Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! Matthew 6:19-23
“What does it mean to have a “good” or a “bad” eye [in Matthew 6:22-23]? Again, the answer is that it refers to generosity or stinginess. Here is a reference: Prov 22:9 (‘the good-eyed man’ is kind to the poor). And Jesus drives the point home: if a person is full of darkness, how deep is that darkness! Unpacked, Jesus is here talking about the necessity of a heart being transformed by God’s grace, or at least a heart being good for if the heart is not good, nothing can be good. And the direction of this transformation, in these verses, is all about generosity.”
Scot McKnight in “The Eye of Generosity” blog post on January 18, 2006.
I am at Sioux Falls Seminary today teaching and spending time with my good friend, Greg Henson. Greg’s a fan of Scot McKnight, so I was read bits of Scot’s blog this morning and appreciated how he connected Jesus’ statement in Matthew 6:22-23 with Proverbs 22:9. Lives transformed by grace exhibit generosity.
Whether or not our eyes are good is revealed by our actions. Are we generous or stingy? Good-eyed people are kind to the poor and store up treasures in heaven through their giving, while bad-eyed people store them up for themselves, exhibiting stinginess.