Matthew 6:22

The light Rather, lamp, or candle as it is translated ch. Matthew 5:15. The eye is not itself the light, but contains the light; it is the "lamp" or candle of the body, the light-conveying principle. If the eye or lamp is single, it admits the influx of the pure light only; if an eye be evil, i. e. affected with disease, the body can receive no light at all. The whole passage is on the subject of the singlenessof service to God. There can be but one treasure, one source of light, one master. The eye is the spiritual faculty, through which the light of God's truth is recognised and admitted into the soul.

The connection in which the words occur in Luke 11:34 is instructive. The inference there is that the spiritual perception of the Pharisees is dimmed, so that they cannot recognise Christ.