Matthew 6:22-23 The light (luchnos: lamp) of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single (haplous: unfolded), thy whole body shall be full of light (photeinos ). But if thine eye be evil (poneros: full of toil), thy whole body shall be full of darkness (skoteinos: full of darkness). If therefore the light (phos: that which emits light) that is in thee be darkness (skotos: darkened vision), how great is that darkness (skotos: darkened vision).

This has to do with the difference between truth and lie. God is very concerned that we can see the difference. God is unfolding the revelation of truth before us, but currently our eyes are very dim. They are veiled. This process is also tied into being single-minded rather than double-minded. It also has to do with discerning the Body of Christ. Below, is an explanation of how all these things are talking about the same thing, though they may seem to be diverse.

573 απλους haplous hap-looce'
1) simple, single
2) whole
3) good fulfilling its office, sound
3a) of the eye
properly, unfolded, single - literally, "without folds" (J. Thayer), referring to a single (undivided) focus, i.e. without a (secret) "double agenda" which prevents an over-complicated life (becoming needlessly distracted).

God speaks. He leads. He asks us to hear His voice and to yield to Him. When God speaks, this is revelation. In fact, this is how faith comes. (read more) When we try to be led but yet try to lean on our own understanding, we are being double-minded. When God gives revelation, it is a removal of the veil. The veil is the fleshly nature. God has a step-by-step process by which He removes the veil a little at a time, and the believer goes from glory to glory. The Holy Ghost does the work. And the Body of Christ, functioning as a living Body, each member building up the other, and every order of Scripture in place. As you see Jesus in His Body, you become like Him. Your vision becomes more clear. If you ignore the Holy Spirit, your senses become dim, you connection with Jesus becomes disconnected, and your light becomes darkness. The parable of the sower shows us several responses to Jesus when He speaks to us. One is that God's instruction is trampled under foot because of so many other sources of information. (read more) One is the emotional or intellectual response. (read more) One is the response that becomes tangled in the cares of the age. (read more) Then, there is the response that hears the Word and received it in submission. (read more)

(some caveats about hearing God's Voice)

It is very important to God that we learn to see reality. Of course, with our minds in their present state, that would be impossible. So God just pulls back the veil a little at a time. We begin to see, really see, that all believers in Christ are our brothers and sisters. We see more clearly that some are stuck in various states of immaturity, often because of denominationalism or doctrines that they have been taught, yet we love them all the more. We see the difference between order and disorder in the church. We are aware of when Christ is getting the glory and we are painfully aware of when man is getting the glory or the organization is getting the glory. We see the unsaved as sheep without a shepherd and the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. We see the material world as all belonging to God and we see that He gives what He wills to each person.

That process just described is a slow process from glory to glory as we are submissive to the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost changes us in our very natures. If we read on in Matthew, we see that we can correct a brother or sister without being judgmental. We first need a bit of maturity, as just described, before we will be able to see. Mostly, we need to see Christ in each other, by the Holy Ghost.

Matthew 7:1-5 Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

James 1:5-8 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

James 1:17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

Your mind was created to be joined intimately with the mind of God. It was not created to be used independently of the Holy Spirit, but to be used in the flow of the Anointing, constantly in submission to the Holy Spirit.

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed [literally, Transfigured] by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

.. and that ye seek not after your own mind and your own ability to observe, with which you used to commit fornication: Numbers 15:39

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14

Actually, in this Scripture, the apostle is talking to the members of a local church. If you read the rest of the letter, you find that he says that the apostles have the mind of Christ and they would like to share that with the members of the church, but the members are to fleshly that they can't hear it. (read more)

2 Corinthians 3:14-16 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. (read more)

This is what theology will often do. Theology gives us closure on the Word of God so that God can give us no further revelation. The fact is that God wants to continue to roll back the veil so that we can see.

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled (the veil is the flesh) face beholding as in a mirror (those who have been created in the image of God) the glory of the Lord, are transfigured into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Literal (read more)

Let's look at Matthew 6:22-23 in context:

Matthew 6:14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Here is one of the places where we can become double-minded. We look at our brother and sister with an evil eye, an eye that does not discern the Body of Christ but rather sees the fleshly nature. If we truly see reality, we don't know any person, not even ourselves, after the flesh but after the spirit. We see Christ in each other.

Matthew 6:16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear to men to fast. Verily I say to you, They have their reward. 17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18 That thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Fasting has the purpose of bringing us closer to God. If we do it, or any other thing, for a show, then we are not seeing reality. We are not discerning the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is not the people but rather the Christ in the people. Christ is orderly. Christ's orders are clearly written in the Bible. One of God's orders is the order of fasting. All of God's orders are important to God. When He has His Body, His Bride, His Temple, built according to the pattern with every stone in place, every member will be in the Father and the Son and the Father and the Son will be in every person. Total unity will be there. The Body, joined to the Head, Jesus, will rise up as one man because of the tremendous unity. There will be no independence or competition. There will be none of the type of showy "ministries" and showmanship will have faded away. Now, it is likely that this will take place only in a part of the Body of Christ at first, the wise virgins as opposed to the foolish virgins. But it will be the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Jesus lets us know that this is all one connected thought. He continues to talk about following God and mammon after verse 22 and 23.

Matthew 6:22 The light (literally: lamp) of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 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!

Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 25 Therefore I say to you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature? 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say to you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.

In the parable of the sower, some of the seed was choked by the cares of this world. We can get our eyes on mammon, the world and all that it has to offer. If we do that, we will walk into spiritual darkness, and we will not take part in the first resurrection. In today's Christian world, too many eyes are on entertainments, big beautiful buildings, or organizations. There is no concern for the orders of God. Churches have become very competitive in meeting every fleshly desire of those who will come to them. The orders of God involve every member having a ministry and it operates as in 1 Corinthians 14. That type of church service could not possibly work if too many people are in the church. It cannot work if you have super-star ministries. One young girl, a singer in a Christian rock band, left a church that was walking in the orders of God because, as she said, "I need to find a church that showcase my ministry." This is the failure to discern the Body of Christ.

3788 οφθαλμος ophthalmos of-thal-mos'
AV-eye 101, sight 1; 102
1) the eye
2) metaphorically, the eyes of the mind, the faculty of knowing

5460 φωτεινος photeinos fo-ti-nos'
1) light
1a) composed of light
1b) of a bright character
1c) full of light
1d) well lit

4190 πονηρος poneros pon-ay-ros'
1) full of labours, annoyances, hardships
1a) pressed and harassed by labours
1b) bringing toils, annoyances, perils; of a time full of peril to Christian faith and steadfastness; causing pain and trouble
2) bad, of a bad nature or condition
2a) in a physical sense: diseased or blind
2b) in an ethical sense: evil wicked, bad

4652 σκοτεινος skoteinos skot-i-nos'
1) full of darkness, covered with darkness

5457 φως phos foce
from an obsolete phao (to shine or make manifest, especially by rays, cf 5316, 5346);
1) light
1a) the light
1a1) emitted by a lamp
1a2) a heavenly light such as surrounds angels when they appear on earth
1b) anything emitting light
1b1) a star
1b2) fire because it is light and sheds light
1b3) a lamp or torch
1c) light, i.e brightness
1c1) of a lamp
2) metaph.
2a) God is light because light has the extremely delicate, subtle, pure, brilliant quality
2b) of truth and its knowledge, together with the spiritual purity associated with it
2c) that which is exposed to the view of all, openly, publicly
2d) reason, mind
2d1) the power of understanding esp. moral and spiritual truth

4655 σκοτος skotos skot'-os
1) darkness
1a) of night darkness
1b) of darkened eyesight or blindness
2) metaph.
2a) of ignorance respecting divine things and human duties, and the accompanying ungodliness and immorality, together with their consequent misery in hell
2b) persons in whom darkness becomes visible and holds sway