Matthew 6:23

Matthew 6:23 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
• New International Version (NIV)But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
• English Standard Version (ESV)but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
• New King James Version (NKJV)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 that darkness!

Context of Matthew 6:23

21Then you will be thinking a lot about heaven, because that is where you keep your valuable things. 22Your eyes are like lamps and your body is like a room. Make sure that your eyes are like a clean lamp, then your whole body will have light. If your eyes are not good, then your whole body will be in the dark. If the light in you has become dark, you will be living in a very dark place.’ 24Jesus said, ‘Nobody can work as a slave for two masters at the same time. Maybe he will hate one of the masters, but he will love the other one. Or he will work well for one master, but he will think bad things about the other master. God and money are like different masters. You cannot work for both of them. 25So I tell you this. You should not worry about how to stay alive. Do not worry about the food and drink that you need. Do not worry about the clothes that you need to wear. Your life is more important than the food that you eat. Your body is more important than your clothes.

Matthew 6:23 word by word

ἐὰν δὲ ὁ ὀφθαλμός σου πονηρὸς ᾖ, ὅλον τὸ σῶμά σου σκοτεινὸν ἔσται. εἰ οὖν τὸ φῶς τὸ ἐν σοὶ σκότος ἐστίν, τὸ σκότος πόσον.¶Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Butδέde · thenG1161
• ifἐάνean · ifG1437
• thineσύsu · youG4771
• eyeὁho hē to · the/this/whoG3588
• eyeὀφθαλμόςophthalmos · eyeG3788
• beεἰμίeimi · to beG1510
• evilπονηρόςponēros · evil/badG4190
• wholeὅλοςholos · allG3650
• bodyσῶμαsōma · bodyG4983
• full of darknessσκοτεινόςskoteinos · darkG4652
• Ifεἰei · ifG1487
• thereforeοὖνoun · therefore/thenG3767
• the lightφῶςphōs · lightG5457
• inἐνen · in/on/amongG1722
• darknessσκότοςskotos · darknessG4655
• how greatπόσοςposos · how much/many?G4214

Cross-references for Matthew 6:23

• Matthew 20:15It is my money. I can choose what to do with it. I want to be kind to people and give them more than we agreed. Does that make you upset?” ’
• Isaiah 44:18People like that are stupid. They do not understand anything. They cannot see the truth, as if they are blind. Their minds cannot think properly.
• Mark 7:22They have sex with another man's wife. They are greedy. They are cruel to other people. They deceive people. They live like wild animals. They are jealous of other people. They say bad things about other people. They are proud and foolish.
• Ephesians 4:18They cannot understand God's true message because their minds are in the dark. They have not accepted the life that God gives. They have decided that they do not want to know about God. They do not even try to understand.
• Ephesians 5:8Once your minds were completely in the dark. But now you belong to the Lord. As a result, you have become full of light. So now you must live as people who belong to the light.
• 1 John 2:11But if someone hates other believers, he is still living in a bad way. He is like someone who is walking in the dark. He cannot see where he is going. He is like a blind person. He cannot understand God's true message.
• Matthew 23:16It will be very bad for you, teachers. You cannot see what is true, but you show people which way to go. You say to people, “You may make a promise by the name of the temple. Then it is not a serious promise. You do not have to do it. But you may also make a promise by the gold things in the temple. Then it is a serious promise, and you must do it.”
• Proverbs 26:12Some men think that they are already wise. A fool is more likely to learn something than they are.
• Isaiah 5:20It will be very bad for people who call evil things good. And they call good things evil. They say, ‘It is light’, when it is dark. And they say, ‘It is dark’, when it is light. They say that bitter things are sweet. And they say that sweet things are bitter.
• Isaiah 8:20When they say that to you, remember my teaching. Tell them what I have said will happen. People who talk like that are completely in the dark. There is no truth in what they say.
• Jeremiah 4:22The Lord says, ‘My people are fools. They do not know me. They are like children who do not know anything. They understand nothing. They are very clever at doing evil things. But they do not know how to do what is good.’
• Jeremiah 8:8You say, “We are wise because we have the law of the Lord.” But I tell you, your teachers have changed my laws. They teach you lies instead.
• Luke 8:10Jesus replied, ‘God has let you know what these stories mean. You understand how God rules in the lives of his people. But other people only listen to my stories. They look, but they do not really see clearly. They hear the words, but they do not really understand.’
• John 9:39Then Jesus said, ‘I came into this world to judge people. Then people who know that they are blind will be able to see. And people who think they can see will become blind.’
• Romans 1:22They said that they were wise, but really they became fools.
• Romans 2:17Do you say that you are a Jew? Maybe you trust in the Law that God gave to Moses. You are proud that you belong to God.

Commentaries on Matthew 6:23

• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 19-24Verses 19-24 Worldly-mindedness is a common and fatal symptom of hypocrisy, for by no sin can Satan have a surer and faster hold of the soul, under the cloak of a profession of religion. Something the soul will have, which it looks upon as the best thing; in which it has pleasure and confidence above other things. Christ counsels to make our best things the joys and glories of the other world, those things not seen which are eternal, and to place our…Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2323. But if thine eye be evil--distempered, or, as we should say, If we have got a bad eye. thy whole body shall be full of darkness--darkened. As a vitiated eye, or an eye that looks not straight and full at its object, sees nothing as it is, so a mind and heart divided between heaven and earth is all dark. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!--As the conscience is the regulative faculty, and a man's inward…Read the comment

Topics related to Matthew 6:23

• Blindness
• Commandments
• Conscience
• Darkness
• Religion
• Wicked (People)
• Wisdom

In the dictionaries

• Add
• Appear
• Closet
• Consider
• Corrupt
• Countenance
• Darkness
• Despise
• Fast
• Forgive

Commentaries on Matthew 6

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Catena Aurea
• Illustrated New Testament
• Burkitt’s Expository Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Family Bible Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• John Lightfoot Commentary
• Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• The People’s New Testament
• Robertson’s Word Pictures
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• The Fourfold Gospel and Commentary on Acts
• Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings