But if your eye be evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness!
All Commentaries on Matthew 6:23 Go To Matthew 6
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
We know that all our works are pure and pleasing in the sight of God if they are performed with a single heart. This means that they are performed out of charity and with an intention that is fixed on heaven. For “love is the fulfillment of the law.” Therefore in this passage we ought to understand the eye as the intention with which we perform all our actions. If this intention is pure and upright and directing its gaze where it ought to be directed, then unfailingly all our works are good works, because they are performed in accordance with that intention. And by the expression “whole body,” Christ designated all those works that he reproves and that he commands us to put to death. For the apostle also designates certain works as our “members.” “Therefore,” Paul writes, “mortify your members which are on earth: fornication, uncleanness, covetousness,” and all other such things. .
