that an eye must be clear in order to be "good".  We've already discussed the way an eye may be occluded by the evil one, unable to see Christ, resulting in damnation. Now, lets talk about the ways in which a believer, one who has had his/her eyes opened by the power of God to see His glory in the face of Christ, may have obstructed vision.  Just one chapter later in Matthew, Jesus says,

"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."  (Matthew 7:5) 

So, according to Jesus, what is obstructing this hypocrite's vision?  It's pride, my sister!  It's covetousness, my brother!  It's greed, deception, gluttony, theft, idolatry, or any other sin in which you may find yourself.  If our eyes are clouded with sin, they are not clear and cannot fully perceive the Light of Christ!  Brothers and Sisters, we don't want obstructed vision.  We desire to see all the glory of Christ!  We don't want fatigued spiritual eyes.  We want passion and vigor for seeing Christ in His glory!  We want that glory displayed in our lives as proof that we've seen Him!  What shall we do, we who have logs in our eyes?  What shall we do, we who have "bad" eyes?  Brother, this can only drive us to our knees!  Only God can give sight to the one born blind!  Only God can make our eyes clear!  Only God can remove the logs from our spiritual eyes! Only God can focus our vision so that He is what we see.  Only God can direct our hearts so that seeing Him clearly is our greatest desire!  Only God can direct our paths that we may walk as children of Light! 

Clear Eyes drops may help irritated physical eyes,  but only the grace and mercy of our great triune God can give us clear spiritual eyes.  Come Holy Spirit, give us eyes to see the glory of the Father in the face of the Son.
   
"Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord;  walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord."  (Ephesians 5:7-10)